"Yes," replied Poëri, quietly.
The bright eyes of the old woman sparkled with malicious curiosity.
Ra'hel's face resumed its expression of trustfulness; she no longer doubted her lover.
Poëri told her that a girl calling herself Hora had presented herself at his home as a suppliant; that he had received her as any guest should be received; that the next day she had disappeared from among the maids, and that he could not understand how she happened to be there. He also added that the emissaries of the Pharaoh were everywhere looking for Tahoser, the daughter of the high-priest Petamounoph, who had disappeared from her palace.
"You see that I was right, mistress," said Thamar, triumphantly. "Hora and Tahoser are one and the same person."
"That may be," replied Poëri, "but there are a number of difficulties which my reason does not explain. First, why should Tahoser, if it is she, don this disguise? Next, by what miracle do I meet here the maiden whom I left last night on the other bank of the Nile, and who certainly could not know whither I was going?"
"No doubt she followed you," said Ra'hel.
"I am quite sure that at that time there was no other boat on the river but mine."
"That is the reason her hair was so dripping-wet and her garments soaked. She must have swum across the Nile."
"That may well be,—I thought for a moment that I had caught sight in the darkness of a human head above the waters."