Now come,
and I will guard you to the gates of the old temple of Sekhet, where
Pharaoh dwells."
CHAPTER IX
THE DOOM OF PHARAOH
On the morrow when the lady Asti came to dress the Queen for that
day's ceremony, she asked her if Amen had given her the wisdom that she
sought.
"Not so," answered the young Queen, "all he gave me was very bad dreams,
and in every one of them was mixed up that waiting woman of my father,
Merytra, of whom you spoke to me. If I believed in omens I should say
that she was about to bring some evil upon our House."
"It may well be so, Queen," answered Asti, "and in that case I think
that she is at the work. At any rate, watching from the little window
of my room, by the light of the moon I saw her return across the temple
court at midnight. Moreover, it seemed to me that she was carrying
something beneath her robe."
"Whence did she return?"
"From the city, I suppose. She has Pharaoh's pass, and can go in and
out when she will. I have caused Mermes to question the officer of the
guard, and he says that she came to the gate accompanied by a tall man
wrapped in a dark cloak, who spoke with her earnestly, and left her.
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