He a father! This title gave him an importance which, as it were, supported his titles of commander and viceroy. Father! that did not mean a stripling who must look perforce with reverence on older people. He was roused and enraptured. He wished to see Sarah, to scold, then embrace her and give her presents. But when he returned to his part of the palace he found there two nomarchs from Lower Egypt who had come to report on their provinces, and when he had heard them out, he was wearied. Besides, he was to hold an evening reception and did not wish to be late in beginning. "And again I shall not be with her," thought he. "Poor girl! for twenty days she has not seen me--" He summoned the negro. "Hast thou that cage which Sarah gave thee when we went to greet his holiness?" "I have." "Take a pigeon from it, and let the bird loose." "The pigeons are eaten." "Who ate them?" "Thou. I told the cook that those birds came from the Lady Sarah; so he made a roast and pies out of them for thee, worthiness." "May the crocodiles eat you both!" cried the prince, in anger. He sent for Tutmosis and despatched him immediately to Sarah. He explained to him the history of the pigeons, and said,-- "Give her emerald earrings, bracelets, anklets, and two talents. Say that I am angry because she concealed her condition, but that I will forgive her if the child is healthy and handsome. Should she have a boy, I will give her another place," finished he with a smile. "But--but--persuade her to put away even a few Jews, and to take even a few Egyptian men and women. I do not wish my son to be born into such company; besides, he might play with Jew children. They would teach him to give his father the worst dates of the harvest." [Illustration: Village of Bedreshen on the site of Memphis] CHAPTER XIX The foreign quarter in Memphis lay on the northeastern extremity of the city near the river. There were several hundred houses in that place and many thousand people,--Assyrians, Greeks, Jews, most of all, Phœnicians. That was a wealthy quarter. A street thirty paces in width formed its leading artery. This street was rather straight, and paved with flat stones. On both sides were houses of sandstone, brick, or limestone, varying in height from three to five stories. In the cellars were stores of raw materials; on the ground floors were arched rooms; on the first stories dwellings of wealthy people; higher were the workshops of weavers, tailors, jewellers; highest of all, the crowded dwellings of laborers. The buildings of this quarter, like those in the whole city, were mainly white; but one might see stone houses as green as a meadow, as yellow as a wheat-field, as blue as the sky, or as red as blood.