hesitation, he walked to the
door,--which stood ajar,--purposing to call in the aid of bell and
knocker. Neither of these civilized appliances was to be found. While
debating whether to use his voice or to enter and use his eyes, the
note of the hoopoe fell on his ear. An instant after came an answering
note, deeper, sweeter, and stronger,--it thrilled to Balder's heart,
bringing to his mind, by some subtile process, the goddess of the
cliff.

He crossed the oak-panelled hall (where the essence of mediaeval
England lingered) and came to the threshold of the conservatory. It
was a scene confusedly beautiful. The air, as it touched his face, was
tropically warm and indolent with voluptuous fragrance of flowers and
plants. Luxuriant shrubs, with broad-drooping leaves, stood
motionless in the heat. Two palm-trees uplifted their heavy plumes
forty feet aloft, on slender stalks, brushing the high glass roof. In
the midst of the conservatory a pool slumbered between rocky margins,
overgrown with a profusion of reeds, grasses, and water-plants. There
floated the giant leaves and blossoms of the tropic water-lily; and on
a fragment of rock rising above the surface dozed a small crocodile,
not more than four feet long, but looking as old, dried up, and coldly
cruel as sin itself!

The place looked like an Indian jungle, and Balder half expected to
see the glancing spits of a tiger crouching beneath the overarching
leaves; or a naked savage with bow and arrows. But amid all this
vegetable luxuriance appeared no human being,--no animal save the evil
crocodile. Whence, then, that melodious voice,--clear essence of
nature's sweetest utterances?

At the left of the conservatory was a door, the entrance to the
Egyptian temple. It was square and heavy-browed, flanked by short
thick columns rising from a base of sculptured papyrus-leaves, and
flowering in lotus capitals. Three marble steps led to the threshold,
while on either side reclined a sphinx in polished granite, softened,
however, by a delicate flowering vine, which had been trained to cling
round their necks. On the deep panels of the door were mystic emblems
carved in relief. A line of hieroglyphics inscribed the lintel in deep
blue, red, and black,--to what purport Balder could not divine.

At the opposite side of the conservatory was a corresponding door,
veiled by an ample fold of silken tapestry, cunningly hand-worked in
representation of a moon half veiled in clouds,