"These over-learned women are strange fish to catch and hold, and too much soul is like too much sail upon a boat when the desert wind begins to blow across the Nile.

Well, do not let us blame her or Bes, or Peroa who is already anxious for his dynasty and would rather that Amada were a priestess than your wife, or even the goddess Isis, who no doubt is anxious for her votaries.

Let us rather blame the Power that is behind the veil, or to it bow our heads, seeing that we know nothing of the end for which it works.

So Egypt shuts her doors on you, my Son, and whither away?
Not to the East again, I trust, for there you would soon grow shorter by a head." "I go to Ethiopia, my Mother, where it seems that Bes is a great man and can shelter me." "So we go to Ethiopia, do we?
Well, it is a long journey for an old woman, but I weary of Memphis where I have lived for so many years and doubtless the sands of the south make good burial grounds." "We!" I exclaimed.

"_We ?_" "Surely, my Son, since in losing a wife you have again found a mother and until I die we part no more." When I heard this my eyes filled with tears.