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"Har-hat Set make a cinder of his heart! asked her at the hands of the Pharaoh for his harem " Mentu interrupted him with a growling imprecation and Hotep's fair face darkened. "Yesterday morning he sent three men to me," the taskmaster continued, "with the document of gift from the Son of Ptah, but she saw them in time and fled into the desert.
"Have it thy way, then, vixen," he exclaimed; "but remember, I hold a heavy hand above thy head and Hotep's!" He strode out of her presence, and when she was sure he was gone, she fell on her face and wept miserably. At Tanis, the next day after the arrival of Meneptah, there came a messenger from Thebes to Hotep, and the royal scribe retired to his apartments to read the letter.
He felt his feeble resolution filter away; his inclination to hold the Hebrews stayed with him, but the power to withstand Hotep's strong argument was not in him. "What wouldst thou have me do?" he asked querulously. "I am but a mouthpiece for thy realm; I counsel not for myself.
Meneptah, who, from the moment of Masanath's entrance into the council chamber, had begun to repent his ill-advised act, was glad to be won over. At the end of Hotep's impassioned story he came down from the dais, and raising Masanath, kissed her and put her into the young man's arms.
The betrothal of Rameses to Har-hat's daughter gave further material for contention. It seemed to indicate that the fan-bearer had builded for himself for two reigns. Hotep's situation was most poignantly unhappy.
Yet, when he did, after the manner of her kind, she wept over him and took him back without a word of reproach. So the fair-faced sister of Hotep came to be queen over Egypt and took another title with Nefer-ari as prefix, and the quaint Danaid name, Io, was lost to all lips but Seti's and Hotep's. After Seti came to the throne he continued Hotep in the advisership and prepared to reign happily.
Kenkenes, the wrath of the priests awaits thee and thereafter the doom of the insulted Pantheon!" The scribe shuddered and plucked at his friend's robe as if to drag him away from the sight of his own creation. Firmly fixed were the young artist's convictions to resist the impelling force of Hotep's consternation. "Nay, nay, Hotep," he answered soothingly.
"Right, Hotep!" Rameses exclaimed. "It was such belief that made a world-conqueror of my grandsire." "Nay, thy pardon, O my Prince. Hotep's counsel will not always hold," Kenkenes objected. "Give me to know wherein it faileth," the prince demanded. "Alas! in a thousand things. In truth a man even draws his breath by the leave of others." "By the puny god, Harpocrates!" the prince cried, scoffing.
He straightened himself and drew his horse away from her so that she could not answer. The captain's meaning, though obscure to any other that might have heard him, was very clear to Masanath. Har-hat was still holding a threat of Hotep's undoing over his daughter's head, lest, at the last moment, she rebel against her marriage.
In mid-afternoon of the same day Hotep's chariot drew up at the portals of Mentu's house, and the scribe in his most splendid raiment was conducted to Kenkenes. The young sculptor was alone. "What was it, a palsy or the sun which kept thee at home this day?" was Hotep's greeting. "Nine is a mystic number and is fruitful of much gain. Eight times within a month have I come for thee.
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