He could hope to advance more quickly along the new stony path than on
the old beaten track. The impulse to communicate his acquired knowledge
to others he did not feel. Knowledge in itself amply satisfied him, and
be thought no more of his ties to the House of Seti. For three whole
days he had not changed his garments, no razor had touched his chin or
his scalp, not a drop of water had wetted his hands or his feet. He felt
half bewildered and almost as if he had already become an embalmer, nay
even a paraschites, one of the most despised of human beings. This self-
degradation had an infinite charm, for it brought him down to the level
of Uarda, and she, lying near him, sick and anxious, with her dishevelled
hair, exactly suited the future which he painted to himself.

"Do you hear nothing?" Uarda asked suddenly. He listened. In the
valley there was a barking of dogs, and soon the paraschites and his wife
appeared, and, at the door of their hut, took leave of old Hekt, who had
met them on her return from Thebes.

"You have been gone a long time," cried Uarda, when her grandmother once
more stood before her. "I have been so frightened."

"The doctor was with you," said the old woman going into the house to
prepare their simple meal, while the paraschites knelt down by his
granddaughter, and caressed her tenderly, but yet with respect, as if he
were her faithful servant rather than her blood-relation.

Then he rose, and gave to Nebsecht, who was trembling with excitement,
the bag of coarse linen which he was in the habit of carrying tied to him
by a narrow belt.