de of
the room. The table had images on it and queer-shaped stones, and books.
And there were glass cases fixed against the wall behind, with little
strange things in them. The cases were rather like the ones you see in
jewellers' shops.

The 'poor learned gentleman' was sitting at a table in the window,
looking at something very small which he held in a pair of fine pincers.
He had a round spy-glass sort of thing in one eye--which reminded
the children of watchmakers, and also of the long snail's eyes of the
Psammead. The gentleman was very long and thin, and his long, thin boots
stuck out under the other side of his table. He did not hear the door
open, and the children stood hesitating. At last Robert gave the door a
push, and they all started back, for in the middle of the wall that the
door had hidden was a mummy-case--very, very, very big--painted in red
and yellow and green and black, and the face of it seemed to look at
them quite angrily.

You know what a mummy-case is like, of course? If you don't you had
better go to the British Museum at once and find out. Anyway, it is not
at all the sort of thing that you expect to meet in a top-floor front
in Bloomsbury, looking as though it would like to know what business YOU
had there.

So everyone said, 'Oh!' rather loud, and their boots clattered as they
stumbled back.

The learned gentleman took the glass out of his eye and said--'I beg
your pardon,' in a very soft, quiet pleasant voice--the voice of a
gentleman who has been to Oxford.

'It's us that beg yours,' said Cyril politely. 'We are sorry to disturb
you.'

'Come in,' said the gentleman, rising--with the most distinguished
courtesy, Anthea told herself. 'I am delighted to see you. Won't you sit
down? No, not there; allow me to move that papyrus.'

He cleared a chair, and stood smiling and looking kindly through his
large, round spectacles.

'He treats us like grown-ups,' whispered Robert, 'and he doesn't seem to
know how many of us there are.'

'Hush,' said Anthea, 'it isn't manners to whisper. You say, Cyril--go
ahead.'

'We're very sorry to disturb you,' said Cyril politely, 'but we did
knock three times, and you didn't say "Come in", or "Run away now", or
that you couldn't be bothered just now, or to come when you weren't so
busy, or any of the things people do say when you knock at doors, so we
opened it. We knew you were in because we heard you sneeze while we were
waiting.'

'Not at all