pyri and that
beautiful bust of Berenice, the one in black marble. Did you ever see
such hair?"

Arthur thought to himself that he had at that moment some not far from
his heart that must be quite as beautiful, but he did not say so.

"Look, there are some curious things;" and she opened an air-tight
case that contained some discoloured grains and a few lumps of
shrivelled substance.

"What are they?"

"This is wheat taken from the inside of a mummy, and those are
supposed to be hyacinth bulbs. They came from the mummy-case of that
baby prince, and I have been told that they would still grow if
planted."

"I can scarcely believe that: the principle of life must be extinct."

"Wise people, say, you know, that the principle of life can never
become extinct in anything that has once lived, though it may change
its form; but I do not pretend to understand these things. However, we
will settle the question, for we will plant one, and, if it grows, I
will give the flower to you. Choose one."

Arthur took the biggest lump from the case, and examined it curiously.

"I have not much faith in your hyacinth; I am sure that it is dead."

"Ah! but many things that seem more dead than that have the strangest
way of suddenly breaking into life," she said, with a little sigh.
"Give it to me; I will have it planted;" and then, with a quick glance
upward, "I wonder if you will be here to see it bloom."

"I don't think that either of us will see it bloom in this world," he
answered, laughing, and took his leave.

CHAPTER XXXV

Had Arthur been a little less wrapped up in thoughts of Angela, and a
little more alive to the fact that, being engaged or even married to
one woman, does not necessarily prevent complications arising with
another, it might have occurred to him to doubt the prudence of the
course of life that he was pursuing at Madeira. And, as it is, it is
impossible to acquit him of showing a want of knowledge of the world
amounting almost to folly, for he should have known upon general
principles that, for a man in his position, a grizzly bear would have
been a safer daily companion than a young and lovely widow, and the
North Pole a more suitable place of residence than Madeira. But he
simply did not think about the matter, and, as thin ice has a
treacherous way of not cracking till it suddenly breaks, so outward
appearances gave him no indication of his danger.

And yet the fact