‘What is the story?’

’I am afraid that at present I am not at liberty to tell it you; when I am I will.  You will find it interesting,—­as an instance of a singular survival.—­Didn’t the followers of Isis believe in transmigration?’

‘Some of them,—­no doubt.’

‘What did they understand by transmigration?’

‘Transmigration.’

‘Yes,—­but of the soul or of the body?’

’How do you mean?—­transmigration is transmigration.  Are you driving at something in particular?  If you’ll tell me fairly and squarely what it is I’ll do my best to give you the information you require; as it is, your questions are a bit perplexing.’

’Oh, it doesn’t matter,—­as you say, “transmigration is transmigration."’ I was eyeing him keenly; I seemed to detect in his manner an odd reluctance to enlarge on the subject he himself had started.  He continued to trifle with the retort upon the table.  ’Hadn’t the followers of Isis a—­what shall I say?—­a sacred emblem?’

‘How?’

’Hadn’t they an especial regard for some sort of a—­wasn’t it some sort of a—­beetle?’

’You mean Scarabaeus sacer,—­according to Latreille, Scarabaeus Egyptiorum?  Undoubtedly,—­the scarab was venerated throughout Egypt,—­indeed, speaking generally, most things that had life, for instance, cats; as you know, Orisis continued among men in the figure of Apis, the bull.’

’Weren’t the priests of Isis—­or some of them—­supposed to assume, after death, the form of a—­scarabaeus?’

‘I never heard of it.’

‘Are you sure?—­think!’

’I shouldn’t like to answer such a question positively, offhand, but I don’t, on the spur of the moment, recall any supposition of the kind.’

’Don’t laugh at me—­I’m not a lunatic!—­but I understand that recent researches have shown that even in some of the most astounding of the ancient legends there was a substratum of fact.  Is it absolutely certain that there could be no shred of truth in such a belief?’

‘In what belief?’

’In the belief that a priest of Isis—­or anyone—­assumed after death the form of a scarabaeus?’

’It seems to me, Lessingham, that you have lately come across some uncommonly interesting data, of a kind, too, which it is your bounden duty to give to the world,—­or, at any rate, to that portion of the world which is represented by me.  Come,—­tell us all about it!—­what are you afraid of?’

’I am afraid of nothing,—­and some day you shall be told,—­but not now.  At present, answer my question.’

‘Then repeat your question,—­clearly.’

’Is it absolutely certain that there could be no foundation of truth in the belief that a priest of Isis—­or anyone—­assumed after death the form of a beetle?’

’I know no more than the man in the moon,—­how the dickens should I?  Such a belief may have been symbolical.  Christians believe that after death the body takes the shape of worms—­and so, in a sense, it does,—­and, sometimes, eels.’