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It is said, and of a truth well-nigh proved, that the heart of the singer broke when Ta-meri chose thee, Nechutes, and that that the disaster which befell him may have been sought." Nechutes seized her arm, and Ta-meri cried out, "He sent Ta-meri to me," the cup-bearer said wrathfully. "Thy news is " "Alas! Nechutes," the princess said sorrowfully, "it was sacrifice.
"O most honest vision! It is true and this is she," Kenkenes answered, indicating Io. Ta-meri flung up her hands and gazed at the blushing girl with wide eyes. "Enough," she said at last. "It is indeed a marvel. Never have I seen such a thing before, and never shall I see it again." "And if that be true, fie and for shame, Kenkenes," Senci chid laughingly.
But at that moment, Ta-meri, who sat facing the entrance to the chamber, poised the dice-box in air and drew in a long breath. The guests followed her eyes. Kenkenes stood in the doorway, the curtain thrust aside and above him. His voluminous festal robes were deeply edged with gold, but his arms, bare to the shoulder, and his strong brown neck were without their usual trappings of jewels.
Then a vagabond impulse presented itself unbidden in his mind and was frowned down with a blush of apology to himself. And yet he remembered his coquetry with the Lady Ta-meri as some small defense in the form of precedent. "Nay," he replied to this evidence, "it is a different woman. Between myself and Ta-meri it is even odds, and the vanquished will have deserved his defeat."
At that moment a gang-plank was run across from the broad flat stern of the nomarch's boat to the prow of Senci's, a carpet was spread on it, and Ta-meri, with little shrieks and tottering steps, came across it. Kenkenes put out his arms to her and lifted her down when she arrived. "Wonder brought me," she cried. "I dreamed I saw thee kiss a maiden thrice and I came to see if it were true."
It was the sculptor's turn to be amazed. But with one of the instant realizations that acute memory effects, he recalled that he had disappeared immediately after Nechutes had been accepted by the Lady Ta-meri. And now, by the word of the apologetic cup-bearer, was it made apparent to Kenkenes that a tragic fancy concerning the cause of his disappearance had taken root in the cup-bearer's mind.
Why do we carve at all, if not to show how we appear to the world or the world appears to us? Now for my rebellion. I would carve as we are made; as we dispose ourselves; aye, I would display a man's soul in his face and write his history on his brow. I would people Egypt with a host of beauty, grace and naturalness " "Just as if they were alive?" Ta-meri inquired with interest.
"Nay; I am discontented, but I might as well hope to heave the skies away with my shoulders as to rebel against mine oppression. So I came to be petted into submission." "Nay, dost thou hear him?" the lady cried. "And he came, because he was sure he would get it!" "And he will go away because the Lady Ta-meri means he shall not have it," he exclaimed.
Kenkenes immediately guessed why the cup-bearer was hurt, but the lady was innocent. He knew that he had but to speak to restore Nechutes to favor. Meanwhile the lady, amazed and deeply offended at the desertion of the cup-bearer, had turned her back on him. Kenkenes arose. Ta-meri sat up in alarm. "O, do not go. You have but this moment come," she said.
After some little employment among his effects, the cup-bearer came to the bedside on his way back to the king's tent, and bent over his guest. "Holy Isis! but I am glad he died not!" he said to himself. "Aye, and there be many who are as glad as I am. Dear Ta-meri! She will be rejoiced, and Hotep. What a great happiness for the old murket " he paused and clasped his hands together.
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