Uarda’s eyes flashed, and she said proudly, almost defiantly: 

“My race is that of my mother, who was a daughter of no mean house; the reason I turned back this morning and went into the smoke and fire again after I had escaped once into the open air—­what I went back for, because I felt it was worth dying for, was my mother’s legacy, which I had put away with my holiday dress when I followed the wretched Nemu to his tent.  I threw myself into the jaws of death to save the jewel, but certainly not because it is made of gold and precious stones—­for I do not care to be rich, and I want no better fare than a bit of bread and a few dates and a cup of water—­but because it has a name on it in strange characters, and because I believe it will serve to discover the people from whom my mother was carried off; and now I have lost the jewel, and with it my identity and my hopes and happiness.”

Uarda wept aloud; Nefert put her arm around her affectionately.

“Poor child!” she said, “was your treasure destroyed in the flames?”

“No, no,” cried Uarda eagerly.  “I snatched it out of my chest and held it in my hand when Nebsecht took me in his arms, and I still had it in my hand when I was lying safe on the ground outside the burning house, and Bent-Anat was close to me, and Rameri came up.  I remember seeing him as if I were in a dream, and I revived a little, and I felt the jewel in my fingers then.”

“Then it was dropped on the way to the tent?” said Nefert.

Uarda nodded; little Scherau, who had been crouching on the floor beside her, gave Uarda a loving glance, dimmed with tears, and quietly slipped out of the tent.

Time went by in silence; Uarda sat looking at the ground, Nefert and Mena held each other’s hands, but the thoughts of all three were with the dead.  A perfect stillness reigned, and the happiness of the reunited couple was darkly overshadowed by their sorrow.  From time to time the silence was broken by a trumpet-blast from the royal tent; first when the Asiatic princes were introduced into the Council-tent, then when the Danaid king departed, and lastly when the Pharaoh preceded the conquered princes to the banquet.

The charioteer remembered how his master had restored him to dignity and honor, for the sake of his faithful wife; and gratefully pressed her hand.

Suddenly there was a noise in front of the tent, and an officer entered to announce to Mena that the Danaid king and his daughter, accompanied by body-guard, requested to see and speak with him and Nefert.

The entrance to the tent was thrown wide open.  Uarda retired modestly into the back-ground, and Mena and Nefert went forward hand in hand to meet their unexpected guests.