tomes in tattered green and gold, and ivory, my eye lit upon a volume
propped up curiously on end, and going to it through the confusion I saw
by the dried fruit rind upon the sticks supporting it, that the grave
and reverend tome was set to catch a mouse! It was a splendid book when
I looked more closely, bound as a king might bind his choicest treasure,
the sweet-scented leather on it was no doubt frayed; the golden arabesques
upon the covers had long since shed their eyes of inset gems, the jewelled
clasp locking its learning up from vulgar gaze was bent and open. Yet it
was a lordly tome with an odour of sanctity about it, and lifting it
with difficulty, I noticed on its cover a red stain of mouse's blood.
Those who put it to this quaint use of mouse-trap had already had some
sport, but surely never was a mouse crushed before under so much learning.
And while I stood guessing at what the book might hold within, Heru, the
princess, came tripping in to me, and with the abrupt familiarity of her
kind, laid a velvet hand upon my wrist, conned the title over to herself.

"What does it say, sweet girl?" I asked. "The matter is learned, by
its feel," and that maid, pursing up her pretty lips, read the title to
me--"The Secret of the Gods."

"The Secret of the Gods," I murmured. "Was it possible other worlds
had struggled hopelessly to come within the barest ken of that great
knowledge, while here the same was set to catch a mouse with?"

I said, "Silver-footed, sit down and read me a passage or two," and
propping the mighty volume upon a table drew a bench before it and pulled
her down beside me.

"Oh! a horrid, dry old book for certain," cried that lady, her pink
fingertips falling as lightly on the musty leaves as almond petals on