He is my friend, I value his talents; Kasana likes him...." "Yet you desire a more distinguished son-in-law ?" interrupted his companion.

"How is our arduous enterprise to prosper, if those who are to peril their lives for its success consider the first sacrifice too great?
You say that your daughter favors Hosea ?" "Yes, she did care for him," the soldier answered; "yes, he was her heart's desire.

But I compelled her to obey me, and now that she is a widow, am I to give her to the man whom--the gods alone know with how much difficulty--I forced her to resign?
When was such an act heard of in Egypt ?" "Ever since the men and women who dwell by the Nile have submitted, for the sake of a great cause, to demands opposed to their wishes," replied the priest.
"Consider all this, and remember that Hosea's ancestress--he boasted of it in your own presence--was an Egyptian, the daughter of a man of my own class." "How many generations have passed to the tomb since ?" "No matter! It brings us into closer relations with him.

That must suffice.

Farewell until this evening.