"But why does Mefres interfere? His single duty is to care for the temple, not influence the fate of the pharaoh's descendants." "Mefres is an old man growing whimsical. The whole court of his holiness jeers at him because of practices, of which I know nothing, though I see the holy man almost daily." "This is curious. What does he do?" "A number of times during twenty-four hours he performs solemn services in the most secret parts of the temple, and he commands the priests to see if the gods do not hold him suspended while praying." "Ha! ha!" laughed Rameses. "And all this is going on in Pi-Bast here under our eyes, and I do not know of it?" "A priestly secret." "A secret of which all in Memphis are talking! Ha! ha! ha! In the amphitheatre I saw a Chaldean suspended in the air." "I saw him too; but that was a trick, while Mefres wishes to be borne above the earth really on the wings of his devotion." "Unheard-of buffoonery! What do the other priests say to this?" "Perhaps in our sacred papyruses there is mention that in old times there were prophets among us who had the gift of suspending themselves in the air; so the desires of Mefres do not astonish priests nowadays. And since, as is known to thee, subordinates among us see whatever pleases superiors, some holy men claim that during prayer Mefres really rises a couple of fingers high above the pavement." "Ha! ha! ha! And with this great secret the whole court is occupied, and we, like laborers or earth-diggers, do not even suspect that miracles are wrought at one side of us. A wretched fate to be heir to the throne of Egypt!" laughed the viceroy. When he grew calm, at the repeated request of Tutmosis, he commanded to transfer Sarah from the servants' house to Kama's first villa. The servants were delighted at this change; all the serving and slave women, and even the scribes conducted Sarah to her new dwelling with music and shouts of pleasure. The Phœnician woman, when she heard the uproar, asked the reason; and when they told her that Sarah had been restored to the favor of the prince, and that from the servants' house she had been transferred to the villa, the enraged ex-priestess sent for Rameses. The prince came. "Dost thou treat me in this way?" screamed she, losing control of her temper. "Thou didst promise that I should be thy first woman, but before the moon traversed half the heavens thy promise was broken. Perhaps thou thinkest that the vengeance of Astaroth will fall on the priestess alone, and not reach to princes." "Tell thy Astaroth," replied Rameses, calmly, "not to threaten princes, or she may go herself to the servants' house."