Delmour's lovely features became delicately suffused and transfigured
as she spoke; her exquisite voice thrilled with generous emotion; she
clasped her snowy hands and gazed, enraptured, at the picture of Dr.
Bottomly which her mind was so charmingly evoking.
"Perhaps," she whispered, "perhaps at this very instant, in the midst of
that vast and flat and solemn desolation the only protuberance visible
for miles and miles is Professor Bottomly. Perhaps the pallid Arctic sun
is setting behind the majestic figure of Professor Bottomly, radiating a
blinding glory to the zenith, illuminating the crowning act of her career
with its unearthly aura!"
She gazed at us out of dimmed and violet eyes.
"Gentlemen," she said, "I am ordered to take command of this expedition
of yours; I am ordered to sail with you tomorrow morning on the Labrador
and Baffin Line steamer _Dr. Cook_.
"The object of your expedition, therefore, is not to be the quest of
_Philohela quinquemaculata_; your duty now is to corroborate the almost
miraculous discovery of Professor Bottomly, and to disinter for her the
vast herd of frozen mammoths, pack and pickle them, and get them to the
Bronx.
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