I hope he is not offended with me!”  As if in answer, Silvio came
running into the room and reared himself against her dress, pulling it
as though clamouring to be taken up. She stooped down and took him up
and began to pet and comfort him. I went over and examined the couch and all around it most carefully. When Mr. Trelawny and Mr. Corbeck recovered sufficiently, which they
did quickly, though Doctor Winchester took longer to come round, we
went over it afresh. But all we could find was a sort of ridge of
impalpable dust, which gave out a strange dead odour. On the couch lay
the jewel of the disk and plumes which the Queen had worn in her hair,
and the Star Jewel which had words to command the Gods. Other than this we never got clue to what had happened. There was just
one thing which confirmed our idea of the physical annihilation of the
mummy. In the sarcophagus in the hall, where we had placed the mummy
of the cat, was a small patch of similar dust. *    *    *    *    *

In the autumn Margaret and I were married. On the occasion she wore
the mummy robe and zone and the jewel which Queen Tera had worn in her
hair. On her breast, set in a ring of gold make like a twisted lotus
stalk, she wore the strange Jewel of Seven Stars which held words to
command the God of all the worlds. At the marriage the sunlight
streaming through the chancel windows fell on it, and it seemed to glow
like a living thing. The graven words may have been of efficacy; for Margaret holds to them,
and there is no other life in all the world so happy as my own. We often think of the great Queen, and we talk of her freely. Once,
when I said with a sigh that I was sorry she could not have waked into
a new life in a new world, my wife, putting both her hands in mine and
looking into my eyes with that far-away eloquent dreamy look which
sometimes comes into her own, said lovingly:

“Do not grieve for her! Who knows, but she may have found the joy she
sought? Love and patience are all that make for happiness in this
world; or in the world of the past or of the future; of the living or
the dead. She dreamed her dream; and that is all that any of us can
ask!”