Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 23, 2025
On a taboret at her right was Seti, the little prince. Although he was nearly sixteen he looked to be of even tenderer years. In him, the charms of the Egyptian countenance had been so emphasized, and its defects so reduced, that his boyish beauty was unequaled among his countrymen. At his feet was Io, playing at dice with Ta-meri and Nechutes.
"Truly, I believe thou lovest labor," the lady asserted accusingly. "Ah, but punishment overtakes thee at last. Behold, thou mightst have gone with me to the marshes to-day, but I knew thou wouldst be as deep in labor as a slave. And so I took Nechutes." Kenkenes shot an amused glance at her companion.
"Nay, nor lady-love, thanks to the luck of Nechutes." "Nechutes is no longer lucky," she said deliberately. "No matter," Kenkenes insisted. "I shall be gone eighteen days, and his luck will have changed before I can return." "Thine auguries seem to please thee," she pouted. He put the back of her jeweled hand against his cheek. "Nay, I but comfort thee at the sacrifice of mine own peace."
With a desperate effort, Kenkenes choked the first desire to laugh that had seized him in months. "Nay, let it pass, Nechutes," he said in a strained voice. "Thou and I are friends. But lead me to the king, I pray thee." "To the king?" the cup-bearer repeated doubtfully. "The king sleeps. Will thine interests go to wreck if thou bidest till dawn?" "I carry him a message," Kenkenes explained.
In a little time, some one emerged from the Pharaoh's tent, and came through the guard-line to the messenger. It was Nechutes. The cup-bearer took but a single glance at Kenkenes and started back. "Thou!" he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper. "Out of Amenti!" "And nigh returning into it again," was the tired reply. In a daze, Nechutes took the offered hands and stared at Kenkenes through the dark.
"If thou dost persist in thy calumny of me, thou mayest come to test thy dismal augury," she warned. He dropped his eyes and his mouth drooped dolorously. "I come for comfort, and I get Nechutes and all the unpropitious possibilities that his name suggests." "Comfort? Thou, in trouble? Thou, the light-hearted?" she laughed.
Now, when she is moved to give me a honeyed fact, she laps it with delicate intimation, layer on layer like a lotus-bud. And only under the warm interpretation of my heart will it unfold and show the gold within." Nechutes stifled a derisive groan, but the lady's color swept up over her face and made it like the dawn.
"By this time to-morrow night, I may content myself in a bed of sand with a covering of hyena-fending stones," the cup-bearer muttered. "Comfort thee, Nechutes," the artist said sententiously, "But do thou raise me from this ere daybreak, even if thou must take a persuasive spear to me." So saying, he fell asleep at once.
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.
He is worthy and loves thee most tenderly. Thou lovest him. Be kind to thine own heart and put him to the rack no more. Thou art sure of him and I doubt not it pleases thee to tantalize thyself a little while; but Nechutes, who must endure the lover's doubts, is suffering cruelly. Thou art a good child, Ta-meri; how canst thou hurt him so?"
Word Of The Day
Others Looking