equanimity and gave him an unpleasant thrill.

"You are enjoying a moonlight stroll, Doctor?" she inquired.

Her veil was now cast aside in a careless fold of soft drapery
over her shoulders, and her face in its ethereal delicacy of
feature and brilliant coloring looked almost too beautiful to be
human. Dr. Dean did not reply for a moment; he was thinking what a
singular resemblance there was between Armand Gervase and one of
the figures on a certain Egyptian fresco in the British Museum.

"Enjoying--er--er--a what?--a moonlight stroll? Exactly--er--yes!
Pardon me, Princess, my mind often wanders, and I am afraid I am
getting a little deaf as well. Yes, I find the night singularly
conducive to meditation; one cannot be in a land like this under a
sky like this"--and he pointed to the shining heaven--"without
recalling the great histories of the past."

"I daresay they were very much like the histories of the present,"
said Gervase smiling.

"I should doubt that. History is what man makes it; and the
character of man in the early days of civilization was, I think,
more forceful, more earnest, more strong of purpose, more bent on
great achievements."

"The principal achievement and glory being to kill as many of
one's fellow-creatures as possible!" laughed Gervase--"Like the
famous warrior, Araxes, of whom the Princess has just been telling
me!"