Bickley stared also through his glasses and sniffed as though in disapproval, while I remained quite still, fighting with a wild impulse to kiss her on the lips as one would an awakening and beloved child.

I doubt if I could have done so, however, for really I was immovable; my heart seemed to stop and all my muscles to be paralysed.
I do not know for how long this endured, but I do know how it ended.
Presently in the intense silence I heard Bastin's heavy voice and looking round, saw his big head projecting into the sepulchre.
"Well, I never!" he said, "you seem to have woke them up with a vengeance.

If you begin like that with the lady, there will be complications before you have done, Arbuthnot." Talk of being brought back to earth with a rush! I could have killed Bastin, and Bickley, turning on him like a tiger, told him to be off, find wood and light a large fire in front of the statue.

I think he was about to argue when the Ancient gave him a glance of his fierce eyes, which alarmed him, and he departed, bewildered, to return presently with the wood.
But the sound of his voice had broken the spell.

The Lady let her arms fall with a start, and shut her eyes again, seeming to faint.