vent intimate of the Princess and her paid companion,
completed the small party.

Dinner was served at a round table, and Paul found himself between Lady
Angela Doon, whom he took in, and the Countess Lavretsky. Talk was
general and amusing. As Doon did not make, and apparently did not
expect anyone to make any reference to King Qa or Amenhotep or
Rameses--names vaguely floating in Paul's brain--but talked in a
sprightly way about the French stage and the beauty of Norwegian
fiords, Paul perceived that the Princess's alleged reason for her
invitation was but a shallow pretext. Doon did not need any
entertainment at all. Lady Angela, however, spoke of her dismay at the
prospect of another winter in the desert; and drew a graphic little
sketch of the personal discomforts to which Egyptologists were
subjected.

"I always thought Egyptologists and suchlike learned folk were stuffy
and snuffy with goggles and ragged old beards," laughed Paul. "Your
husband is a revelation."

"Yes, he's quite human, isn't he?" she said with an affectionate glance
across the table. "He's dead keen on his work, but he realizes--as many
of his stuffy and snuffy confreres don't--that there's a jolly,
vibrating, fascinating, modern world in which one lives."

"I'm glad to hear you say that about the modern world," said Paul.

"What is Lady Angela saying about the modern world?" asked the
Princess, separated from Paul's partner only by Count Lavretsky.

"Singing paeans in praise of it," said Paul.

"What is there in it so much to rejoice at?" asked the diplomatist, in
a harsh voice. He was a man prematurely old, and looked at the world
from beneath heavy, lizard-like eyelids.

"Not only is it the best world we've got, but it's the best world we've
ever had," cried Paul. "I don't know any historical world which would
equal the modern, and as for the prehistoric--well, Professor Doon can
tell us--"

"As a sphere of amenable existence," said Doon with a smile, "give me
Chetwood Park and Piccadilly."

"That is mere hedonism," said Count Lavretsky. "You happen, like us all
here, to command the creature comforts of modern wealthy conditions,
which I grant are exceedingly superior to those commanded by the great
Emperors of ancient times. But we are in a small minority. And even if
we were not--is that all?"

"We have a finer appreciation of our individualities," said the
Princess. "We lead a wider intellectual life. We are in instant touch,