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Page 95
On entering the conservatory, Nurse seemed as much agitated as though
she, instead of Gnulemah, were to be chief actress in the coming
ceremony. At the Sphinx door she relinquished Balder's arm, and,
hurrying across the conservatory, vanished behind Gnulemah's curtain.
As she passed out of sight she threw a parting glance over her
shoulder. The action recalled Gnulemah's backward look of the day
previous, when she had fled at the sound of the closing door. What
ugly fatality suggested so fantastic a parallel between this creature
and Balder's future wife!
He entered the temple, which glowed and sparkled like a sombre gem.
Many-colored lamps were hung on wires passing round the hall from
pillar to massive pillar. Their glare defined the strange character of
the Egyptian architecture and ornament; nevertheless, the place looked
less real and substantial than in the morning. It seemed the
impalpable creation of an enchanter, which his wand would anon
dissolve into air once more!
On each side the door sat a statue of polished red granite, with calm
regular face and hands on knees. Helwyse, who had not observed them
before, fancied them summoned as witnesses to the compact then to be
solemnized. Doubtless they had witnessed ceremonies not less solemn or
imposing.
On the black marble altar at the further end of the hall was burning
some rich incense, whose perfumed smoke, clambering heavily upwards,
mingled with that of the lamps beneath the ceiling. On the polished
floor, in front, lay a rug of dark blue cloth, heavily bordered with
gold; upon it were represented in conscientious profile a number of
lank-limbed Egyptians performing some mystic rite. To the right of the
altar stood the priest Manetho, apparently engaged in prayer. Balder
spoke to him.
"This is more like a tomb than a wedding hall. Would not the
conservatory have been more fitting?"
"Better make a tomb the starting-point of marriage than its goal!"
smiled the holy man. "And is it not well that your posterity should
begin from the spot which saw the union that gave you being? and
beneath the eyes of him but for whom neither this hall nor we who here
assemble would to-day have existed!" He pointed to the mummy of old
Hiero Glyphic, the aspect of which might have left a bad taste in the
mouth of Joy herself. Balder shrugged his shoulders.
"It matters little, perhaps, where the seed is sown, so that the
flower reach the sunshine at last. But your mummy is an ill-favored
wedding-guest, whatever honor we may owe the man who once lived in it.
I would, not have Gnulemah--"
"Behold her!" interrupted Manetho, speaking as hough a handful of dust
had suddenly got in his throat.
Yes, there she came, the old Nurse following her like a misshapen
shadow. Daughter of sun and moon,--a modern Pandora endowed with the
strength of a loftier nature! She was robed in creamy white; her
pendants were woven pearls. Fine lines of virgin gold gleamed in her
turban, and through her long veil, and along the folds of her girdle.
But the serpent necklace had been replaced by the dandelion chain that
Balder had made her. Her lips and cheeks were daintily aflame, and a
tender fire flickered in her eyes, which saw only Balder. She was a
bridal song such as had not been sung since Solomon.
As the two reached the altar, Salome stepped to one side, and
Manetho's eye fell upon her; for a moment his gaze fixed, while a
slight movement undulated through his body, as the wave travels along
the cord. The old white dress, unseen for five-and-twenty years; some
intangible trick of motion or attitude in the wearer; the occasion and
circumstance recurring with such near similarity,--these and perhaps
other trifles combined to recall long-vanished Salome. She had stood
at that other wedding, just where Nurse was now,--bright, shapely,
sparkling-eyed, full of love for him. What a grisly contrast was
this!--Why had he thrown away that ardent, loving heart? How sweet and
comfortable might life have been to-day, with Salome his wife, and
sons and daughters at her side,--daughters beautiful as Gnulemah, sons
tall as Balder! But Hatred had been his chosen mistress, and dismal
was the progeny begotten on her! The pregnant existence that might
have been his, and the scars and barrenness which had actually
redounded to him, were symbolized in the remembered Salome and her of
to-day.
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