m.

"Silence is fittest," corroborated a second voice.

"Thomas Hardy once said, speaking of the heavens," said the first
voice again, "'There is a size at which dignity begins; farther on
there is a size at which grandeur begins; farther on there is a size
at which solemnity begins; farther on a size at which awfulness
begins; farther on a size at which ghastliness begins.' Surely that
was written unknowingly for this temple of Karnak?"

A fluttering murmur from the group confirmed this thought.

"Nice little speech," said Falconer in an undertone.

The second voice was raised a trifle resentfully. "Yet was not the
very pith of it spoken by Ruskin when he stood upon this identical
spot? His words were these, 'At last size tells!'"

Another murmur agreed that it was indeed the pith.

"That's Clara Eversham," said Arlee under her breath. "They came
over early with some people from the boat."

"She must be frightfully up on the guide books," muttered Falconer.

"She's a _miner_ in them," Arlee laughed, as they made their way
over the rubbishy ground where great beams of stone and fallen
statues lay half-buried in the sands.

"They must be very glad to have you back again with them," Falconer
told her, trying hard to keep their progress ahead of the others.

"Oh, I don't know!" Honest dubiety spoke in Arlee's tone. "They
have mentioned twice how convenient it was to use my stateroom!"

"They felt very badly when you ran away from them in Cairo."

"I was shockingly sudden about that," owned the girl lightly, "but
the chance came--Are we going to climb the great pylon now?"

"It will be a jolly high place to see the moon rise."

       *       *       *       *       *

It _was_ a jolly high place to see the moon rise, and to see all
Karnak, and all Luxor, with its high Moslem minaret towering over
its crumbling columns, and to see the dark and distant country with
its tiny hamlets crouching under humbler mosques and lonely palms,
and on the other side the wide and winding Nile with the shadowy
cliffs of Thebes beyond