"Have they summoned a physician already?"
"Sarah knows nothing of this, I repeat, but the worthy Tafet, from fear lest the prince might grow indifferent to her foster child, would be glad to twist the neck of this secret. But we do not let her. That will be the prince's child also."
"But if it is a son? Thou knowest that he may make trouble," put in the lady.
"All is foreseen," replied Herhor. "If the child is a daughter, we will give her a dowry and the education proper for young ladies of high station. If a son, he will become a Jew."
"Oh, my grandson, a Jew!"
"Do not take thy heart too soon from him. Our envoys declare that the people of Israel are beginning to desire a king. Before the child matures their desires will ripen, and then we may give them a ruler, and of good blood indeed."
"Thou art like an eagle which takes in East and West at a glance," said the queen, eying the minister with amazement. "I feel that my repulsion for this maiden begins to grow weaker."
"The least drop of the pharaoh's blood should raise itself above nations, like a star above the earth," added Herhor.
At that moment the heir's boat moved at a few tens of paces from the royal barge, and the queen, shielded by her fan, looked at Sarah through its feathers.
"In truth the girl is shapely," whispered Queen Nikotris.