Hotep’s situation was most poignantly unhappy.  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.  Hardest of all, he must wear a serene countenance and cover his sorrow most surely, for his own sake and for Masanath’s.

Ta-user still remained at court.  Seti, in a fume of boyish indignation at Rameses, attended her like a shadow.  Among the courtiers there were others who were not alive to the true nature of the princess and who joined Seti in his resentment against the heir.

Amon-meses and Siptah, snarling and malevolent, had left the court abruptly on the morning of its departure for Tanis.  The Hak-heb received them once again, and an ominous calm settled over that little pocket of fertility in the desert—­Nehapehu.

Thus the court was torn with factions; old internal dissensions made themselves evident again, but the vast murmur in Goshen was heard above the strife.

All this had come to pass in the short space of a month.  When half of that time had elapsed, Hotep, fearing to delay the petition of Kenkenes longer, lest conditions should become worse rather than better, met the Pharaoh in the hall one day and gave him the writing.  Earnestly the scribe impressed Meneptah with the importance of the petition and begged him to acquaint himself in an hour of solitude with its contents and the identity of the supplicant.

Meneptah promised and continued to his apartments.  There Har-hat came in a few moments, and Meneptah, after his custom, gave over to him the state communications of the day, and after some little hesitation, tossed the petition of Kenkenes among them.

“Thou canst attend to this matter as well, good Har-hat.  Why should I take up the private concerns of my subjects when I am already burdened with heavy cares?  But do thou look to this petition faithfully.  It may be important, and I know not from whom it is.  I promised Hotep it should be given honest attention.”

For seven days thereafter every letter sent by the king was written by Hotep.  At the end of that time he met Meneptah again, and bending low before him, asked pardon for his insistence, and begged to know what disposition the Son of Ptah had made of the petition of his friend.  He was irritably informed that the matter had been given over to the fan-bearer for attention, since the Pharaoh had been too oppressed with heavier matters to read the letter.

The state of the scribe’s mind, after receiving the information, was indescribable.

He controlled himself before Meneptah, but he suffered no curb upon his feelings when he had returned to his own apartments.  After a long time he succeeded in choking his anger, disgust and grief, realizing that each moment must be turned to account rather than wasted in railing.