midnight
Paaker 's was , in fact , an ignoble , that is to say , a selfish nature ; to shorten his road he trod down flowers as readily as he marched over the sand of the desert . This characteristic marked him in all things , even in his outward demeanor ; in the sound of his voice , in his broad features , in the swaggering gait of his stumpy figure . In camp he could conduct himself as he pleased ; but this was not permissible in the society of his equals in rank ; for this reason , and because those faculties of quick remark and repartee , which distinguished them , had been denied to him , he felt uneasy and out of his element when he mixed with them , and he would hardly have accepted Ameni 's invitation , if it had not so greatly flattered his vanity . It was already late ; but the banquet did not begin till midnight , for the guests , before it began , assisted at the play which was performed by lamp and torch-light on the sacred lake in the south of the Necropolis , and which represented the history of Isis and Osiris . When he entered the decorated hall in which the tables were prepared , he found all the guests assembled . The Regent Ani was present , and sat on Ameni 's right at the top of the centre high-table at which several places were unoccupied ; for the prophets and the initiated of the temple of Amon had excused themselves from being present . They were faithful to Rameses and his house ; their grey-haired Superior disapproved of Ameni 's severity towards the prince and princess , and they regarded the miracle of the sacred heart as a malicious trick of the chiefs of the Necropolis against the great temple of the capital for which Rameses had always shown a preference .