Uarda : a Romance of Ancient Egypt — Volume 10 by Georg Ebers
page 36 of 61 (59%)
page 36 of 61 (59%)
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to see Uarda, and to let him stay with her servants till he himself
returned from his father's tent. The leeches had treated Uarda with judgment, for under the influence of the bath she recovered her senses; when she had been dressed again in fresh garments and refreshed by the essences and medicines which they gave her to inhale and to drink, she was led back into Nefert's tent, where Mena, who had never before seen her, was astonished at her peculiar and touching beauty. "She is very like my Danaid princess," he said to his wife; "only she is younger and much prettier than she." Little Scherau came in to pay his respects to her, and she was delighted to see the boy; still she was sad, and however kindly Nefert spoke to her she remained in silent reverie, while from time to time a large tear rolled down her cheek. "You have lost your father!" said Nefert, trying to comfort her. "And I, my mother and brother both in one day." "Kaschta was rough but, oh! so kind," replied Uarda. "He was always so fond of me; he was like the fruit of the doom palm; its husk is hard and rough, but he who knows how to open it finds the sweet pulp within. Now he is dead, and my grandfather and grandmother are gone before him, and I am like the green leaf that I saw floating on the waters when we were crossing the sea; anything so forlorn I never saw, abandoned by all it belonged to or had ever loved, the sport of a strange element in which nothing resembling itself ever grew or ever can grow." |
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