"
Kenkenes' hands fell to his sides. "Nay, now! Of a surety, this is
the maddest caprice the Hathors ever wrought. In the house of thine
enemy! Well for me I did not know it! I should have died from very
apprehension. And all these months thou wast within sight of my
father's doors!"
"I saw him once," she said.
"And discovered not thyself! How cruelly thou hast used thyself,
Rachel. He would have told thee, long ago, why I came not back."
"Aye, now I know; but, Kenkenes, I could not go, fearing--"
"Enough. I forgot. Come, let us go hence. Memphis and my father's
house await thee now."
"But I go to my people, even now," she answered, with averted face and
unready words.
Kenkenes whitened.
"And leave me?" he asked quietly.
"Think me not ungrateful," she said. "I have said no words of thanks
since there is none that can express a tithe of my great indebtedness
to thee."
"I have achieved nothing for thee. Not even have I won thy freedom. I
have failed. But shameless in mine undeserts, I am come to ask my
reward nevertheless." He was very near to her, his face full of
purpose and intensity, his voice of great restraint.
"That which once thou didst refuse to hear, thou hast known for long by
other proof than words," he went on.
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