sk to approach the king in their favor were helpless or
prejudiced. Seti was disgraced; the queen, useless; Hotep, already too
imminently imperiled; Rameses, Har-hat, against the lovers; and the
king--the poor, feeble king, hopelessly beyond any appeal that she might
direct to him.

A sorry resolve shaped itself in her mind. To-morrow at dawn she also
would put forth searchers, and finding Rachel, send her out of Egypt, and
Kenkenes after her.

CHAPTER XL

THE FIRST-BORN

At the door of her apartments Masanath was met by the faithful Nari,
who drew her within and showed her triumphantly that the usurping
ladies-in-waiting had departed. The unhappy girl was grateful for the
change. The relief for her sorrow was its expression, and she dreaded
the restraint put upon her by the presence of discerning and unfamiliar
eyes.

All desire for sleep had left her. Nari, weary and heavy-headed,
begged her to retire, but she would not. So at last the waiting woman,
at her mistress' command, lay down and slept.

The apartment consisted of two chambers running the width of the
palace. The outer chamber had a window opening on the streets of
Tanis, the inner looked into the palace courtyard.

Masanath wrapped a woolen mantle about her and sat at the window
overlooking the park.

Without was the wide hollow, walled by the many-galleried stories of
the king's house. Below a fountain of running water, issuing from an
ibis-bill of bronze, and falling into a pool, purled and splashed and
talked on and on to itself.

Above, the mighty constellations were dropping slowly down the west.
The wild north wind from the sea strove against her cheek. The gods
were too absorbed in great things, the shifting of the heavens, the
flight of the wind and the rocking of the waters, to care for her great
burden of trouble. Or, indeed, were they not prejudiced against her as
all the world was? They had heard every prayer but hers. They had
harkened to Rameses when he asked for her at their hands; they had
harkened to her father and yielded him power at her sacrifice; they had
even pitied Rachel; they had returned her love from Amenti, and yet had
not Rachel reviled them? Nay, there was conspiracy laid against her by
the Pantheon, and what had she done to deserve it?

In some one of the many windows that looked into the court another
dragged at his chestnut locks and execrated gods and men because of
their hardness of heart.