Only his fair-faced captor stood her ground.
"Hail, Hapi," [1] she cried, doing obeisance. "Pity the desert." She
flung wide her hands. With the exception of the youths at the oars
there was no other man on the boat.
"Ye may call me forth," Kenkenes replied, "but how shall ye return me
to my banks? Hither, sweet On," he continued, catching the hand of the
fair-faced girl, "submit first to submergence." She took his kisses
willingly. "This for Seti, thy lover; this for Hotep, thy brother, and
this for me who am both in one. How thou art grown, Io!"
"But she hath not denied thee the babyhood privileges for all that,
Kenkenes," the smiling woman said.
"It is an excellent example of submission she hath set, Lady Senci," he
replied, advancing toward the young girls about her. "Let us see if it
prevail."
But the troop scattered with little cries of dismay.
"Nay," he observed, as he bent over Senci's hand, "never were two maids
alike, and I shall not strive to make them so."
"Thy father hath most graciously kept his word in sending us a
protector," Senci continued, "My nosegay of beauties drooped last night
when they arrived from On with my brother sick, aboard. They feared
they must stop with me in Memphis for want of a man.
Pages:
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205