The Yoke eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 582 pages of information about The Yoke.

The Yoke eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 582 pages of information about The Yoke.

“Fie!” the lady scoffed.  “Nechutes hath more to tell than that, and he hath stayed in Memphis.”

“Thou wilt come to realize some day, Ta-meri, that I am fitted to the yoke of labor, when I fail thee in all the nicer walks thou wouldst have me tread.  Come, out with thy gossip, Nechutes.”

“I had a letter from Hotep to-day—­a budget of news, included with official matters with which the king would acquaint me.  Ta-user, with Amon-meses and Siptah, hath joined the court at Tape—­”

“And Siptah, she brought with her—­” the sculptor interrupted softly.

Nechutes cast an expressive look at Kenkenes and went on.

“And the courting hath begun.”

Silence fell, and the lady looked at the two young men with wonder in her eyes.

“Nay, but that is interesting,” Kenkenes admitted, recovering himself.  “Tell me more.”

“The offices of cup-bearer and murket are to be bestowed in Memphis,” Nechutes continued.

“And the one falls to Nechutes,” the lady declared triumphantly.

“Of a truth thou hast a downy lot before thee, Nechutes,” the young sculptor said heartily.  “And never one so deserving of it.  I give thee joy.”

“And the other goes to the noble Mentu,” Nechutes added in a meek voice.

“Sphinx!” Ta-meri cried, tapping him on the head.  “You did not tell me that.”

The surprised delight of Kenkenes was not so bewildering as to blind him to the reason why Nechutes had withheld this news from Ta-meri.  The blunt Egyptian was not anxious to speed his rival’s cause.

“Does my father know of this?” he asked.

“I doubt not.  The same messenger that brought me news of mine own appointment departed for On when he learned that Mentu was there.”

“Nay, but that will be wine in his veins,” Kenkenes mused happily.  “It will make him young again.  His late inactivity hath chafed him sorely.”

“You have come honestly by your labor-loving,” Nechutes commented.  “Hotep adds further that Mentu is the only one of the king’s new ministers that is no longer a young man.”

“It is Rameses who counsels him, I doubt not,” the sculptor replied.  “He hath great faith in the powers of youth.  And behold what a cabinet he hath built up for his father.  First,” Kenkenes continued, enumerating on his fingers, “there is Nechutes—­”

The new cup-bearer waved his hand, and Kenkenes went on.

“There is my father, the murket.  He needs no further praise than the utterance of his name.  There is Hotep, on whose lips Toth abideth.  There is Seneferu, the faithful, whom the Rebu dreads.  Next is Kephren, the mohar,[1] who would outshine his father, the right hand of the great Rameses, had he but nations to conquer.  After him, Har-hat—­”

“Hold!  He is not appointed of the prince.  He was Meneptah’s choice—­and his alone,” Nechutes interrupted.  “It is rumored that Rameses is not over-fond of him.”

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The Yoke from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.