"You swore to me," interrupted his mistress with feverish agitation,
that you had not used my name in asking Paaker to save us?"

"A thousand times I swear it," said the little man.

"Shall I repeat all our conversation? I tell thee he will sacrifice his
land, and his house-great gate and all, for one friendly glance from
Nefert's eyes."

"If only Mena loved her as he does!" sighed the widow, and then again
she walked up and down the hall in silence, while the dwarf looked out at
the garden entrance. Suddenly she paused in front of Nemu, and said so
hoarsely that Nemu shuddered:

"I wish she were a widow." "The little man made a gesture as if to
protect himself from the evil eye, but at the same instant he slipped
down from his pedestal, and exclaimed:

"There is a chariot, and I hear his big dog barking. It is he. Shall I
call Nefert?"

"No!" said Katuti in a low voice, and she clutched at the back of a
chair as if for support.

The dwarf shrugged his shoulders, and slunk behind a clump of ornamental
plants, and a few minutes later Paaker stood in the presence of Katuti,
who greeted him, with quiet dignity and self-possession.

Not a feature of her finely-cut face betrayed her inward agitation, and
after the Mohar had greeted her she said with rather patronizing