Then the ancient said: "I desire that ye will listen to me carefully for a moment, and thou especially, Theckla. Children, I am nigh upon fourscore years of age. My name is Am-nem-hat. In mine infancy I was placed in the great temple at Thebes, and dedicated to the service of Amen-Ba, Mut, and Kuhns, the Theban triad. My family was ancient and honorable in Egypt, and their influence and wealth opened the way for me to all priestly honors and learning. I remained in that temple fifty years, during twenty-five of which I was a priest, and I gradually mastered all the wisdom, learning, and mysteries of the priesthood, until my fellows determined that I should be elevated to the highest rank in the sacerdotal service, and I was ordained and inaugurated to be high-priest at Ombos, where I continued for five-and-twenty years longer. The triad which throughout all Egypt is worshiped as Hesiri-Hes, and Horus, we at Thebes worshiped as Amen-Ra, Mut, and Kuhns, and at Ombos as Ptah-Pukht and Imhotep. But, while during all these years I exercised the functions and exhausted the learning of the priesthood, I forever sought after Ma-t, the Goddess of Truth, she that in her own hall, in the lower world, is called Two Truths, by whom the dead are judged.--Dost thou know something of the fearful Ma-t, young Theckla?" "Yea," answered the girl, with a perceptible shudder, "I know her well, and tremble at the dreadful thought of her! So wise! so hard and pitiless! so tearless, and yet so just! The terrible Ma-t, without mercy, incapable of love, unmoved by hate, implacable, emotionless, the fearful judge, the Truth!" "Then listen to me, child! I worshiped through all these lonely years as a faithful, conscientious priest, and memorized the book of the dead, and studied the mysteries of medicine, of astronomy, and of mathematics, and sought unceasingly to know the awful Ma-t! Dost thou think that I am one who ought to know whether any of the gods of Kem are true or false?" Then Theckla fell upon her knees before the ancient priest, and lifting her little hands to him she cried: "Yea, father, thou knowest! Ancient, honorable, learned priest, thou knowest! Teach thou Arius to believe in the three great gods, to seek the awful Ma-t, and to abandon the pernicious Christian faith, for thou art wise! thou knowest all the truth!"