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Ta-user looked at him for a moment, then raising her hands, caught the folds of his robe over his breast. "Rameses, how far wilt thou go in this trifling with the Lady Masanath?" "To the marrying priests." Without looking at her, he loosed her hands, swung them idly and let them go. "She does not love thee," she said after a little silence. "Thy news is old. She told me that not a moment since."
Masanath choked back her tears and said, when she was composed again: "Ye need not molder in this cave, I can hide you in Memphis." "Nay, we will await him here." "But the Nile will be upon your refuge in three weeks. Ye would starve if ye drowned not," the Egyptian protested earnestly. "It may be we shall not wait so long," Rachel put in. Masanath looked at her while she thought busily.
After Rameses had been interred at Thebes beside his fathers, and the court had returned to Memphis, the king summoned Masanath, the sole representative of the family of Har-hat, to give reason why she should not be accused of complicity in the treason of her father. Meneptah had taken counsel with none on this step.
Ta-meri was more than usually brilliant, and Nechutes, flushed with her favor, was playing splendidly and rejoicing beyond reason over his gains. Opposite this group was another, the center of which was Masanath. She sat in the richest seat in the house of Senci.
He was fixed under the same roof with the man that had taken his love by piracy; he must greet him affably and reverently every day; he must live in daily contemplation of the time when he must meet Masanath also as his sovereign the wife of the prince, whom he must serve till death.
She stiffened herself and savagely submitted to her imprisonment. Rameses laughed and, bending her head back, kissed her repeatedly and with much tenderness. She struggled madly, but he held her fast. "This is but the beginning," he said in a low voice, "and I have won. The end shall be the same. I am a lovable lover, am I not, Masanath? Am I not good to look upon?
Meanwhile the prince's eyes began to sparkle, a rich stain grew in his cheeks and when she made an end he was the picture of animated delight. For the first time in his life he had been defied and condemned. But his gaze did not disturb Masanath. Her eyes dared him to resent her censure. The prince had no such purpose in mind.
But within three steps he paused as suddenly as though he had been commanded. Masanath had not spoken, but her pretty chin had risen, her mouth curved haughtily, and the gaze she fixed upon him from under her lashes was cold and forbidding. She extended the tips of her fingers to him. The action clamored its meaning.
Masanath thrust her fingers through her hair, and drawing her elbows forward, sheltered her face with them. "When have I offended against the Hebrew?" she cried, sick with terror. "Why should your awful God destroy the innocent and the friend of Israel among the people of Egypt?" Rachel, who had stood beside her, with an increasing cloud on her face, now spoke in Hebrew.
Ta-user leaned across the table, and sweeping the pawns away with her arms, said, with a smile: "Quarreling over a game of drafts! Which is in distress in need of allies?" "Come thou and be my mercenary, Ta-user," Masanath said with impulsive gratitude. "Rameses hath lost and demands restitution beyond reason."
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