"Look at the stars, Rachel. There is a dark casement in the heavens--a blink of the eye and the lamp is alight." "So I watch them every night. But they are swifter here in Memphis. At Mendes, where Israel toiled once, they are more deliberate," she answered readily. "Aye, but you should see them at Philae. They ignite and bound into brilliance like sparks of meeting metal and flint. Ah, but the tropics are precipitate!" "I know them not," she ventured. "Their acquaintance is better avoided. They have no mean--they leap from extreme to extreme. They are violent, immoderate. It is instant night and instant day; it is the maddest passion of summer always. Nature reigns at the top of her voice and chokes her realm with the fervor of her maternity. Nay, give me the north. I would feel the earth's pulse now and then without burning my fingers." "There is room for choice in this land of thine," she mused after a little. "Land of mine?" he repeated inquiringly, turning his head to look at her. "Is it not also thine?" "Nay, it is not the Hebrews' and it never was," the clear answer came from the dusk behind him. "So!" he exclaimed. "After four hundred years in Egypt they have not adopted her!" "We have but sojourned here a night. The journey's end is farther on." "Israel hath made a long night of the sojourn," he rejoined laughingly. "Nay," she answered. "Thou hast not said aright. It is Egypt that hath made a long night of our sojourn." There was a silence in which Kenkenes felt accused and uncomfortable. It would require little to make harsh the temper of the talk. It lay with him, one of the race of offenders, to make amends. "It is for me to admit Egypt's sin and ask a truce," he said gently. "So be thou generous to me, since it is I who am abashed in her stead." Again there was silence, broken at last by the Israelite in a voice grown wondrously contrite. "I do not reproach thee. Nor, indeed, is all Egypt at fault. The sin lies with the Pharaohs." "Ah! the gods forbid!" he protested. "Lay it on the shoulders of babes, if thou wilt, but I am party to treason if I but give ear to a rebuke of the monarch." "I am not ignorant of the law. I shall spare thee, but I have purchased my right to condemn the king." "Thou indomitable! And I accused thee of fear. I retract. But tell me--what is the journey's end? Is it the ultimate goal of all flesh?" "Not so," she answered proudly. "It is Israel's inheritance promised for four hundred years. The time is ripe for possession. We go forward to enter into a land of our own." "Thou givest me news. Come, be the Hebrews' historian and enlighten me. Where lies the land?" Rachel hesitated. To her it was a serious problem to decide whether the lightness of the sculptor's tone were mockery or good fellowship. Kenkenes noted her silence and spoke again. "Perchance I ask after a hieratic secret. If so, forgive the blunder."