Death Comes as the End Read Online Free PDF

said Henet, nodding her head. “I, your humble devoted Henet, never forget what I owe you - but children are sometimes thoughtless and selfish, thinking, perhaps, that it is they who are important and not realizing that they only carry out the instructions that you give.”
    “That is indeed most true,” said Imhotep. “I have always said you were an intelligent creature, Henet.”
    Henet sighed.
    “If others only thought so.”
    “What is this? Has anyone been unkind to you?”
    “No, no - that is, they do not mean it - it is a matter of course to them that I should work unceasingly - which I am glad to do - but a word of affection and appreciation, that is what makes all the difference.”
    “That you will always have from me,” said Imhotep. “And this is always your home, remember.”
    “You are too kind, master.” She paused and added: “The slaves are ready in the bathroom with the hot water - and when you have bathed and dressed, your mother asks that you should go to her.”
    “Ah, my mother? Yes - yes, of course...”
    Imhotep looked suddenly slightly embarrassed. He covered his confusion by saying quickly:
    “Naturally - I had intended that - tell Esa I shall come.”

Death Comes as the End
    II
    Esa, dressed in her best pleated linen gown, peered across at her son with a kind of sardonic amusement.
    “Welcome, Imhotep. So you have returned to us - and not alone, I hear.”
    Imhotep, drawing himself up, replied rather shamefacedly:
    “Oh, so you have heard?”
    “Naturally. The house is humming with the news. The girl is beautiful, they say, and quite young.”
    “She is nineteen and - er - not ill-looking.”
    Esa laughed - an old woman's spiteful cackle.
    “Ah, well,” she said, “there's no fool like an old fool.”
    “My dear mother. I am really at a loss to understand what you mean.”
    Esa replied composedly:
    “You always were a fool, Imhotep.”
    Imhotep drew himself up and spluttered angrily. Though usually comfortably conscious of his own importance, his mother could always pierce the armor of his self-esteem. In her presence he felt himself dwindling. The faint sarcastic gleam of her nearly sightless eyes never failed to disconcert him. His mother, there was no denying, had never had an exaggerated opinion of his capabilities. And although he knew well that his own estimate of himself was the true one and his mother's a maternal idiosyncrasy of no importance - yet her attitude never failed to puncture his happy conceit of himself.
    “Is it so unusual for a man to bring home a concubine?”
    “Not at all unusual. Men are usually fools.”
    “I fail to see where the folly comes in.”
    “Do you imagine that the presence of this girl is going to make for harmony in the household? Satipy and Kait will be beside themselves and will inflame their husbands.”
    “What has it to do with them? What right have they to object?”
    “None.”
    Imhotep began to walk up and down angrily.
    “Can I not do as I please in my own house? Do I not support my sons and their wives? Do they not owe the very bread they eat to me? Do I not tell them so without ceasing?”
    “You are too fond of saying so, Imhotep.”
    “It is the truth. They all depend on me. All of them!”
    “And are you sure that that is a good thing?”
    “Are you saying that it is not a good thing for a man to support his family?”
    Esa sighed.
    “They work for you, remember.”
    “Do you want me to encourage them in idleness? Naturally they work.”
    “They are grown men - at least Yahmose and Sobek are - more than grown.”
    “Sobek has no judgment. He does everything wrong. Also he is frequently impertinent, which I will not tolerate. Yahmose is a good obedient boy -”
    “A good deal more than a boy!”
    “But sometimes I have to tell him things two or three times before he takes them in. I have to think of every thing - be everywhere! All the time I am away, I am dictating to scribes - writing full instructions so