"My name is Fondling, and I dwell-- Ei, why should I tell? Thou wilt not come soon to me." She waved her hand and vanished. The prince, as if stunned, did not move from his chair. When after a while he looked through the window, he saw a rich litter which four Nubians bore toward the Nile swiftly. Rameses was not sorry for the departing woman; she astonished, but did not attract him. "Sarah is calmer," thought he, "and more beautiful. Moreover, it seems to me that that Phœnician must be cold, and her fondlings are studied." But from that time the prince ceased to be angry at Dagon, all the more since on a day when he was at Sarah's earth-tillers came to him, and thanking him for protection declared that the Phœnician forced them to pay new rents no longer. That was the case close to Memphis, but on other lands the prince's tenants made good Dagon's losses. CHAPTER XIV In the month of Choeak (from the middle of September to the middle of October), the waters of the Nile were highest, and began to fall slightly. In the gardens people gathered tamarinds, dates, olives; and trees blossomed a second time. At this juncture his holiness Rameses XII. left his sun-bright palace in Memphis, and with a grand suite on some tens of stately barges sailed to Thebes, to thank the gods there for the bounteous inundation, and also to place offerings on the tombs of his eternally living ancestors. The most worthy ruler took farewell of his heir very graciously; but the direction of state affairs during his absence he left with Herhor. Rameses felt this proof of want of confidence so greatly that for three days he took no food and did not leave his villa; he only wept. Later he ceased to shave, and transferred himself to Sarah's house, so as not to meet Herhor or annoy his own mother, whom he considered the cause of his failures. On the following day Tutmosis visited him in this retreat, bringing two boats filled with musicians and dancers, and a third containing baskets of food and flowers, with pitchers of wine. But the prince commanded the musicians and dancers to depart, and taking Tutmosis to the garden, he said,-- "Of course my mother--may she live through eternity!--sent thee to separate me from the Jewess? Tell her worthiness that were Herhor to become not merely viceroy, but the son of my father, I should do that which pleases me. I know how to do it. To-day they wish to deprive me of Sarah, and to-morrow they would take my power from me; I will show them that I shall not renounce anything." The prince was irritated. Tutmosis shrugged his shoulders, and remarked finally,--