"Nay, Rachel. Stay with me. Thou art all I have!"
Rachel turned her head and gazed toward the south. Across the
housetops, the far-off sickle of the Nile curved into a crevice between
the hills and disappeared. Somewhere beyond that blue and broken
sky-line her last claim to Egypt had been lost. Why should she stay
when Kenkenes was gone? Meanwhile Masanath went on pleading.
If she departed, the next day's sun might dawn upon him in Memphis,
searching and sorrowing because he found her not. The hour of
separation might be delayed for twenty days--in that time he might come.
"I will stay till my people go--if they depart within twenty days,"
Rachel made answer. "But I must be gone ere thy father's servant
returns."
Masanath rebelled, sobbing.
"Nay, weep not. The hour is distant. In that time, since these are
days of miracles, thy sorrows and mine may have faded like a mist.
Come, no more. Let us bide the workings of the good God."
[1] Imhotep--The physician-god.
CHAPTER XXXIII
BACK TO MEMPHIS
The valley in which Thebes Diospolis was situated was wide and the
overflow of the Nile did not reach the arable uplands near the Arabian
hills. Three thousand years before, Menes had established a system of
irrigation which had added hundreds of square miles to the agricultural
area of Egypt, and every monarch after him had unfailingly preserved
the institution.
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