The thought was abruptly put, but the words represented well what was passing in his mind, what must pass in the mind of any man of culture and sensibility when he gazes on such a sight.  For in such presences the human mite of to-day, fluttering in the sun and walking on the earth that these have known and walked four thousand years ago, must indeed learn how infinitely small is the place that he occupies in the tale of things created; and yet, if to his culture and sensibility he adds religion, a word of living hope hovers on those dumb lips.  For where are the spirits of those that lie before him in their eternal silence!  Answer, withered lips, and tell us what judgment has Osiris given, and what has Thoth written in his awful book?  Four thousand years!  Old human husk, if thy dead carcass can last so long, what limit is there to the life of the soul it held?

“Did you collect all these?” asked Arthur, when he had made a superficial examination of the almost countless treasures of the museum.

“Oh, no; Mr. Carr spent half his long life, and more money than I can tell you, in getting this collection together.  It was the passion of his life, and he had this cave hollowed at enormous cost, because he thought that the air here would be less likely to injure them than the English fogs.  I have added to it, however.  I got those papyri and that beautiful bust of Berenice, the one in black marble.  Did you ever see such hair?”

Arthur thought to himself that he had at that moment some not far from his heart that must be quite as beautiful, but he did not say so.

“Look, there are some curious things;” and she opened an air-tight case that contained some discoloured grains and a few lumps of shrivelled substance.

“What are they?”

“This is wheat taken from the inside of a mummy, and those are supposed to be hyacinth bulbs.  They came from the mummy-case of that baby prince, and I have been told that they would still grow if planted.”

“I can scarcely believe that:  the principle of life must be extinct.”

“Wise people, say, you know, that the principle of life can never become extinct in anything that has once lived, though it may change its form; but I do not pretend to understand these things.  However, we will settle the question, for we will plant one, and, if it grows, I will give the flower to you.  Choose one.”

Arthur took the biggest lump from the case, and examined it curiously.

“I have not much faith in your hyacinth; I am sure that it is dead.”

“Ah! but many things that seem more dead than that have the strangest way of suddenly breaking into life,” she said, with a little sigh.  “Give it to me; I will have it planted;” and then, with a quick glance upward, “I wonder if you will be here to see it bloom.”

“I don’t think that either of us will see it bloom in this world,” he answered, laughing, and took his leave.