Part 3 (2/2)

Over the rest of the night I draw a veil For a solid hour and three-quarters did I sit in that roo alternately questioned and lectured At length I could stand it no longer and while pretending to help h the door and fled upstairs

I arrived late to breakfast purposely and found that I ise, for Lady Ragnall was absent upstairs, recovering fro frone, port and whisky mixed, and all his fa ascertained that they were going to the church in the park, I departed to one two ht on to the Scroopes' where I had a very pleasant ti till five in the afternoon I returned to tea at the Castle where I found Lady Ragnall so cross that I went to church again, to the six o'clock service this ti back in time to dress for dinner Here I was paid out for I had to take in Mrs Atterby-Smith Oh!

what a meal was that We sat for the most part in solemn silence broken only by requests to pass the salt I observed with satisfaction, however, that things were growing lively at the other end of the table where A-Sood deal too much wine At last I heard him say,

”We had hoped to spend a few days with you, ements make this inall remarked inconsequently,

”I assure you the ten o'clock train is far the best and I have ordered the carriage at half-past nine, which is not very early”

”As your engagements make this impossible,” he repeated, ”ould ask for the opportunity of a little faht”

Here all of thenall, ”'the sooner 'tis over the sooner to sleep' Mr Quatermain, I am sure, will excuse us, will you not? I have had the yptian things there that will interest you”

”Oh, with pleasure!” I murmured, and fled away

I spent a very instructive two hours in thea couple of mummies which rather terrifiedthere in their wrappings One was that of a lady as a ”Singer of A now and what song Presently I calass case which rivetedwords: ”Two Papyri given to Lady Ragnall by the priests of the Kendah Tribe in Africa” Within were the papyri unrolled and beneath each of the documents, its translation, so far as they could be translated for they were somewhat broken No 1, which was dated, ”In the first year of Peroa,” appeared to be the official appointment of the Royal Lady Amada, to be the prophetess to the temple of Isis and Horus the Child, which was also called Amada, and situated on the east bank of the Nile above Thebes Evidently this was the sanall had written to me in her letter, where her husband had met his death by accident, a coincidence which made me start when I remembered how and where the document had come into her hands and what kind of office she filled at the time

The second papyrus, or rather its translation, contained a most comprehensive curse upon any man who ventured to interfere with the personal sanctity of this same Royal Lady of Amada, who, apparently in virtue of her office, was dooins I do not remember all the tereance of Isis the Mother, Lady of the Moon, and Horus the Child upon anyone who should dare such a desecration, and in so many words doomed him to death by violence ”far from his own country where first he had looked on Ra,” (ie the sun) and also to certain spiritual sufferings afterwards

The docuave me the idea that it was composed in troubled days to protect that particularly sacred person, the Prophetess of Isis whose cult, as I have since learned, was rising in Egypt at the tier, perhaps at the hands of son man It occurred to me even that this Princess, for evidently she was a descendant of kings, had been appointed to a most sacred office for that very purpose

Men who shrink from little will often fear to incur the direct curse of widely venerated Gods in order to obtain their desires, even if they be not their own Gods Such werewhich I regret I cannot give in full as I neglected to copy it at the tie to me that it and the other which dealt with a particular tenall's hands over two thousand years later in a distant part of Africa, and that subsequently her husband should have been killed in her presence whilst excavating the very temple to which they referred, whence too in all probability they were taken Moreover, oddly enough Lady Ragnall had herself for a while filled the role of Isis in a shrine whereof these two papyri had been part of the sacred appurtenances for unknown ages, and one of her official titles there was Prophetess and Lady of the Moon, whose syh I have always recognized that there are a great s in the world than are dreamt of in our philosophy, I say with truth and confidence that I am not a superstitious man Yet I confess that these papers and the circumstances connected with them, made me feel afraid

Also they nall Castle

Well, the Atterby-Smiths had so far effectually put a stop to any talk of suchrid of the train, as to which I was doubtful, there reht not to be hard to stave off the subject Thus I reflected, standing face to face with those er of Apainted eyes To athered in them and spread to the mouth

”That's what _you_ think,” this sht that Fate could be escaped Wait and see, my friend Wait and see!”

”Not in this room any way,” I ree which led to the main staircase

Before I reached its end a reht causedto bed _en bloc_ They reat stair, each of theht up the rear Their countenances were full of war, even the twins looked like angry la written on therievous So they vanished up the stairway and out of ain and ran straight into Lady Ragnall

If her guests had been angry, it was clear that _she_ was furious, ale, indeed Moreover, she turned and rent me

”You are a wretch,” she said, ”to run away and leavewith those horrible people Well, they will never coain, for I have told them that if they do the servants have orders to shut the door in their faces”

Not knohat to say I re in the rier than ever At any rate she whisked off without even saying ”good night” and leftthere Afterwards I learned that the A-S's had calnall that she had stolen their property and demanded that ”as an act of justice” she shouldshe possessed to them, and meanwhile furnish them with an allowance of 4,000 a year What I did not learn were the exact ter Alfred, when he called ht me a note from his mistress which I fully expected would contain a request that I should depart by the sauests Its real contents, however, were very different

”My dear Friend,” it ran, ”I aht, for which I deeply apologise If you knew all that I had gone through at the hands of those dreadful ive me--LR”