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I have no idea how long I stood rooted to the spot where she had left me, wrapped in a dull consciousness of pain, immersed in a half-nuh -room; our first visit to the Museuhtly and with such joyous promise One by one these phantoms of a vanished happiness came and went Occasional visitors sauntered into the rooazed inquisitively at ure, and went their way And still the dull, intolerable ache in my breast went on, the only vivid consciousness that was left to me

Presently I raised my eyes and met those of the portrait The sweet, pensive face of the old Greek settler looked out at h he would tell me that he, too, had known sorrohen he lived his life in the sunny Fayyum And a subtle consolation, like the faint scent of old rose leaves, seemed to exhale from that friendly face that had looked on the birth of my happiness and had seen it wither and fade I turned away, at last, with a silent farewell; and when I looked back, he seeentle valediction