boy."

At this moment Smith's interest in that queer conversation died away,
for of a sudden he beheld none other than the queen of his dreams,
Ma-Mee. Oh! there she stood, without a doubt, only ten times more
beautiful than he had ever pictured her. She was tall and somewhat
fair-complexioned, with slumbrous, dark eyes, and on her face gleamed
the mystic smile he loved. She wore a robe of simple white and a
purple-broidered apron, a crown of golden _uraei_ with turquoise eyes
was set upon her dark hair as in her statue, and on her breast and arms
were the very necklace and bracelets that he had taken from her tomb.
She appeared to be somewhat moody, or rather thoughtful, for she leaned
by herself against a balustrade, watching the throng without much
interest.

Presently a Pharaoh, a black-browed, vigorous man with thick lips, drew
near.

"I greet your Majesty," he said.

She started, and answered: "Oh, it is you! I make my obeisance to your
Majesty," and she curtsied to him, humbly enough, but with a suggestion
of mockery in her movements.

"Well, you do not seem to have been very anxious to find me, Ma-Mee,
which, considering that we meet so seldom----"

"I saw that your Majesty was engaged with my sister queens," she
interrupted, in a rich, low voice, "and with some other ladies in the
gallery there, whose faces I seem to remember, but who I think were
_not_ queens. Unless, indeed, you married them after I was drawn away."

"One must talk to one's relations," replied the Pharaoh.

"Quite so. But, you see, I have no relations--at least, none whom I know
well. My parents, you will remember, died when I was young, leaving me
Egypt's heiress, and they are still vexed at the marriage which I made
on the advice of my counsellors. But, is it not annoying? I have lost
one of my rings, that which had the god Bes on it. Some dweller on the
earth must be wearing it to-day, and that is why I cannot get it back
from him."

"Him! Why 'him'? Hush; the business is about to begin."

"What business, my lord?"

"Oh, the question of the violation of our tombs, I believe."

"Indeed! That is a large subject, and not a very profitable one, I
should say. Tell me, who is that?" And she pointed to a lady who had
stepped forward, a very splendid person, magnificently arrayed.

"Cleopatra the Greek," he answered, "the last of Egypt's Sovereigns, one
of the Ptolemys. You can always know her by that Roman who walks about
after