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His expression was softening There was that playfulness again, that smile

"Your teypt They still stand," she said "The Ramasseum, at Luxor Abu Simbel Oh, these aren't the names by which you know thelish poets have written of theenerals have journeyed to see them I've walked past them, laid my hands on them I've stood in your ancient halls"

He continued to smile "And noalk these modern streets with you"

"And it fills you with joy to do it"

"Yes, that is very true My temples were old before I ever closed my eyes But the mausoleum of Cleopatra had only just been built" He broke off, letting go her hand "Ah, it is like yesterday to me, you see Yet it is dreae of the centuries as I slept My spirit grew as I slept"

She thought of the words in her father's translation

"What did you dream, Ramses?"

"Nothing,dear, that can touch the wonders of this century!" He paused "When we are weary, we speak lovingly of dreams as if they embodied our true desires--ould have when that which we do have so sorely disappoints us But for this wanderer, the concrete world has always been the true object of desire And weariness came only when the world seemed dreamlike"

He stared off into the driving rain She let his words sink in, trying in vain perhaps to grasp their full h pain to make her cherish what she had The death of her mother years before had made her cleave all the more closely to her father She had tried to love Alex Savarell because he wanted her to; and her father hadn't s, just as her father had Was that what he meant? She wasn't certain

"You don't want to go back to Egypt, you don't need to see the old world for yourself?" she asked

"I am torn," he whispered

A gust of damp wind swept the forlorn paveh iron fence There ca from the electric wires above, and Ramses turned to look at them

"Ever ain at the solitary yellow la dear

," he said "You forgivedear? As you called your friend, Alex"

"You may call me that," she said