something which he certainly would like to see.

Five minutes later I groped my way into Higgs's sitting-room, which Mrs.
Reid had contented herself with indicating from a lower floor. It is a
large room, running the whole width of the house, divided into two by
an arch, where once, in the Georgian days, there had been folding doors.
The place was in shadow, except for the firelight, which shone upon a
table laid ready for dinner, and upon an extraordinary collection of
antiquities, including a couple of mummies with gold faces arranged in
their coffins against the wall. At the far end of the room, however, an
electric lamp was alight in the bow-window hanging over another table
covered with books, and by it I saw my host, whom I had not met for
twenty years, although until I vanished into the desert we frequently
corresponded, and with him the friend who had come to dinner.

First, I will describe Higgs, who, I may state, is admitted, even by his
enemies, to be one of the most learned antiquarians and greatest masters
of dead languages in Europe, though this no one would guess from his
appearance at the age of about forty-five. In build short and stout,
face round and high-coloured, hair and beard of a fiery red, eyes,
when they can be seen--for generally he wears a pair of large blue
spectacles--small and of an indefinite hue, but sharp as needles. Dress
so untidy, peculiar, and worn that it is said the police invariably
request him to move on, should he loiter in the streets at night. Such
was, and is, the outward seeming of my dearest friend, Professor Ptolemy
Higgs, and I only hope that he won't be offended when he sees it set
down in black and white.

That of his companion who was seated at the table, his chin resting on
his hand, listening to some erudite discourse with a rather distracted