baster, destined to
support the neck without deranging the head-dress, was hollowed out in
the shape of a half moon. In the centre a table of precious wood carved
with exceeding care, stood upon a richly carved pedestal. A number of
objects were placed upon it: a pot of lotus flowers, a mirror of
polished bronze on an ivory stand, a vase of moss agate filled with
antimony powder, a perfume spatula of sycamore wood in the shape of a
woman bare to the waist stretching out as if she were swimming, and
appearing to attempt to hold her box above the water.

Near the table, on an armchair of gilded wood picked out with red, with
blue feet, and with lions for arms, covered with a thick cushion of
purple stuff starred with gold and crossed with black, the end of which
fell over the back, was seated a young woman, or rather, a young girl of
marvellous beauty, in a graceful attitude of nonchalance and melancholy.

Her features, of ideal delicacy, were of the purest Egyptian type, and
sculptors must have often thought of her as they carved the images of
Isis and Hathor, even at the risk of breaking the rigorous hieratic
laws. Golden and rosy reflections coloured her warm pallor, in which
showed her long black eyes, made to appear larger by lines of antimony,
and full of a languorous, inexpressible sadness. Those great dark eyes,
with the eyebrows strongly marked and the eyelids coloured, gave a
strange expression to the dainty, almost childish face. The half-parted
lips, somewhat thick, of the colour of a pomegranate flower, showed a
gleam of polished white and preserved the involuntary and almost painful
smile which imparts so sympathetic a charm to the Egyptian face. The
nose, slightly depressed at the root, where the eyebrows melted one into
another in a velvety shadow, rose in such pure lines, such delicate
outlines, and with such well-cut nostrils that any woman or goddess
would have been satisfied with it in spite of its slightly African
profile. The chin was rounded with marvellous elegance and shone like
polished ivory. The cheeks, rather rounder than those of the beauties of
other nations, added to the face an expression of extreme sweetness and
gracefulness.

This lovely girl wore for head-dress a sort of helmet formed of a Guinea
fowl, the half-closed wings of which fell upon her temples, and the
pretty, small head of which came down to the centre of her brow, while
the tail, marked with white spots, spread out on the