These workers scoop out that excess of sand with baskets . They are dressed most miserably , and look a bit miserable themselves . I can hardly imagine going about so miserably .
The young aristocrat , on whose every word I hang — oh , that voice !— was describing the notable Egyptologist Sir Theophilus Pinkhorn , a man who has been unearthing the dead for years , and who recently discovered a mummy that sprang to life and immediately began trying to seduce a librarian ! What a dizzy mummy ! But Percy Longville interjected that unearthing ancient deadly evils had little to no scientific value , and the poor boy killed the conversation dead .
Mr . Longville asked me what I thought , but he would call me Missus — that boy has got it in his head that I am some married old crone or some such ! I reminded him that he must be amiss , for I am merely a Miss .
There ' s always such an awkwardness to conversation when one group is in total agreement , and someone with a different perspective joins in . I often wish I could wield tact and grace like a tool and bridge that gap . What could I have said to include Mr . Longville , but also keep the conversation going ? I wish I knew !
I thought Mr . Longville might join us as we observed the site , but Hargrave asked him , and he declined . I do not know why he had to be such a bore about it . He is busying himself with scribbling notes inside one of his journals .
I may be a bit bold in saying that it was nice to spend some time alone with Lord Hargrave . I dined with him . Heavens , the sand , and the perfumes , and the man were nearly intoxicating . I wanted to try the cultural menu — as I have often said , one must always be eager to try new things — but Lord Hargrave has such a caring attitude and would insist that I dine like a proper Englishwoman : sausage , egg , and chips . This menu is foreign to the poor Africans — perhaps this is why they are so miserable all the time ?
I sat with him during his evening toilette , to which I would have objected , of course , on grounds of impropriety , but who am I to argue ? Clearly , he thought of me as the most important person in the camp , and allowed me to be present . He shaved , and combed his hair , and started to change his shirt but neglected to finish ( which I did not notice , of course , because we are in the desert and it would have been quite inappropriate of me to observe his handsome athletic body — fit and perfect like one of those statues at the museum ). Rather , I paid most attention to when he read to me for a bit . The book he was reading was a bit dry , and the serving boy was about to exit and leave us alone , but I wouldn ' t risk such impropriety . So , in the end , I excused myself with the child and went back to my own tent for the night .
Wednesday , May the Nineteenth
I woke up promptly , bright and early . I set about at once gathering my tools for the Hargrave dig . The rest of the Tour chose to travel to Thebes to inspect the cursed mummy of Lord Hallifax . I later learned that Lord Hallifax ' s mummy turned out to be less cursed than was previously expected . They say only one thing is to be done with a lifeless mummy , and that ' s to turn it into some philter or draft for the benefit of someone else ' s health . And , sadly , their mummy seems to be entirely contented with being ground up into a fine powder and ingested as a tonic for virility . It did not even raise the slightest objection . One thinks a small plague to be in order on principle alone . Perhaps one with frogs , or at least something involving a forged check . But who am I to say what Lord Hallifax ' s mummy should and shouldn ' t do ? After all , it is his afterlife .
I was fully prepared to help with the process of using baskets to scoop sand , but Hargrave stopped me , claiming that such work was not proper for an Englishwoman — or , it seems , for an Englishman ,