new friends.
She had made some experiments in riding upon a donkey, and found she was
seldom thrown, and could not be hurt by the slight fall.

And so, one day, Mrs. Peterkin sat alone in front of the Sphinx,--alone,
as far as her own family and friends were concerned, and yet not alone
indeed. A large crowd of guides sat around this strange lady who
proposed to spend the day in front of the Sphinx. Clad in long white
robes, with white turbans crowning their dark faces, they gazed into her
eyes with something of the questioning expression with which she herself
was looking into the eyes of the Sphinx.

There were other travellers wandering about. Just now her own party had
collected to eat their lunch together; but they were scattered again,
and she sat with a circle of Arabs about her, the watchful dragoman
lingering near.

Somehow the Eastern languor must have stolen upon her, or she could not
have sat so calmly, not knowing where a single member of her family was
at that moment. And she had dreaded Egypt so; had feared separation; had
even been a little afraid of the Sphinx, upon which she was now looking
as at a protecting angel. But they all were to meet at the Sphinx!

If only she could have seen where the different members of the family
were at that moment, she could not have sat so quietly. She little knew
that a tall form, not far away (following some guides down into the
lower halls of a lately excavated temple), with a blue veil wrapped
about a face shielded with smoke-colored spectacles, was that of
Elizabeth Eliza herself, from whom she had been separated two weeks
before.

She little knew that at this moment Solomon John was standing looking
over the edge of the Matterhorn, wishing he had not come up so high. But
such a gay young party had set off that morning from the hotel that he
had supposed it an easy thing to join them; and now he would fain go
back, but was tied to the rest of his party with their guide preceding
them, and he must keep on and crawl up behind them, still farther, on
hands and knees.

Agamemnon was at Mycenae, looking down into an open pit.

Two of the little boys were roasting eggs in the crater of Mount
Vesuvius.

And she would have seen Mr. Peterkin comfortably reclining in a gondola,
with one of the little boys, in front of the palaces of Venice.

But none of this she saw; she only looked into the eyes of the Sphinx.

VII.

MRS. PETERKIN FAINTS ON THE GREAT PY