Meg stood in an awed silence, her subliminal self alone conscious of the grave, sad eyes, which were watching the splendour of the sun as it came over the edge of the desert. The rapidity of its uprising was amazing. It had burst the bonds of darkness with a strength and force which resembled the triumph of a victorious army. At its coming the darkness was scattered. Its quickly-spreading rays were driving back the forces of the enemy. With fine generalship it was following up the victory with renewed attacks.
The form of the Pharaoh was only dimly visible. Its luminousness had disappeared. It was a shadow in the light. The prayer of all Egyptians from time immemorial had been that they might each day "leave the dim Underworld in order to see the light of the sun upon earth."
Akhnaton had prayed this prayer, which was ancient before his day.
Meg knew that his prayer had been answered. Akhnaton, the King, the pa.s.sionate heretic, the visionary and the prophet, was seeing his adored Sun rising over his kingdom. His persistent prayers had been granted, his desire realized. His spirit had come forth to see the sun"s rays. As he gazed at the sun, the years had rolled back. Three thousand years are but a span in the march of eternity. He was alone with his G.o.d, as alone as the Moslem figures who were prostrating themselves to the ground. He was enjoying the beauty of Aton in the silent valley, which his footsteps had so often trod, the valley overlooking the city which to him, in his manhood, became the city of abomination and desolation, the city of false G.o.ds.
As the light of day flooded the desert, the figure became invisible to Meg. It seemed to melt into the golden air. She felt that it might still be standing there, quite close to her, only she could not see it.
Her powers were limited; the light concealed the figure. Being luminous, she had been able to see it clearly in the darkness, just as she was able to see the luminous match-box which she always kept on a table by her bedside. She knew it was there, always shining, only her eyes were unable to see its brightness in the daylight. The figure of Akhnaton might be near her still. How clearly it had stood out in the darkness, how brightly the rays of the sun had declared the symbol of Aton!
Had it all been an optical delusion, born of her nervous condition? Or was it a dream? Was she still in bed sleeping? How could she prove to herself that she was awake, that she had come out to see the dawn, that she was standing in front of her hut and not asleep in bed? In her dreams, she had often dreamed that she was dreaming; she had often told herself that her dreams were all dreams; she had often done things in her dreams to prove to herself that they were not dreams. If she stooped to pick up some sand to prove that her feet were pressing the desert, might not that, too, be a part of her dream? What on earth was there to prove the real from the unreal?
Now that she knew about Akhnaton and his beautiful religion, which is the religion of all reasoning mortals to-day, and had read something of his life and mission, was it not quite probable that she was creating all that she had seen, that she was deceiving herself? It was still possible that she was dreaming.
With nerves unstrung and a beating heart, she saw Michael appear. He was in his early-morning top-coat. He, too, had been greeting the sun.
He had made a hasty sketch of the first colours in the sky.
"Mike," Meg cried, in a tone of relief and anxiety. "Mike, I want you, do come here!"
The next moment Mike"s arms were round her; her head was on his shoulder.
"What is the matter, dearest?"
"The vision, Mike! I have seen it again--it has been even more wonderful. Oh, Mike!" A stifled sob came from Margaret"s full heart; the tension of her nerves was relaxed by the comfort of human arms, of human magnetism.
"And you were afraid, dearest?" He held her closer; his strength nerved her. Oh, welcome humanity!
"Afraid? No--oh, no, it wasn"t fear."
"What then, dear one?"
"I can"t explain it. If only you had been with me!" She clung to him.
"I should not have seen him, Meg, it is not meant that I should. Look, darling, I have been near you--I was making a sketch of the sunrise."
Meg looked in wonder at the sketch. There was no figure there; that was the only point of interest it contained for her at the moment.
"It is not there," she said disappointedly; her voice expressed astonishment. "Then you saw nothing?"
"Nothing of what you saw."
"Then why does it come to me? I am the very last person to understand, to desire it."
"Dearest, the wisdom of G.o.d"s ways is past our present very limited understanding. Why did He make the world as He did? Why did He form the mountains by the drifting of particles into the ocean? Why did He evolve the spirit of man from a source which has baffled science? Why does He let us know so much and understand so little?"
"I loved seeing him, Mike. He talked to me. I wasn"t afraid while he was there. It"s the wonder of it now that it"s past, the strangeness; something greater than myself gets into me when the vision is there."
"Consider the privilege, Meg, the amazing privilege!"
Mike"s brain was working and wondering. Why, oh why, had he not been privileged? Why had Meg again seen the Living Truth?
Meg divined his thoughts; her fervent wish was that he also had seen it. "Nothing further from fear ever possessed me, Mike, and yet now I feel horribly unnerved. If you hadn"t come to me, I don"t know what I should have done. The first time it was different. I wonder why. I wasn"t a bit like this, was I, dearest?"
"No, I don"t know why you feel so differently this time. What happened? Can you tell me, or would you rather wait?" Mike recognized her nervous state.
"I came out to see the sunrise. I hadn"t slept--I was thinking about the opening of the tomb and of all that is to happen afterwards." Mike kissed her tenderly and understandingly. "I was really feeling very selfish and worldly; and anything but spiritual. I was wondering if your plans weren"t too utterly silly, dearest, if, after all, we hadn"t got into a rather unreal and unhealthy way of looking at things. I was almost convinced that you ought to stop standing on your head. Quite suddenly the luminous figure, with the sunrays behind its head, stood in front of me. Its eyes were fixed on me with a full and wonderful understanding of all that was in my heart. I instantly knew that my fears were understood, and the odd thing, now that I look back upon it, is that I wasn"t afraid. The understanding seemed natural, the understanding of my higher self. It was only when the vision grew dimmer and dimmer that I began to feel this silly nerve-exhaustion; it was only then that I began to wonder and doubt."
"I"m not surprised, Meg--you"re splendid. Any other woman would have fainted, I suppose."
"No, Mike, they wouldn"t; once you"ve seen and understood, it is like being born again, with fresh understanding, with fresh eyes. There"s nothing more to be afraid of than there is in seeing death. I was terrified of death until I saw Uncle Harry die. This is just the same thing. Your fear is forgotten, a new understanding possesses you. My only wonder is why I have never seen anything of the same sort before, and now why, oh why, is it this strange figure of Akhnaton? Why this King who lived thirteen hundred years before we begin to count our centuries? I should so love to see Uncle Harry, and it is such a little time since he went. Why have I never seen him?"
"My darling, three thousand years are like the minutes spent in boiling an egg when you dabble with eternity. There is nothing to choose between Noah and Napoleon; Moses and Mohammed are twins in point of years."
"I know," Meg said. "There is nothing so hard for a human mind to grasp as the impossibility of grasping the meaning of infinity. It can"t shake off its own limitations. But all the same, if I was to tell anyone except you, dearest, that I had seen and held a conversation with the spirit of a Pharaoh who lived before Moses, what would they think? what would they say?"
"The very few who stand in the Light would not be astonished. Those who are still completely earth-tied and glory in their ignorance would scoff and call you crazy; but would they matter?"
"There was one thing he told me, Mike, which gives me great happiness.
He called me "the mistress of your happiness," he understood about our love."
"That was his favourite name for his wife. He was a devoted husband and lover."
"Then he really understood?"
"What does Aton not understand, beloved?"
"But this was Akhnaton, Mike. He said, "my heart was happy in my Queen." He said "the great Giver of Light is none other than the loving father, the tender husband, the devoted son, because there is none other than the living Aton, whose kingdom is within you. You are Aton and Aton is you. He is everything which He has made.""
"That is exactly it," Mike said. "You saw the figure of Akhnaton just as people who lived in Syria saw the figure of Christ--G.o.d"s manifestation of Himself. Of course He understood our love and our happiness. His bowels of compa.s.sion yearn for His children. He is the spirit of Aton--of G.o.d--as manifested by Akhnaton."
"You are to go, beloved, there is to be no holding you back. I have received my commission; it is to buckle on your armour. Oh, dearest, even if all this should be the fabrication of my own dreams, my brain, it is not self-created--it has some purpose, some meaning. G.o.d has put it there."
"Everything has its meaning, Meg, nothing is too small to be intentional."
"I am to help you by "the perfection of my love," and oh, Mike, it is so imperfect, so pitifully imperfect, so pitifully human!".
"Pitifully, darling? Why not beautifully human?"
"Because it thinks first of my own wants; my love makes me wish to keep you all to myself, to prevent you going on this journey."
"The beautiful thing about Akhnaton"s teachings, beloved, is the value of happiness, the beauty of humanity. In this capital he gave his people wonderful gardens and decorated his public places and temples with the simple joys of nature; he encouraged music and art and everything that could give his people happiness. He desired his people to enjoy the world, he wanted them to see it as he saw it, a wonderful kingdom, radiating with love. He first taught the world that there need be no sickness or misery if there was no sin. Light disperses darkness. His was the purest and highest religion the world was ever given until the mission of Jesus Christ. The rays of Aton first symbolized the divinity of G.o.d."
The voice of Mohammed Ali brought the lovers back to the practical things of the hour--a hot bath and the necessity of dressing and eating a good breakfast. For the time being, the opening of the tomb had been forgotten. Indeed, Meg found it very hard to bring herself into touch with all which had been until this morning the absorbing topic for days past.
She had a number of household duties to attend to as soon as breakfast was over--putting in order the room for the Overseer-General and devising the menu for the day"s food. There were to be extra mouths to feed--the photographer, the Chief Inspector and a few invited fellow-Egyptologists who had been asked for the occasion. It was Freddy"s day.
Before they parted to get ready for breakfast Meg said, "I suppose Freddy will be quite lost to us until the hour arrives! I wonder when we shall be permitted to see inside it?" She referred to the tomb.
"Not to-day," Mike said. "At least, I don"t expect so. Perhaps to-morrow. Anyhow, we shall hear all that Freddy has to tell us to-night or at lunch-time."