"It seems to me," she said, "that you might leave off playing and
trifling when I am talking of such serious matters. I have long since
observed that the fate of the house to which your father and mother
belong is a matter of perfect indifference to you; and yet you would have
to seek shelter and protection under its roof if your husband--"

"Well, mother?" asked Nefert breathing more quickly.

As soon as Katuti perceived her daughter's agitation she regretted that
she had not more gently led up to the news she had to break to her; for
she loved her daughter, and knew that it would give her keen pain.

So she went on more sympathetically:

"You boasted in joke that people are good to you, and it is true; you win
hearts by your mere being--by only being what you are. And Mena too
loved you tenderly; but 'absence,' says the proverb, 'is the one real
enemy,' and Mena--"

"What has Mena done?" Once more Nefert interrupted her mother, and her
nostrils quivered.

"Mena," said Katuti, decidedly, "has violated the truth and esteem which
he owes you--he has trodden them under foot, and--"

"Mena?" exclaimed the young wife with flashing eyes; she flung the cat
on the floor, and sprang from her couch.

"Yes--Mena," said Katuti firmly. "Your brother writes that he would have
neither silver nor gold for his spoil, but took the fair daughter of the