“Is not our Babylon well called ‘_the lady of kingdoms_’?” whispered Salome. “It shall endure for ever, and in ages to come men will travel hither to see its glories, and to gaze upon this our Hanging Garden—one of the Wonders of the World.” Rachel turned to look at the grave little girl who spoke like a woman, yet was perhaps no older than herself. For a moment she saw her great dark mournful eyes, and then, the whole scene, the garden, the great city below with its towers and palaces, disappeared. For yet another moment she saw the dreary desert, the three great mounds of earth under the blue sky, and almost at the same instant, she was walking in a gallery lined with cases, containing stones, bricks, and various other dull-coloured objects.... “These don’t look much like the letters the postman brings every morning, do they?” Mr. Sheston was saying. “Yet they are the sort of letters the Babylonians wrote to one another. These marks on the bricks were made with a metal stick, when the clay was still moist and soft, and then the tablet was baked, so that the writing should last practically for ever.” “I know!” cried Rachel. “The queen had a letter from the king Nebuchadnezzar, and it was in a sort of clay envelope. And she read it out, and—” But Mr. Sheston only smiled, and went on telling her about the “brick letters” hundreds of which had already been discovered in the ruins that cover Babylon! It was a curious smile, and in some way it told Rachel that she must not talk much to Mr. Sheston about Sheshà—even though they were one and the same person.... “Why, even the beginnings of their names are alike!” she thought, suddenly. “Yes, the Babylonians were wonderful people,” the old man exclaimed. “They were astronomers as well as sculptors and metal workers, you know. They built high towers from which they studied the stars. You may imagine what a splendid view of the sky they would have from these towers rising out of a flat country into air so absolutely clear that the stars look enormously big and bright.” “And they told fortunes by the stars, didn’t they?” Rachel asked, remembering the king’s letter. “Yes, they were _astrologers_, too—that is they believed that certain planets had an effect on people’s lives. But, putting that on one side, we have to thank them for the beginning of all the marvellous discoveries that later astronomers have made.... Well, now, my dear,” he went on, presently, just like any other kind old gentleman, “I’m sure you’re ready for tea and buns.” Rachel was quite ready, and she also quite understood that “Mr. Sheston” and “Sheshà” wished to have very little to do with one another. So she only said, when, half an hour later, the old man left her at Aunt Hester’s door: