. The ghastly events of the evening were for the moment blotted
from his memory. After all, he was a palaeographer--an archaeologist
first, a murderer afterwards. Eagerly, painfully, he began to read,
adjusting his spectacles from time to time, the muscles of his face
twitching with anxiety and expectation. For a long time the words were
strange to him. Suddenly his glasses became dim. There were tears in
his eyes; he was reading aloud, unconsciously to himself, the beautiful
verses familiar to all students of Greek poetry:--

[Greek verse]

and to students of English, in the marvellous, rendering of them by the
late Mr. Rossetti:

'Like the sweet apple which reddens upon the topmost bough,
A-top on the topmost twig,--which the pluckers forgot, somehow,--
Forgot it not, nay, but got it not, for none could get it till now.'

The papyrus was of great length, and contained the poems of Sappho in a
cursive literary handwriting of the third century--the real poems, lost
to the world for over eight hundred years. It was morning now--a London
spring morning; dawn was creeping through the great north-east light of
the studio; birds were twittering outside. The murderer sobbed
hysterically.

* * * * *

On referring to 'Euterpe,' the second book of the Histories of Herodotus,
Professor Lachsyrma selected the second method of embalming as less
troublesome and more expeditious. The whole matter lasted little longer
than the seventy prescribed days. At the end of which time he was able,
in accordance with his original intention, to deposit in a handsome glass
case at the British Museum the Mummy of Heliodorus, a Greek settler in
Egypt who held some official appointment at the Court of Ptolemy
Philadelphus. It is described in the catalogue as one of the best
examples of its kind in Europe. Indeed, it is probably unique.

Professor Lachsyrma often pauses before the case when visiting our gaunt
House of Art. Even the policeman on duty has noticed this peculiarity,
and smiles respectfully. The Professor has ceased to ridicule
Egyptology; and his confidence in the resources and sufficiency of
antiquity, so rudely shaken for one long evening, is completely
re-established.

_To_ S. S. SPRIGGE, ESQ., M.D.

THE BRAND OF ISIS.

'Videant irreligiosi videant et errorem suum recognoscant. En ecce
pristinis aerumnis absolutus, Isidis magnae providentia gaudens Lucius
de sua fortuna triumpha