nearly ten o'clock at night
What the history of this particular scarab may have been we can now , unfortunately , never know , but I have little doubt but that it played some part in the tragic story of the Princess Amenartas and her lover Kallikrates , the forsworn priest of Isis . -- Editor . As for me , I stumbled from her presence , and I do not remember how I reached my own cave . It was nearly ten o'clock at night when I cast myself down upon my bed , and began to gather my scattered wits , and reflect upon what I had seen and heard . But the more I reflected the less I could make of it . Was I mad , or drunk , or dreaming , or was I merely the victim of a gigantic and most elaborate hoax ? How was it possible that I , a rational man , not unacquainted with the leading scientific facts of our history , and hitherto an absolute and utter disbeliever in all the hocus-pocus which in Europe goes by the name of the supernatural , could believe that I had within the last few minutes been engaged in conversation with a woman two thousand and odd years old ?