Let us take the short cut home
through the village. On the way you can tell me exactly how you
bought me from my step-father for one thousand pounds."
Archie Hope frowned at the incurable obstinacy of the sex. "I
didn't buy you, dearest: how many times do you wish me to deny a
sale which never took place? I merely obtained your
step-father's consent to our marriage in the near future."
"As if he had anything to do with my marriage, being only my
step-father, and having, in my eyes, no authority. In what way
did you get his consent--his unnecessary consent," she repeated
with emphasis.
Of course it was waste of breath to argue with a woman who had
made up her mind. The two began to walk towards the village
along the causeway, and Hope cleared his throat to explain--
patiently as to a child.
"You know that your step-father--Professor Braddock--is crazy
on the subject of mummies?"
Lucy nodded in her pretty wilful way. "He is an Egyptologist."
"Quite so, but less famous and rich than he should be,
considering his knowledge of dry-as-dust antiquities. Well,
then, to make a long story short, he told me that he greatly
desired to examine into the difference between the Egyptians and
the Peruvians, with regard to the embalming of the dead.
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