Gods, and the sunlight comes to it in the daytime by an opening cut
through the stones of the massy roof. But at night it was lit by a
swinging lamp of bronze. I passed in without noise, for the door was
not altogether shut, and, pushing my way through the heavy curtains that
were beyond, I stood with a beating heart within the chamber.

The lamp was lit, for the darkness had fallen, and by its light I saw
the old man seated in a chair of ivory and ebony at a table of stone on
which were spread mystic writings of the words of Life and Death. But
he read no more, for he slept, and his long white beard rested upon the
table like the beard of a dead man. The soft light from the lamp fell
on him, on the papyri and the gold ring upon his hand, where were graven
the symbols of the Invisible One, but all around was shadow. It fell on
the shaven head, on the white robe, on the cedar staff of priesthood
at his side, and on the ivory of the lion-footed chair; it showed
the mighty brow of power, the features cut in kingly mould, the white
eyebrows, and the dark hollows of the deep-set eyes. I looked and
trembled, for there was about him that which was more than the dignity
of man. He had lived so long with the Gods, and so long kept company
with them and with thoughts divine, he was so deeply versed in all those
mysteries which we do but faintly discern, here in this upper air, that
even now, before his time, he partook of the nature of the Osiris, and
was a thing to shake humanity with fear.

I stood and gazed, and as I stood he opened his dark eyes, but looked
not on me, nor turned his head; and yet he saw me and spoke.

"Why hast thou been disobedient to me, my son?" he said. "How came it
that thou wentest forth against the lion when I bade thee not?"