The Mummy and Miss Nitocris

nsideration for her friends and acquaintances to get together a mere mob of well-dressed people of probably incompatible tastes and temperament, and ca

id cards were all the more eagerly awaited by those who did, and did not, get them. The result of this in the present case was that, although every

anner that was modest almost to diffidence. He brought his wife, a slim and somewhat stern-featured lady, who, in the domestic sense, kept him in his place with inflexible decision, and worshipped him in his p

whom we have here but little concern; and then Miss Brenda, deeply regretting her beautiful Napier, with her father and mother in a very smart Savoy turn-out followed by a coronetted brougham drawn by a splendid pair of black Orloffs. This was followed by an equally smart dog-cart driven by a rather slightly-built but well set-u

s or friends, in the great porch through which many a brilliant presence had passed, and had two maids waiting ins

aggle, and instructions to go and make himself agreeable and useful. Brenda also received a hearty "shake"-Ni

You must wait here, dear, and do the intr

opened the door. The Prince got out, and was followed by Phadrig the Adept. As she looked at the two

h, whom you have been kind enough to let me invite

range intuition, which somehow seemed half-reminiscent an almost perfect type of the primitive warrior through the disguise of his faultless twentieth-century attire. He was nearly two inches over six feet, but he was so exquisitely proportioned that he looked less than his height. His skin was fair and smooth, but tanned to an olive-brown. His forehead was of medium height, stra

ard his murmured compliments, but her attention awoke when he turned to the man w

wn in his own ancient land of Egypt, a worker of wonders which really are wonders, and not mere sleight-of-hand conjuring tricks. He has been

sence of implacable enemies, and yet she had never seen these men before, and, for all she knew, she had not an enemy in the world. She was intense

suit of irreproachable cut and fit. The correctly-creased trousers met brightly-burnished, narrow-toed tan boots; a black-tasselled scarlet tarbush was set square on his high forehead, and the dark red tie under his two-ply collar just added the necessary touch of Orient

party, Lord Leighton," said Nitocris, when she had ended the

riend the sad story of the mysterious loss of the Mummy; but another subject was

stinguished gentleman-and his wife and daughter. No less a pe

a serious and learned young man. "The Huysman: the Professor's most dough

ing. "Come along, or Dad will be beginning to think that I am neglecting my duties, and I must be on quite my best behaviour to-day. We are

lightly; "I reco

evere. Then you know His Highness?" s

f the well-veneered savage that even Russia has produced for the last century. He is a brilliant scholar, statesman, and soldier; delightful among his equals-or those he chooses to consider so-ch

ris. "Fancy a man like that

words with a positive sense of relief. They exactly translated and crystall

he had a dim consciousness that she was going to do something much more important than merely introducing two strangers to each other. She looked quite anxiously at Brenda, who had turned towards them as they came near, and saw that, just for the fraction of a second, her eyes brightened, and a passing flush deepened the delicate colour in he

first sight, I shan't believe that there is any su

soul, living from eternity to eternity. An immortality with one end to it was to her an unthinkable proposition which could not possibly be true. For her, as for her father, Eternal Life and Eternal Justice were one. Where a man ended one life, from that point he began the next: for good or for evil, for ignorance or for knowledge. A life lived and ended in righteousness (not, of course, in the narrow theological sense of the term) began again in righteou

dvantage over the other, yet feel her heart go out to that other, and impel her to follow him, even to the leaving of father and mother and home, and all else that has been dear to her? Why in the soul of every true man and woman is Love, when it comes, made Lord of all, and all in all? It is because Love is co-eternal with Life, and these two have loved,

of her heart and marries the man she does not love, never has loved, and never can. She has defied the eternal Law of Selection. She has desecrated the sanctity of an immortal soul, and she has defiled the temple of her body. She has sold herself for a price in the market-place, and has become a prostitute endowed by law with a conventional respectability, a

e drags an innocent but ignorant maiden down to his own vile level. Yet the chief criminal of all is not the individual, but the Society which not only encourages, but too often compels the crime. For this it also pays the penalty. The collective crime brings the collective c

fied by the strenuous labour of many lives towards the Light, should yet be darkened by the shadow of such

els of Hate and Darkness, for even here, amidst this pleasant scene of seemingly innocent pleasure and laughter, th

pproached the Prince, who happened for the moment to be standi

ved true. That is the Queen-she who was once the daughter o

my fate, and, having found it, I shall take very good care that I don't lose it. And you shall help me to keep it; I shall try every fair means first to make her my princess, for, whether she was once Queen of Egypt or not, she is worthy now to sit beside a sovereign on his throne-and it might be that I could some day give her such a place-but have her I will, if not as fairly-won wife and consort, then as stolen slave and plaything, to keep as long as my fancy lasts. And listen, Phadrig," he went on in

," replied Phadrig, in a voice that had

ce, with a sneer in his tone. "Then I will add to it the ready aid and unquesti

nd brave, but they have not the Greater Knowledge. I could turn the wisest of them into a fool, and frighten the bravest out o

patiently, but with no show of anger, for he knew

lemn promise in writing, signed and attested, that, if and when my dreams become realities, and your own hopes are fulfilled, the independence and sovereignty of the Ancient Land sh

's hand the power to betray him. On the other hand, their aims were one, and only through him could Phadrig hope to realise his dreams. Of course they were only dreams; but he was faithful to

hin a week. Now I must go. I shall tell them that I have been arranging the exhibition of your powers which you are going to give them. It will be well to startle

turned away and joined the growing group in which Nitocri

he same explanation of friendships bet