"Small!" interrupted Ramses, with a smile. "Thou art happy if Thou call a hundred talents a small sum."
Hiram nodded.
"Thy grandfather, worthiness," said he, after a while, "the eternally living Ramses-sa-Ptah, honored me with his friendship; I know also his holiness, thy father may he live through eternity! and I will even try to lay before him my homage, if I be permitted."
"Whence could a doubt arise?" interrupted the prince.
"There are persons," replied the guest, "who admit some to the face of the pharaoh and refuse others but never mind them. Thou art not to blame for this; hence I venture to lay before thee one question, as an old friend of thy father and his father."
"I am listening."
"What means it," asked Hiram, slowly, "that the heir to the throne and a viceroy must borrow a hundred talents when more than a hundred thousand are due Egypt?"
"Whence?" cried Ramses.
"From the tribute of Asiatic peoples. Phoenicia owes five thousand; well, Phoenicia will pay, I guarantee that, unless some events happen. But, besides, Israel owes three thousand, the Philistines and the Moabites each two thousand, the Hittites thirty thousand. Finally, I do not remember details, but I know that the total reaches a hundred and three or a hundred and five thousand talents."
Ramses gnawed his lips, but on his vivacious countenance helpless anger was evident. He dropped his eyes and was silent.