ck wall. The whole tract was
dug out and manured to the depth of many feet, till it was by far the
most fertile spot in the State. The larger trees were not disturbed,
but the lesser were forced to give place to new and rare importations
from foreign countries. Gorgeous were the hosts of flowers, like banks
of sunset clouds; the lawns showed the finest turf out of England;
there was a kitchen-garden rich and big enough to feed an army of
epicures all their lives. In short, the place was a concentrated
extract of the world at large, where one might at the same moment be a
recluse and a cosmopolitan. Here might one live independent of the
world, yet sipping the cream thereof; and might persuade himself that
all beyond these seven hundred enchanted acres was but a diffused
reflection of the concrete existence between the cliff and the fence.

But to this second period succeeded finally the third,--that which
witnessed the birth and growth of the Egyptian mania. Its natal moment
has not been precisely determined; perhaps it was a gradual accretion.
Mr. Glyphic's relatives in Brooklyn were one day electrified by the
news that the quondam Henry--now Hiero--purposed instant departure for
Europe and Egypt. Before starting, however, he built the brick wall
round his estate, shutting it out forever from human eyes. Then he
vanished, and for nine years was seen no more.

His return was heralded by the arrival at the port of New York of a
mountain of freight, described in the invoice as the property of
Doctor Hiero Glyphic of New Jersey. The boxes, as they stood piled
together on the wharf, might have furnished timber sufficient to build
a town. They contained the fruits of Doctor Glyphic's antiquarian
researches.

The Doctor himself--where he picked up his learned title is
unknown--was accompanied by a slender, swarthy young factotum who
answered to the name of Manetho. He was introduced to the Brooklyn
relatives as the pupil, assistant, and adopted son of Hiero Glyphic.
The latter, physically broadened, browned, and thickened by his
travels, was intellectually the same good-natured, fussy, flighty
original as ever; shallow, enthusiastic, incoherent, energetic.

He and his adopted son shut themselves up behind the brick wall; but
it soon transpired that extensive additions were making to the old
house. Beyond this elementary fact conjecture had the field to itself.
Both architects and builders were imported from another State