"Meneptah's will is clay in my hands," he replied contemptuously.
"Vex me further and I shall tell him that!"
He caught her arm, and though the fierce grasp pinched her, she knew by that she had gained a point.
"And further," she continued, gathering courage at each word, "I shall ask him why thou shouldst be so anxious to keep the breach between him and his brother and defeat his aims at peace."
His face blazed and he shook her, but she went on in wild triumph. "I have a confederate in Rameses. He loves thee not. And I have but to hint and ruin thee beyond the restoring power of the marriages of a thousand daughters!"
Har-hat's forte had been polished insult, but when the evil in him would have expressed itself in its own brutal manner he was helpless.
"Hotep—Hotep—" he snarled.
The name was potent. Again she recoiled.
"I shall yield him up to Rameses," he went on.
"And in that very hour thou dost, in that same hour will I charge thee with treason before the throne of Meneptah!" she returned recklessly.