"Hold! He is not appointed of the prince. He was Meneptah's choice—and his alone," Nechutes interrupted. "It is rumored that Rameses is not over-fond of him."
"He will be put to it to hold his high place in the face of the prince's disfavor," Kenkenes cogitated.
"Nay, but he presses the prince hard for generalship. It must be so, since he could win the king's good will over the protest of Rameses. So I doubt not he can hold his own at court by prudence and strategy."
Meanwhile Ta-meri, in the depths of her chair, gazed at the pair resentfully. They had grown interested in weighty things and had seemingly forgotten her. So she sighed and bethought her how to punish them.
"What a relief it will be when the Pharaoh returns to Memphis!" she murmured in the pause that now followed. "He will be more welcome to me than the Nile overflow. The city has been a desert to me since he departed."
Nechutes looked at her with reproach in his eyes.
"Consider the desert, O sweet Oasis," Kenkenes said softly. "Is not its portion truly grievous if its single palm complain?"
The lady dropped her eyes and her cheeks glowed even through the dusk. After the long interval of Nechutes' blunt love-making the sculptor's subtleties fell most gratefully on her ear.
Nechutes scowled, sighed and finally spoke.
"Tape is afflicted in anticipation of the king's departure," he observed disjointedly.