"No, no, don't interrupt me, for goodness' sake. It's too serious. It is really. We've had something like a tragedy here in the last few days, and things seem to have been, as you would say, a good deal mixed up ever since. I don't understand it a bit; but they have been." "But, my dear Niti, what on earth can you have to say to Lord Leighton about a--a female mummy? What possible interest can a five-thousand-year-old corpse have for him?" "Don't, Brenda, don't--at least not just now! Wait till I've told you, and then you'll see," said Nitocris, pressing her arm closer to her side. "Lord Leighton is, as I think you know, an enthusiastic student of Egyptian antiquities. He was also, or thought he was, in love with my unworthy self. He found this mummy in a royal tomb at Memphis. He--well, I suppose, stole it--of course under the usual licence from the Khedive--and sent it home to Dad. Now comes the mystery. That was the mummy of Nitocris, the daughter of the great Rameses, and it was the dead image of my living self." "Oh, but, Niti--what do you mean?" "I don't know, Brenda. I wish I did. All I do know is that it was stolen that very night out of Dad's study in the Old Wing, and that I've got to tell Lord Leighton all about it. I'm sure Dad could have told him much better, only somehow he seems afraid." "Oh, is that all--just the stealing of what was perhaps a very valuable relic? They try to steal much fresher corpses than that in the States if there are dollars in the business." "Don't be brutal, Brenda! I know you don't mean it, and it isn't like you. Now, listen. Before he went to Egypt this time Lord Leighton asked me to marry him. I said 'No,' and for two reasons. I knew that he liked me very much--he always has done--and poor Dad took his liking for love and encouraged him: but I'm a woman and, I know, that liking isn't love--and then I love some one else. And now he, I mean Lord Leighton--loves some one else. Turn your face to the moon. Yes, you know who the some one else is. I'm so glad, for I do think you----" "Niti, you're talking arrant nonsense for an educated young woman. I've only known His Lordship for a day, and how can you----" "Because female Bachelors of Science and graduates of Vassar, whatever stupid people may say, have hearts _as_ well as intellects, dear, and so they know. I seem to have had a kind of sixth sense given to me to-day, and, when you met Lord Leighton, I saw it, and I believe you _felt_ it. I saw your eyes brighten and your face flush--only a little, but it did, and so did his. You know my belief in the Doctrine. You may have been lovers--perhaps wedded lovers--once upon a time, as they say in the fairy tales." "How awful--no, I mean how wonderful--if it could only be true! And now, as you've told me all this, you might as well tell me who your some one else is." "Really, Brenda, I thought you had more perception. He's there on the verandah smoking with your Lord Leighton."