e it,--she never had even tried to. But Agamemnon reminded her that
those in their own house were very high,--"old colonial;" and meanwhile
she found herself carried along with the rest of the party.

At first the ascent was delightful to her. It seemed as if she were
flying. The powerful Nubian guides, one on each side, lifted her
jauntily up, without her being conscious of motion. Having seen them
daily for some time past, she was now not much afraid of these handsome
athletes, with their polished black skins, set off by dazzling white
garments. She called out to Agamemnon, who had preceded her, that it was
charming; she was not at all afraid. Every now and then she stopped to
rest on the broad cornice made by each retreating step. Suddenly, when
she was about half-way up, as she leaned back against the step above,
she found herself panting and exhausted. A strange faintness came over
her. She was looking off over a beautiful scene: through the wide Libyan
desert the blue Nile wound between borders of green edging, while the
picturesque minarets of Cairo, on the opposite side of the river, and
the sand in the distance beyond, gleamed with a red and yellow light
beneath the rays of the noonday sun.

But the picture danced and wavered before her dizzy sight. She sat
there alone; for Agamemnon and the rest had passed on, thinking she was
stopping to rest. She seemed deserted, save by the speechless black
statues, one on either side, who, as she seemed to be fainting before
their eyes, were looking at her in some anxiety. She saw dimly these
wild men gazing at her. She thought of Mungo Park, dying with the
African women singing about him. How little she had ever dreamed, when
she read that account in her youth, and gazed at the savage African
faces in the picture, that she might be left to die in the same way
alone, in a strange land--and on the side of a pyramid! Her guides were
kindly. One of them took her shawl to wrap about her, as she seemed to
be shivering; and as a party coming down from the top had a jar of
water, one of her Nubians moistened a handkerchief with water and laid
it upon her head. Mrs. Peterkin had closed her eyes, but she opened them
again, to see the black figures in their white draperies still standing
by her. The travellers coming down paused a few minutes to wonder and
give counsel, then passed on, to make way for another party following
them. Again Mrs. Peterkin closed her eyes, but once more o