"What have I said?" he begged. "What have I done?"
What had he done, indeed? But to have spoken, though to explain, would
have meant capitulation. She wavered a moment, and then turning away,
fled up the valley toward the camp--not from him, but from herself.
CHAPTER XVI
TEE ADVICE OF HOTEP
If Mentu, looking up from the old murkets, noted that the face of his
son was weary and sad, he laid it to the sudden heat of the spring; for
now it was the middle of March and Ra had grown ardent and the marshes
malarious. The old housekeeper, to whom the great artist mentioned his
son's indisposition, glanced sharply at the young master, touched his
hand when she served him at table, and felt his forehead when she
pretended to smooth his hair. And having made her furtive examination,
the astute old servant told the great artist that the young master was
not ill. If she had further information to impart, Mentu did not give
her the opportunity, for had she not said that Kenkenes was well? So
he fell to his work again.
Senci noted it, and sorrowful Io, but they, like Mentu, ascribed it to
the miasmas and said nothing to the young man about himself.
But Hotep was a penetrative man, and more hidden things than his
friend's ailment had been an open secret to his keen eye.
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