Bella Darvi credited as playing...
Nefer
- Nefer: No. I brought you here only to show you the gate in my garden wall. Later, when all of my guests have gone... I will be here by my lotus pool.
- Sinuhe: Why do you tell me this?
- Nefer: Perhaps because I am fond of gifts, and the greatest gift any man can bring to a woman is his innocence, which he can give only once.
- Nefer: Wait. Before you touch me I must give you a warning.
- Sinuhe: Warning?
- Nefer: There is a reason the Goddess of Love takes the form of a cat.
- Sinuhe: When I look at you I care nothing for cats or gods.
- Nefer: Look Sinuhe. A cat's paws are soft. But they hide claws. A cat takes pleasure in tormenting its victim. Not until the creature is nearly dead does it show pity... and put an end to it.
- Sinuhe: What has this to do with you and me?
- Nefer: You've had less experience, and I must be what I am. Leave now and do not return through the gate in my wall, or you may regret it all your life.
- Sinuhe: I don't even know your name.
- Nefer: In their foolishness, men gave me the name which means, beautiful.
- Sinuhe: Nefer. Nefer. Nefer.
- Nefer: Have you ever looked on a woman before?
- Sinuhe: Hundreds, and in the state the gods created them. I'm a physician.
- Nefer: Your name?
- Sinuhe: I am called Sinuhe. He who is alone. Is this your house?
- Nefer: This is my house, and I have guests every evening. I dislike being alone.
- [claps her hands to summon her servant]
- Nefer: Baraka!
- [she handles the pendant around Sinuhe's neck]
- Nefer: The inscription of the new Pharoah.
- Sinuhe: His gift. I must leave now.
- Nefer: Why?
- Sinuhe: Because men bring you rich presents for as little as a smile.
- [indicating the pendant]
- Sinuhe: This is all I have.
- Nefer: I have never asked a man for anything, but I ask you to stay.
- Sinuhe: I can't.
- Nefer: Is it because we women of Babylon have a bad reputation? Or do you find me so ugly. Do you?
- Sinuhe: You're beautiful, beyond all dreams.
- Nefer: Such flattery must come easily to a man who's known... hundreds of women.
- Sinuhe: No one before has ever seemed to me so beautiful, so strange. When I look in your eyes, I... feel...
- Nefer: What do you feel, Sinuhe?
- Sinuhe: I feel the fever of Thebes in my blood, and I know that I was born to live in the sunset of the world and that nothing matters, nothing, but what I see in your eyes. It's late, I must be leaving.
- Nefer: If you go filled with wine and wild thoughts, you will surely get into trouble with some designing woman.
- Sinuhe: Would you care?
- [he follows as she goes into her garden]
- Sinuhe: The house and tomb are yours. From this hour I'm accursed and disgraced before gods and men. It's a high price to pay. Now prove to me that it's not too high.
- Nefer: How should I prove it, Sinuhe?
- Sinuhe: By keeping your promise.
- Nefer: Promise? What did I promise?
- Sinuhe: The perfection of love.
- Nefer: I did? Sinuhe, as I've already told you, I find you very appealing. Are you quite sure that perfection is what you want?
- Sinuhe: Yes.
- Nefer: Then you shall have it. I will end your misery.
- [to her servant]
- Nefer: Show this man to the door and never admit him to my house again.
- [to Sinuhe]
- Nefer: Every philosopher knows that we spend our lives seeking perfection and find it only in an ending.
- Sinuhe: Ending?
- Nefer: Sooner or later even a cat tires of its game.