that you've left the collection locked up in Mayfair?" asked Elliott.
"Frankly," Alex said," the whole thing sounded perfectly absurd to me. Romantic twaddle. An immortal being, living for a thousand years and then falling tragically in love with Cleopatra. Cleopatra!"
"I beg your pardon," Ramses said. He devoured the remaining chicken and wiped his fingers again." At your famous Oxford, they said mean things about Cleopatra as well."
Alex laughed frankly and cheerfully.
"You don't have to go to Oxford to hear mean things about Cleopatra. Why, she was the trollop of the ancient world, a spendthrift, a temptress and an hysterical woman."
"Alex, I don't want to hear any more of this schoolboy history!" Julie said.
"You have many opinions, young man," Ramses said with a chilling smile." What is your passion now? What interests you?"
There was a silence. Julie couldn't help but notice the curious expression on Elliott's face.
"Well," Alex said." If you were an immortal - an immortal who'd once been a great King, would you have fallen in love with a woman like Cleopatra?"
"Answer the question, Alex," Julie said." What is your passion? It's not history, not Egyptology, not government. What would you say it is that makes you want to wake up in the morning?" She could feel the blood rising in her face.
"Yes, I would have fallen in love with Cleopatra," said
Ramses." She could have charmed a god. Read between the lines of your Plutarch. The truth is there."
"And what is the truth?" Elliott asked.
"That she was a brilliant mind; she had a gift for languages and for governing which defied reason. The greatest men of the time paid court to her. Hers was a royal soul in every sense of the word. Why do you think your Shakespeare wrote about her? Why do your schoolchildren know her name?"
"Oh, come now. Divine right?" said Alex." You sound much better when you are talking Marxist theory."
"Which is what, precisely?"
"Alex," Julie said sharply." You wouldn't know a Marxist if one punched you in the face."
"You must understand, my lord," Samir said to Alex." We Egyptians take our history rather seriously. Cleopatra was by any standards a formidable Queen."
"Yes, well said," Ramses said." And Egypt could use a Cleopatra now to rid it of British domination. She'd send your soldiers packing, you can be sure."
"Ah, there you see, a revolutionary. And what about the Suez Canal? I suppose she'd say 'No, thank you' for that? You do know what the Suez Canal is, don't you! Well, it was British financing that accomplished that little miracle, my friend, I hope you understand."
"Oh, yes, that little trench you dug between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean. Did you whip the slaves in the hot sun to dig that trench? Do tell me."
Henry stared at him with the same expressionless glassy eyes with which he regarded everything else.
"Tell me, Mr. Ramsey," said Elliott." Your personal opinion, if you will. Is this mummy truly Ramses the Great? An immortal who lived until the time of Cleopatra?"
Alex laughed softly. He looked again at Henry, and this time apparently Henry's condition shocked him. He was about to say something when Ramses went on.
"And what do you think, Lord Rutherford?" Ramses asked." You read the notes of your friend Lawrence. Is there an immortal man in that mummy case in Julie's house in Mayfair?"
Elliott smiled." No, there isn't," he said.
Julie stared at her plate. Then slowly she looked up at Samir.
"Of course not!" Alex said." And it's about time somebody said so. When they take him to the museum and cut him up, they'll discover he was a scribe with a lively imagination."
"Forgive me," Julie said." But I am so weary of all this. We'll be in Egypt soon enough, among the mummies and the monuments. Must we go on?"
"I'm sorry, my dear," Elliott said, lifting his fork and taking a small morse! of chicken." I've rather enjoyed our conversation, Mr. Ramsey. I find your perspective on ancient Egypt absolutely riveting."
"Oh? The present era is my fascination of late, Lord Rutherford. Englishmen such as yourself intrigue me. And as you were saying, you were a good friend of Lawrence, were you not?"