The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-10-08

Then showing me the old lady who was
reading the Bible:
Pay no attention. that is mamma. I will
not present YOU. II YOU were 10 speak 10
her she could not answer you. She is one
of a religious sect Of the last novelty The
adhcreuts dress themselves ia bag and
eat out Of wooden porringers. Mamma is
much pleased with these practices But
/ you understand that I have not brought
you here to talk of mamma. / am going to
put on my Egyptian costume. 10 will not
! take long. While you are waiting look at
/ these little things
/ She made me sit down in front of a cup
| board containing a mummy's coffin, sew
/ eral statuettes of the middle empire,
/ beetles and some manuscript fragments
/ of a noble funeral ritual.
/ Left alone | examined this papyrus
with the more interest that it bore name
| that | had already read on a seal. 1t was
! the name of a scribe of King Sei |. l
| soon set to work to observe divers inter-
esting peculiarities of the document. l
! had been plunged in this work for a time
| that / no not know how to measure with
accuracy, when | was warned by a sort of
! instinct that someone was standing be-
| hind me. ! turned and l saw a marvellous
creature. with a gold hawk for a head
! dress and clothed in narrow garment,
entirely white, which revealed the adOr-
able and chaste youthfulness of her form.
| Over this garment a light pink tunic,
bound to the figure by girdle of precious
stones, fell in waves and made symmetri-
cal folds. The arms, the feet were bare
and loaded with bracelets.
She showed herself to me face to face,
turning her head to her right shoulder in
an hieratic attitude that gave to her de-
| licious beauty and an indescribable air of
| divinity.
What" cried, ''is it you, Miss Nor
gan?"
''Unless it is Neferon-Ra in person.
| You know Neferon-Ra of Leconte de
Lisle the Beauty of the Sun:
See how she languishes on her virginia. bed,
Very pale, IN fine linen wrapped.
"But no, you do not know! You know
no verses. Yet verses are pretty! Come,
| let us work"
| Having mastered my emotion, ventured
| to this charming person some remarks on
| her ravishing costume. | dared to con-
test several details as departing from
archaeological exactness. / proposed to
| replace, on the bezel of the bracelets,
certain stones by others more constantly
| used in the middle empire. Finally,
l opposed decidedly the wearing of a
clasp of partitioned enamel. In fact,
| this ornament constituted an odiOns anach-
ronism We agreed to substitute for it
plate of precious stones set in tiny sock
cts of gold. She listened to me with ex-
IRENE docility and showed herself pleased
| enough with me to invite me to dinner
l excused myself on the grounds of the
regularity of my habits and the frugality
| of my diet, and took my leave.
was already in the ante chamber when
| she called to me: "Hein! Is my costume
neat enough2 Shall l not enrage the
other women at the Countess Ms
| ball2o
| -, r.1,ooIrod % ,,,ob n ,,ro,,oso1 n,,+
| turning toward her | saw her again, and
again fell under the charm.
She called me back.
IN. Pigeonneau, you are an amiable
man. Tell me little story and 1 will
| love you much, much, much"
Il do not know how" l replied.
She shrugged her beautiful shoulders,
and cried:
''Of what use would science be then If
| it did not serve for making stories? You
will tell me a story, Monsieur Pigeon
neau."
Judging it useless to renew my fiat re-
| fusal, l retired without saying anything.
At the door 1 came across that man of
the Assyrian beard, DR.. Daoud, whose
glance troubled me so strangely under
the cupola of the institute He had upon
me the effect of very vulgar man, and
| meeting him was painful to me.
| The Countess Ms ball took place
about fortnight after my visit. l was
not at all surprised to read in the papers
that the beautiful Miss Morgan had made
a sensation there in the costume of
| NeferOn-Ra.
| heard no more of her all the rest of
the year 1886. But the first day of the
new year, as 1 was writing in my study,
a servant brought me a letter and a
basket.
From Miss Morgan" he said.
And he withdrew.
! The basket being placed on my table, a
mewing came out of it. | opened it, a
| little gray cat escaped from it.
| 1t was not an angora 1t was a cat of
! an eastern species more slender than ours
/ and resembled much, as well as | coulu
/ judge, those of its congenerS, so great a
number of whose mummies are found
wrapped in coarse bands, in the hypo-
! geums of Thebes. 1t shook itself, looked
| about it, bumped its back, yawned then
! purring, rubbed itself against the goddess
| Pacht, who lifted up on my table herr pure
| figure and delicate nose Although of a
4 dark color and short haired, it was gra-
I cious. 1t seemed intelligent and appeared
as tame as possible. / could not conceive
the reason of so odd present. Miss Nor
gan's letter did not make it much clearer
/ 1t was thus conceived:
| Dear Monsieur: l send you little cat that
! Doctor Daoud has brought back from Egypt,
and which love very much. Treat it well
/ for love of me. Baudelaire the greatest French
| poet after Stephane Mallarme, has said
Lovers and grave saVants, alike when blest
With their hopes fruition, love a cat,
1.-The pride of the house. soft, gentle fat
| "Who, like them, breads the cold and Graves
it's rest"
| do not need to remind you that you ought
| to tell me a story. You will bring 1t to me on
the jour des Rois. We will dine together.
P. S.-Your kitten is called Poron.
| After having read this letter, | looked
! at Poron, who, standing on her hind feet,
was licking the black muzzle of Pacht, her
| divine sister. She looked at me, and l
must say that, of us two, she was not the
most astonished
asked myself:
"What does this mean?"
But soon gave up trying to understand
anything about it, Il am very
silly" l said to myself, "to seek
for sense in the follies of crazy
young woman Let me 90 TO work AS to
the animal, Madame Magloire, my house
keeper, will provide for its needs" l set
to work again at chronological work,
which was all the more interesting to me
because in it | abuse somewhat my emf
nent compeer, NJ. Maspero. Poron did not
leave my table. Seated on her launches,
her ears erect, she watched me write
Strange to say, / did nothing good that day
My ideas were clouded snatches of songs