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As Kenkenes passed them on his way to the door her soft shoulders were squared; she had drawn herself as far away from the prince as she might and was otherwise evincing her discomfort extravagantly. Before them was Hotep, outwardly undisturbed, smiling and complacent. At one side was Ta-user, at the other Seti, and Io hung on Hotep's arm.
One early morning, in a corridor leading from the entrance, he met Hotep. A sudden impulse urged him to consult his scribe. "Where hast thou been?" he asked, noticing Hotep's street dress. "To the temple, O Son of Ptah." "What hast thou to ask of the gods that thy king can not give thee?" Hotep hesitated, and the color rushed into his cheeks.
Aside from these there were others in the group. Some were sons and daughters of royalty, cousins of the Pharaoh's sons and of Ta-user and Siptah; many were children of the king's ministers, and all were noble. Senci and Hotep's older sister, the Lady Bettis, a dark-eyed matron of thirty, presided in duenna-like guardianship over the rout. They sat in a diphros apart from the young revelers.
He forgot that he had come away from the Arabian hills because she repelled him; he remembered his scruples concerning their social inequality, only to revile himself; Hotep's caution was more than ever a waste of words to him. He forgot everything except that he was here in comfort, she, there in want and in peril, and he had not rescued her. He did not sleep. He tossed and counted the hours.
Small wonder that she did not heed the condemnation of the rabble at mid-day she who was fresh from a triumph over the Pharaoh!" Hotep's eyes widened warningly and he shook his head. "Nay, hush me not, Hotep," Kenkenes went on in a reckless whisper. "I must say it. Would to the gods I had been there to copy it in stone!"
"I do not question her decorum, and the man of whom I speak is of spotless character. He is lost and we seek him." "I can not help you; my wits are taxed in another search." Hotep's face showed light at the taskmaster's words. "Is she also gone?" he asked mildly. "Then let me give you my word, that the discovery of one will also find the other." Atsu gazed with growing hope at the scribe.
"The Hebrews!" They came slowly, side by side, the two brothers. Egyptians in all attitudes of entreaty cumbered their path Egyptians, born to the purple, rich, proud, powerful, on their faces to enslaved Israel! Meneptah wrenched himself from Hotep's sustaining arms and, staggering forward, all but on his knees, met them.
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