sed, and might
not be opened to any one, not even to her.

For a moment she felt a certain satisfaction in this flattering
reflection, but as she thought again of Irene her resolve was once more
confirmed, and going closer up to the gate-keeper she said with great
determination:

"Open the gate to me without delay; you know that I am not accustomed
to do or to desire anything wrong. I beg of you to push back the bolt at
once."

The man to whom Klea had done many kindnesses, and whom Imhotep had that
very day told that she was the good spirit of his house, and that he
ought to venerate her as a divinity--obeyed her orders, though with some
doubt and hesitation. The heavy bolt flew back, the brazen gate opened,
the water-bearer stepped out, flung a dark veil over her head, and set
out on her walk.

CHAPTER XVII.

A paved road, with a row of Sphinxes on each side, led from the Greek
temple of Serapis to the rock-hewn tombs of Apis, and the temples and
chapels built over them, and near them; in these the Apis bull after its
death--or "in Osiris" as the phrase went--was worshipped, while, so long
as it lived, it was taken care of and prayed to in the temple to which
it belonged, that of the god Ptah at Memphis. After death these sacred
bulls, which were distinguished by peculiar marks, had extraordinarily
costly obsequies; they were called the risen Ptah, and regarded as the
symbol of the soul of Osiris, by whose procreative power all that dies
or passes away is brought to new birth and new life--the departed soul
of man, the plant that has perished, and the heavenly bodies that have
set. Osiris-Sokari, who was worshipped as the companion of Osiris,
presided over the wanderings which had to be performed by the seemingly
extinct spirit before its resuscitation as another being in a new form;
and Egyptian priests governed in the temples of these gods, which were
purely Egyptian in style, and which had been built at a very early date
over the tomb-cave of the sacred bulls. And even the Greek ministers of
Serapis, settled at Memphis, were ready to follow the example of their
rulers and to sacrifice to Osiris-Apis, who was closely allied to
Serapis--not only in name but in his essential attributes. Serapis
himself indeed was a divinity introduced from Asia into the Nile
valley by the Ptolemies, in order to supply to their Greek and Egyptian
subjects alike an object of adoration, before whose altars they could
unite i