"Only? I beg thee, Rameses, to sleep. Thou hast taken too much bad blood to thy heart, fire will strike to thy head." "What about her father?" "He is honorable and wise. They call him Gideon. When I told him that thou hadst the wish to take his daughter, he fell on the ground and tore his hair. Of course I waited till this outburst of fatherly suffering was over; I ate a little, drank some wine, and at last proceeded to bargaining. The weeping Gideon swore first of all that he would rather see his daughter dead than the mistress of any man. Then I told him that near Memphis, on the Nile, he would receive land which gives two talents of yearly income and pays no taxes. He was indignant. Then I stated that he might receive another talent yearly in gold and silver. He sighed and declared that his daughter had spent three years at school in Pi-Bailos; I added another talent. Then Gideon, still disconsolate, remembered that he would lose his very good position of manager for the lord Sesofris. I told him that he need not lose that place, and added ten milch cows from thy stables. His forehead cleared somewhat; then he confessed to me, as a profound secret, that a certain very great lord, Chaires, who bears the fan of the nomarch of Memphis, was turning attention toward Sarah. I promised then to add a young bull, a medium chain of gold, and a large bracelet. In this way thy Sarah will cost thee land, two talents yearly in money, ten cows, a young bull, a chain and a gold bracelet, immediately. These thou wilt give to her father, the honest Gideon; to her thou wilt give whatever pleases thee." "What did Sarah say to this?" "While we were bargaining she walked among the trees. When we had finished the matter and settled it by drinking good Hebrew wine, she told her father--dost thou know what?--that if he had not given her to thee, she would have gone up the cliff and thrown herself down head foremost. Now thou mayst sleep quietly, I think," ended Tutmosis. "I doubt it," answered Rameses, leaning on the balustrade and looking into the emptiest side of the park. "Dost thou know that on the way back we found a man hanging from a tree?" "Oh! that is worse than the scarabs!" "He hanged himself from despair because the warriors filled the canal which he had been digging for ten years in the desert." "Well, that man is sleeping now quietly. So it is time for us." "That man was wronged," said the prince. "I must find his children, ransom them, and rent a bit of land to them." "But thou must do this with great secrecy," remarked Tutmosis, "or all slaves will begin to hang themselves, and no Phœnician will lend us, their lords, a copper uten." "Jest not. Hadst thou seen that man's face, sleep would be absent to-night from thy eyes as it is from mine." Meanwhile from below, among the bushes, was heard a voice, not over-powerful, but clear,--