“She cast herself at his feet.
“‘Hush!’ he cried. ‘Thou art dead!’
“He clapped his hands, and a terrible procession came in—a procession of parachistes, or embalmers, each with some implement or material of his loathsome art.
“The King pointed to Ne-ne-hofra.
“‘She is dead. Do thy work well.’”
VII.
“Ne-ne-hofra the beautiful, after seventy-two days, was carried to the crypt chosen for her the year before, and laid with her queenly predecessors; yet there was no funeral procession in her honor across the sacred lake.”
At the conclusion of the story, Ben-Hur was sitting at the Egyptian’s feet, and her hand upon the tiller was covered by his hand.
“Menopha was wrong,” he said.
“How?”