But what comfort
shall it give? I am no longer a youth. I would work. I would labour for
the land of Egypt, for by work shall we fulfil ourselves, redeem
ourselves. Saadat, I would labour, but my master has taken away from me
the anvil, the fire, and the hammer, and I sit without the door like an
armless beggar. What work to do in Egypt save to help the land, and how
shall one help, save in the Prince's service? There can be no reform from
outside. If I laboured for better things outside Kaid's Palace, how long
dost thou think I should escape the Nile, or the diamond-dust in my
coffee? The work which I did, is it not so that it, with much more, falls
now to thy hands, Saadat, with a confidence from Kaid that never was
mine?"
"I sought not the office."
"Have I a word of blame? I come to ask for work to do with thee. Do I not
know Prince Kaid? He had come to distrust us all. As stale water were we
in his taste. He had no pleasure in us, and in our deeds he found only
stones of stumbling. He knew not whom to trust. One by one we all had
yielded to ceaseless intrigue and common distrust of each other, until no
honest man was left; till all were intent to save their lives by holding
power; for in this land to lose power is to lose life.
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