encourages the vanity of monarchs, are compatible with the true meaning
of the words 'God is Love,' with the true conception of Christ's
doctrines."

"Which were Akhnaton's," Michael said. "He did all in his power to
raise the morals of his people. He was the first king to recognize the
higher rights of women, to insist on the reverence of womanhood. He
brought his queen forward on every public occasion, and that had never
been heard of before. He tried to introduce a new ideal of home-life.
He was a model father and husband. He thought of nothing but the moral
welfare of his people and of their happiness. He was willing to lose
his kingdom for the saving of their souls."

"And yet he was a bad king?" Margaret said.

"He had none of the qualities of a ruler or an empire-builder," Freddy
said.

"Damn empire-building!" Mike said. "If people would only stick to
their own natural territory and not go straying into other peoples!"

"I wonder what you'd do if Germany strayed into ours? Sit down and let
them walk over you?"

"I'd do what you'd do," Mike said, with a flash of Irish anger in his
eyes--"kill every damned one of them!"

"There you are!" Freddy said hotly.

"No, I am not," Michael said, "for, as I said, what we've got, let us
keep--England's possessions no more belong to Germany than my soul
does. But some of our wars--well!" he laughed. "Empires are built up
in rum ways, ways I don't agree with, but we won't do any good by
handing them over now to feed the vanity of the Kaiser. But the
Egyptians had enough land in Africa to expand in, there was no need for
their warrioring in strange lands."

"Let's chuck the subject," Freddy said good-naturedly, "and stick to
work. I want to get these boxes cleared out to-night and we never do
good work while we argue."

"I can't help smiling," Margaret said. "It's really too funny to think
that we've got quite cross and snappy over the character of a man who
lived more than three thousand years ago."

"Oh, we often do that," Michael said. "You should have heard about a
dozen of us quarrelling some time ago over hair-splitting theories on a
much less human subject, one belonging to pre-dynastic times!"

"I wish Aunt Anna could see us, Freddy, sitting in this funny hut in
this lonely desert valley, cleaning little objects and broken fragments
of things that were buried three thousand years ago and fighting over a
mummy, as she would say!"

Margaret