“I wonder what you’d do if I took you up,” laughed Lucile, as Jack hurried her off in the direction of the Egyptian section. “Egypt is a long way from here, you know.”
“I came to Europe for you; Egypt isn’t so much further,” he teased.
A few minutes later Lucile and her friends were standing before the glass cases containing the swathed forms of some of Egypt’s ancient rulers, encased in their vividly painted coffins.
They could not wonder enough at the miracle that had been wrought—the bodies of men who had ruled mighty Egypt four thousand years ago still in existence for twentieth-century moderns to marvel at! Besides the mummies, there were the numerous curiously wrought vases and utensils that had been placed in the tombs alongside the mummies for their use after death. The little party might easily have spent all their allotted time in the examination of these and other interesting relics, had not Jack hurried them away. “I realize we can’t begin to see all there is to see on our first trip,” he said, “but we can do our best, anyway.”
They visited the art gallery, filled with marvelous paintings and sculptures; went through the room where old-time and modern musical instruments were gathered together; and so on through a very world of wonders, of which, as Evelyn plaintively remarked, “they had only time to see enough to make them want to see more.” So interested were they that it was four o’clock before they realized that it was long past the time set for Mr. and 179 Mrs. Payton’s return. But suddenly this fact dawned on Phil, and he drew Lucile aside and asked her in a whisper what she supposed could be keeping them.
Lucile looked worried. “You don’t think anything could have happened; an accident, perhaps?” she questioned, anxiously. “The streets were awfully crowded, you know, when we came down.”
“No, I don’t think there has been anything like that; probably it’s taken them longer than they thought to look up that Charloix fellow,” he answered, trying to be reassuring. “Any way, don’t let’s say anything to the rest. There’s no use making everybody miserable.”
So half an hour passed; then an hour; and the brother and sister could keep their anxiety to themselves no longer.
“What do you suppose can be keeping them?” Lucile wondered, as they all gathered round in anxious conference. “They surely never would have stayed away of their own accord, and it’s getting really late.”
“We’ve been here about three hours now, haven’t we?” Jack added. “And they ought to have been here an hour ago at the latest. Oh, well, we can expect them any minute now.”