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262 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1975
So I directed Walter to pick out a nice tomb for us.
He was staring at me in the most peculiar fashion. He did not speak, but he kept opening and closing his mouth. If he had not been such a handsome fellow, he would have reminded me of a frog.
"There is a nice tomb close by, I trust," I repeated, resisting the desire to poke at him with my parasol. "Go along, Walter, we mustn't waste time; I want the place all swept out and tidy by the time our luggage arrives."
Really, the Mummy was becoming ridiculous! Its repertoire was so limited; why didn't it do something different, instead of creeping around waving its arms?
“You are the one who loves this life,” Evelyn said, watching me curiously. “What an archaeologist you would make, Amelia!”
“Hmmm,” I said. “That is true. It is most unfortunate that I was not born a man. Emerson would accept me then as a colleague; my money would support his work; what a splendid time we would have, working and quarreling together. Oh, it is a pity I am a woman. Emerson would agree.”
“I am not so sure,” said Evelyn. There was a faint smile on her lips.
“My name is Amelia Peabody… I am a spinster of independent means, traveling for pleasure…I have been accused of being somewhat abrupt in my actions and decisions, but I never act without thought; it is simply that I think more quickly and more intelligently than most people. I am an excellent judge of character.”
I simply adored Amelia! She is my kind of heroine - intelligent, bold, courageous, and outrageous with a propensity for using her parasol as a weapon. She is opinionated and willfully blind on many occasions, yet with a generous heart and a well-hidden romantic soul. And the best part - she is a narrator of the story!“I do not know you—”
“But I know you, madam! I have met your kind too often —the rampageous British female at her clumsiest and most arrogant. Ye gods! The breed covers the earth like mosquitoes, and is as maddening. The depths of the pyramids, the heights of the Himalayas—no spot on earth is safe from you!”
He had to pause for breath at this point, which gave me the opportunity I had been waiting for.
“And you, sir, are the lordly British male at his loudest and most bad-mannered. If the English gentlewoman is covering the earth, it is in the hope of counteracting some of the mischief her lord and master has perpetrated. Swaggering, loud, certain of his own superiority…”