got entangled with the straw of her humble couch. If Nebsecht went near
her to feel her pulse or to speak to her she carefully turned her face
from him.

Nevertheless when the sun disappeared behind the rocks he bent over her
once more, and said:

"It is growing cool; shall I carry you indoors?"

"Let me alone," she said crossly. "I am hot, keep farther away. I am no
longer ill, and could go indoors by myself if I wished; but grandmother
will be here directly."

Nebsecht rose, and sat down on a hen-coop that was some paces from Uarda,
and asked stammering, "Shall I go farther off?"

"Do as you please," she answered. "You are not kind," he said sadly.

"You sit looking at me," said Uarda, "I cannot bear it; and I am uneasy
--for grandfather was quite different this morning from his usual self,
and talked strangely about dying, and about the great price that was
asked of him for curing me. Then he begged me never to forget him, and
was so excited and so strange. He is so long away; I wish he were here,
with me."

And with these words Uarda began to cry silently. A nameless anxiety for
the paraschites seized Nebsecht, and it struck him to the heart that he
had demanded a human life in return for the mere fulfilment of a duty.
He knew the law well enough, and knew that the old man would be compelled
without respite or delay to empty the cup of poison if he were found