"Nofret?" Renisenb uttered the name questioningly.
Satipy flew into a passion that made her seem quite like her old self.
"Nofret - Nofret - Nofret!
I'm sick of the sound of that name.
We don't need to hear it any more in this house - and thank goodness for that."
Her voice, which had been raised to its old shrill pitch, dropped suddenly as Yahmose entered.
He said, with unusual sternness: "Be quiet, Satipy.
If my father heard you, there would be fresh trouble.
How can you behave so foolishly?"
If Yahmose's stern and displeased tone was unusual, so too was Satipy's meek collapse.
She murmured: "I am sorry, Yahmose,...
I did not think."
"Well, be more careful in future!
You and Kait made most of the trouble before.
You women have no sense!"
Satipy murmured again: "I am sorry..."
Yahmose went out, his shoulders squared, and his walk far more resolute than usual, as though the fact of having asserted his authority for once had done him good.
Renisenb went slowly along to old Esa's room.
Her grandmother, she felt, might have some helpful counsel.
Esa, however, who was eating grapes with a good deal of relish, refused to take the matter seriously.
"Satipy? Satipy?
Why all this fuss about Satipy?
Do you all like being bullied and ordered about by her that you make such a to-do because she behaves herself properly for once?"
She spat out the pips of the grape and remarked:
"In any case, it's too good to last - unless Yahmose can keep it up."
"Yahmose?"
"Yes.
I hoped Yahmose had come to his senses at last and given Satipy a good beating.
It's what she needs - and she's the kind of woman who would probably enjoy it.
Yahmose, with his meek, cringing ways, must have been a great trial to her."
"Yahmose is a dear," cried Renisenb indignantly.
"He is kind to everybody - and as gentle as a woman - if women are gentle," she added doubtfully.
Esa cackled. "A good afterthought, Granddaughter.
No, there's nothing gentle about women - or if there is, Isis help them!
And there are few women who care for a kind, gentle husband.
They'd sooner have a handsome, blustering brute like Sobek - he's the one to take a girl's fancy.
Or a smart young fellow like Kameni - hey, Renisenb?
The flies in the courtyard don't settle on him for long!
He's got a pretty taste in love songs too. Eh?
Hee, hee, hee."
Renisenb felt her cheeks going red.
"I don't know what you mean," she said with dignity.
"You all think old Esa doesn't know what's going on!
I know all right."
She peered at Renisenb with her semi-blind eyes.
"I know, perhaps, before you do, child.
Don't be angry.
It's the way of life, Renisenb.
Khay was a good brother to you - but he sails his boat now in the Field of Offerings.
The sister will find a new brother who spears his fish in our own River - not that Kameni would be much good.