It is one of the most
beautiful things that ever was found. Well, I must be off. Good day."
And he bustled down the long gallery.
Smith found his way upstairs and looked at mummies and other things.
Somehow it hurt him to reflect that the owner of yonder sweet, alluring
face must have become a mummy long, long before the Christian era.
Mummies did not strike him as attractive.
He returned to the statuary and stared at his plaster cast till one of
the workmen remarked to his fellow that if he were the gent he'd go and
look at "a live'un" for a change.
Then Smith retired abashed.
On his way home he called at his bookseller's and ordered "all the
best works on Egyptology". When, a day or two later, they arrived in
a packing-case, together with a bill for thirty-eight pounds, he was
somewhat dismayed. Still, he tackled those books like a man, and, being
clever and industrious, within three months had a fair working knowledge
of the subject, and had even picked up a smattering of hieroglyphics.
In January--that was, at the end of those three months--Smith astonished
his Board of Directors by applying for ten weeks' leave, he who had
hitherto been content with a fortnight in the year. When questioned he
explained that he had been suffering from bronchitis, and was advised to
take a change in Egypt.
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