MARY. You know, we are to crystallize ourselves out of the whole
playground. Now, what playground have the minerals! Where are they
scattered before they are crystallized; and where are the crystals
generally made?
L. That sounds to me more like three questions than one, Mary. If
it is only one, it is a wide one.
MARY. I did not say anything about the width of it.
L. Well, I must keep it within the best compass I can. When rocks
either dry from a moist state, or cool from a heated state, they
necessarily alter in bulk; and cracks, or open spaces, form in
them in all directions. These cracks must be filled up with solid
matter, or the rock would eventually become a ruinous heap. So,
sometimes by water, sometimes by vapor, sometimes nobody knows
how, crystallizable matter is brought from somewhere, and fastens
itself in these open spaces, so as to bind the rock together again
with crystal cement. A vast quantity of hollows are formed in
lavas by bubbles of gas, just as the holes are left in bread well
baked. In process of time these cavities are generally filled with
various crystals.
MARY. But where does the crystallizing substance come from?
L. Sometimes out of the rock itself; sometimes from below or
above, through the veins. The entire substance of the contracting
rock may be filled with liquid, pressed into it so as to fill
every pore;--or with mineral vapor;--or it may be so charged at
one place, and empty at another. There's no end to the "may be's."
But all that you need fancy, for our present purpose, is that
hollows in the rocks, like the caves in Derbyshire, are traversed
by liquids or vapor containing certain elements in a more or less
free or separate state, which crystallize on the cave walls.
SIBYL. There now;--Mary has had all her questions answered: it's
my turn to have mine.
L. Ah, there's a conspiracy among you, I see. I might have guessed
as much.
DORA. I'm sure you ask us questions enough! How can you have the
heart, when you dislike so to be asked them yourself?
L. My dear child, if people do not answer questions, it does not
matter how many they are asked, because they've no trouble with
them. Now, when I ask you questions, I never expect to be
answered; but when you ask me, you always do; and it's not fair.
DORA. Very well, we shall understand, next time.
SIBYL. No, but seriously, we all want to ask one thing more, quite
dreadfully.
L. And I don't want to be asked it, quite dreadfully; but you'll
have your own way, of course.
SIBYL. We none of us understand about the lower Pthah. It was not
merely yesterday; but in all we have read about him in Wilkinson,
or in any book, we cannot understand what the Egyptians put their
god into that ugly little deformed shape for.
L. Well, I'm glad it's that sort of question; because I can answer
anything I like to that.
EGYPT. Anything you like will do quite well for us; we shall be
pleased with the answer, if you are.
L. I am not so sure of that, most gracious queen; for I must begin
by the statement that queens seem to have disliked all sorts of
work, in those days, as much as some queens dislike sewing to-day.
EGYPT. Now, it's too bad! and just when I was trying to say the
civillest thing I could!