"Ta-user," he continued, as she opened her lips to speak, "what wouldst thou have me do?"
"I would have thee be useful."
"I shall throw away my lordly trappings," he said, "and become a lifter of the shadoof[1] this day."
"Seti," she said sternly, putting his hand away, "with thy people imperiled by the sorcery of a wizard, with thy realm desolated by the plagues of his sending, canst thou, on whom I have built so much, thus lightly consider thy uses and ignore the things set at thy very hand to do?"
The prince looked at her with not a little discomfiture showing on his young face. But the interrogation was emphatic, and she awaited an answer.
"I have no weight with my father," he said soberly. "Thou knowest that Egypt will never have peace until the Hebrews depart. But I can not persuade my father to release them and I can not persuade the Israelite to content himself to stay. Thou dost demand much of me if thou dost demand of me the impossible."
As much of contempt as it was wise to show glimmered in her eyes.
"And thou art at thy wits' end?" she asked.
"A little way to go. Help me, Ta-user. Bear with me."
She moved closer to him and absently smoothed down the fine locks, disordered by the wind. Presently she lifted his face and said with sudden impulsiveness: