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Updated: April 30, 2025
The barge of Nechutes swung into position on the left of Senci the oars on Mentu's boat rose and halted and the vessel drifted till it was alongside her right. Kenkenes put his arm about Io, who stood beside him and whispered exultantly or irreverently concerning the vigilance of the cup-bearer and the murket.
"Nay," he observed, as he bent over Senci's hand, "never were two maids alike, and I shall not strive to make them so." "Thy father hath most graciously kept his word in sending us a protector," Senci continued, "My nosegay of beauties drooped last night when they arrived from On with my brother sick, aboard. They feared they must stop with me in Memphis for want of a man."
The little girl sat expectantly watching his face. "Nay, I would not take Seti's boyish transports seriously," he said gently. "His very frankness disclaims any heart interest in Ta-user. Besides, she is as old as I three whole Nile-floods older than the prince. She thinks on him as Senci looks on me he regards her as a lad looks up to gracious womanhood. Nay, fret not, thou dear jealous child."
"It was the first word I heard from my father this morning and the last when I left him even now: 'Io's father hath failed her through sickness, so do thou look after the Lady Senci and the gods give thee grace for once to do a thing well!" The lady smiled and patted his arm. "He did not fear; he knew whom he chose.
I can see thee now chanting, with a voice like a lark, and frowning like a very demon from Amenti!" The princess laughed musically at her own narration and received the applause of the others with a serene countenance. She had repaid Kenkenes for his implied championship of her cause earlier in the evening. "Art still as reluctant, Kenkenes?" the Lady Senci called to him.
If she had further information to impart, Mentu did not give her the opportunity, for had she not said that Kenkenes was well? So he fell to his work again. Senci noted it, and sorrowful Io, but they, like Mentu, ascribed it to the miasmas and said nothing to the young man about himself.
In mid-afternoon Senci brought him a belt of gazelle-hide and in this had been sewed a fortune in gems. The murket had given his son his full portion and more. At the close of day, with his face set and colorless, Kenkenes stepped into the narrow passage before his father's house. The great portal closed slowly and noiselessly behind him.
"But she hath not denied thee the babyhood privileges for all that, Kenkenes," the smiling woman said. "It is an excellent example of submission she hath set, Lady Senci," he replied, advancing toward the young girls about her. "Let us see if it prevail." But the troop scattered with little cries of dismay.
But Nechutes was younger and well beloved by youthful Memphis, so on the night of the fifth day, the house of Senci was aglow and in her banquet-room there was much young revel in his honor. Aromatic torches flaring in sconces lighted the friezes of lotus, the painted paneling on the walls, and the clustered pillars that upheld the ceiling of the chamber.
Only the vessels of the king and the nomarch and the barge of Senci were not involved in the uproarious revel that followed. The fates were amiable and no mishaps occurred in spite of the recklessness of the pastime. Men and women alike took part in the play, and the general temper of the merrymakers was good-natured and innocent.
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