Horu, that such dreams are oft-times a shadow of the truth. Know that
this Glory which shines before you is mine indeed in the land that is
both far and near, the land wherein I dwell eternally, and that what is
mine has been, is, and shall be yours for ever. Gods may change their
kingdoms and their names; men may live and die, and live again once more
to die; empires may fall and those who ruled them be turned to forgotten
dust. Yet true love endures immortal as the souls in which it was
conceived, and from it for you and me, the night of woe and separation
done, at the daybreak which draws on, there shall be born the splendour
and the peace of union. Till that hour foredoomed seek me no more,
though I be ever near you, as I have ever been. Till that most blessed
hour, Horu, farewell."

She bent towards him; her sweet lips touched his brow; the perfume
from her breath and hair beat upon him; the light of her wondrous eyes
searched out his very soul, reading the answer that was written there.

He stretched out his arms to clasp her, and lo! she was gone.



It was a very cold and a very stiff Smith who awoke on the following
morning, to find himself exactly where he had lain down--namely, on a
cement floor beneath the keel of a funeral boat in the central hall of
the Cairo Museum. He crept from his shelter shivering, and looked at
this hall, to find it quite as empty as it had been on the previous
evening. Not a sign or a token was there of Pharaoh Menes and all those
kings and queens of whom he had dreamed so vividly.

Reflecting on the strange phantasies that weariness and excited nerves