rightly-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 Oriental colour to
his costume, and went excellently with the lighter red of the tarbush.
It is hardly necessary to say that when he and the Prince went out on to
the lawn, they were, as a Society paper report of the function would
have put it, "the observed of all observers."

"I'm so glad you were able to be here in time for my little party, Lord
Leighton," said Nitocris, when she had ended the welcoming of the other
guests. "Dad will be delighted, too----"

She stopped rather suddenly, remembering that Dad would have to tell his
young friend the sad story of the mysterious loss of the Mummy; but
another subject was uppermost in her mind just then, and, taking refuge
in it, she went on quickly:

"Come along to the lawn. I want to introduce you to a very distinguished
gentleman--and his wife and daughter. No less a person, my lord, than
the great Professor Hoskins van Huysman!"

"What!" exclaimed Leighton, with a laugh that was almost boyish for such
a serious and learned young man. "_The_ Huysman: the Professor's most
doughty antagonist in the arena of symbols and theorems? Oh, now that
_is_ good!"

"Yes; I think you will find him very interesting," replied Nitocris,
hoping in her soul that he would find Brenda a great deal more
interesting. "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 favoured by the presence of another very celebrated celebrity
to-day. That tall man who came in just before you was Prince Oscar
Oscarovitch."

"Oh yes," he said lightly; "I recognised the brute."

"The brute? Dear me, that is rather severe. Then you know His Highness?"
she asked in a low, almost eager, voice.

"There are not many men in the Near or Far East who have not some cause
to know His Highness," he replied in a serious tone, tinged by the
suspicion of a sneer. "He is about the finest specimen of 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--charming to men,
and, they say, almost irresistible to women; but to his opponents and
his inferiors, a pitiless brute-beast without heart, or soul, or honour.