e 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. A