le chains--the estimable rector
of the parish. He has got there just in time; it was, indeed, a close
shave. But no trace of haste or of anything else of a disturbing
character is now visible upon his smooth, glistening, somewhat feverish
face. That face is wholly occupied by his official smile, a thing of oil
and honey all compact, a balmy, unctuous illumination--the secret of his
success in life. Slowly his cheeks puff out, gleaming like soap-bubbles.
Slowly he lifts his prayer-book from the prie-dieu and holds it
droopingly. Slowly his soft caressing eyes engage it. There is an almost
imperceptible stiffening of his frame. His mouth opens with a faint
click. He begins to read.

The Ceremony of Marriage has begun._

_IV.--THE VISIONARY_

_IV.--The Visionary_

"Yes," said Cheops, helping his guest over a ticklish place, "I daresay
this pile of rocks will last. It has cost me a pretty penny, believe me.
I made up my mind at the start that it would be built of honest stone,
or not at all. No cheap and shoddy brickwork for _me_! Look at Babylon.
It's all brick, and it's always tumbling down. My ambassador there tells
me that it costs a million a year to keep up the walls alone--mind you,
the walls alone! What must it cost to keep up the palace, with all that
fancy work!

"Yes, I grant you that brickwork _looks_ good. But what of it? So does a
cheap cotton night-shirt--you know the gaudy things those Theban
peddlers sell to my sand-hogs down on the river bank. But does it
_last_? Of course it doesn't. Well, I am putting up this pyramid to
_stay_ put, and I don't give a damn for its looks. I hear all sorts of
funny cracks about it. My barber is a sharp nigger and keeps his ears
open: he brings me all the gossip. But I let it go. This is _my_
pyramid. I am putting up the money for it, and I have got to be mortared
up in it when I die. So I am trying to make a good, substantial job of
it, and letting the mere beauty of it go hang.

"Anyhow, there are plenty of uglier things in Egypt. Look at some of
those fifth-rate pyramids up the river. When it comes to shape they are
pretty much the same as this one, and when it comes to size, they look
like warts beside it. And look at the Sphinx. There is something that
cost four millions if it cost a copper--and what is it now? A burlesque!
A caricature! An architectural cripple! So long as it was _new_, good
enough! It was a showy piece of work. People came all the way f