he forget the face which that carven mask portrayed. Perhaps it was not
really beautiful save for its wondrous and mystic smile; perhaps the
lips were too thick and the nostrils too broad. Yet to him that face
was Beauty itself, beauty which drew him as with a cart-rope, and awoke
within him all kinds of wonderful imaginings, some of them so strange
and tender that almost they partook of the nature of memories. He stared
at the image, and the image smiled back sweetly at him, as doubtless it,
or rather its original--for this was but a plaster cast--had smiled at
nothingness in some tomb or hiding-hole for over thirty centuries, and
as the woman whose likeness it was had once smiled upon the world.

A short, stout gentleman bustled up and, in tones of authority,
addressed some workmen who were arranging a base for a neighbouring
statue. It occurred to Smith that he must be someone who knew about
these objects. Overcoming his natural diffidence with an effort, he
raised his hat and asked the gentleman if he could tell him who was the
original of the mask.

The official--who, in fact, was a very great man in the Museum--glanced
at Smith shrewdly, and, seeing that his interest was genuine, answered--

"I don't know. Nobody knows. She has been given several names, but none
of them have authority. Perhaps one day the rest of the statue may
be found, and then we shall learn--that is, if it is inscribed. Most
likely, however, it has been burnt for lime long ago."

"Then you can't tell me anything about her?" said Smith.

"Well, only a little. To begin with, that's a cast. The original is in
the Cairo Museum. Mariette found it, I believe at Karnac, and gave it
a name after his fashion. Probably she was a queen--of the eighteenth
dynasty, by the work. But you can see her rank for yourself from the
broken _uraeus_." (Smith did not stop him to explain that he had not
the faintest idea what a _uraeus_ might be, seeing that he was utterly
unfamiliar with the snake-headed crest of Egyptian royalty.) "You should
go to Egypt and study the head for yourself. It is one of the most
beautiful things that ever was found. Well, I must be off. Good day."

And he bustled down the long gallery.

Smith found his way upstairs and looked at mummies and other things.
Somehow it hurt him to reflect that the owner of yonder sweet, alluring
face must have become a mummy long, long before the Christian era.
Mummies did not strike him as attractiv