retary, on the farther side of the torrent of boiling amber sunshine
pouring through a central opening in the roof of the inner hall that
succeeded the vestibule of the mosaic Cerberus. An atrium some forty feet
in length, paved with squares of black and yellow marble with an oblong
pool in the midst of it, upon whose still crystal surface pink and crimson
petals of roses had been strewn in patterns, and in the centre of which a
triple-jetted fountain played.

"The humming of the unseen bees came louder than ever, from a doorway in
the wall upon Katharine's right hand, a wall of black polished marble,
decorated with an inlaid ornament in porphyry of yellow and red and pale
green. The curtain of dyed and threaded reeds did not hide what lay beyond
the doorway. You saw a long, high-pitched whitewashed room, cooled by big
wooden electric fans working under the ceiling, and traversed by avenues
of creamy-white Chinese matting, running between rows of low native desks,
before each of which squatted, on naked or cotton-sock-covered heels, or
sat cross-legged upon a square native chintz cushion, a coffee-coloured,
almond-eyed young Copt, in a black or blue cotton nightgown, topped with
the tarbush of black felt or a dingy-white or olive-brown muslin turban,
murmuring softly to himself as he made entries, from right to left, in a
huge limp-covered ledger, or deftly fingered the balls of coloured clay
strung on the wires of the abacus at his side.

"Oh! ... Wonderful! I'm so Glad you Brought me!'

"Lady Wastwood's emphatic exclamation of pleasure in her surroundings
brought cessation in the humming--caused a swivelling of capped or
turbanned heads all down the length of three avenues--evoked a
simultaneous flash of black Oriental eyes, and white teeth in dusky faces
lifted or turned. Then at the upper end of the long counting-house, where
three wide glassless windows looked on a sanded palm-garden, and the
leather-topped knee-hole tables, roll-top desks, copying ink presses,
mahogany revolving-chairs, telephone installations, willow-paper baskets,
pewter inkstands and Post Office Directories suggested Cornhill and
Cheapside rather than the Orient--one of the olive-faced Jewish
head-clerks in kaftans and side-curls coughed--and as though he had pulled
a string controlling all the observant faces, every tooth was hidden and
every eye discreetly bent on the big limp ledgers again.

"All the Coptic bees were humming sonorously in