the
safe the master key which debarred her wish. For years I have
suspected, nay, have believed as much; and I, too, guarded myself
against powers of the Nether World. I, too, waited in patience till I
should have gathered together all the factors required for the opening
of the Magic Coffer and the resurrection of the mummied Queen!" He
paused, and his daughter's voice came out sweet and clear, and full of
intense feeling:

"Father, in the Egyptian belief, was the power of resurrection of a
mummied body a general one, or was it limited? That is: could it
achieve resurrection many times in the course of ages; or only once,
and that one final?"

"There was but one resurrection," he answered. "There were some who
believed that this was to be a definite resurrection of the body into
the real world. But in the common belief, the Spirit found joy in the
Elysian Fields, where there was plenty of food and no fear of famine.
Where there was moisture and deep-rooted reeds, and all the joys that
are to be expected by the people of an arid land and burning clime."

Then Margaret spoke with an earnestness which showed the conviction of
her inmost soul:

"To me, then, it is given to understand what was the dream of this
great and far-thinking and high-souled lady of old; the dream that held
her soul in patient waiting for its realisation through the passing of
all those tens of centuries. The dream of a love that might be; a love
that she felt she might, even under new conditions, herself evoke. The
love that is the dream of every woman's life; of the Old and of the
New; Pagan or Christian; under whatever sun; in whatever rank or
calling; however may have been the joy or pain of her life in other
ways. Oh! I know it! I know it! I am a woman, and I know a woman's
heart. What were the lack of food or the plenitude of it; what were
feast or famine to this woman, born in a palace, with the shadow of the
Crown of the Two Egypts on her brows! What were reedy morasses or the
tinkle of running water to her whose barges could sweep the great Nile
from the mountains to the sea. What were petty joys and absence of
petty fears to her, the raising of whose hand could hurl armies, or
draw to the water-stairs of her palaces the commerce of the world! At
whose word rose temples filled with all the artistic beauty of the
Times of Old which it was her aim and pleasure to restore! Under whose
guidance the solid rock yawned into