But I felt low-spirited, and miserable, and ashamed; and besides I was pained and alarmed by Margaret's ghastly pallor.
Then the work began.

The unrolling of the mummy cat had prepared me somewhat for it; but this was so much larger, and so infinitely more elaborate, that it seemed a different thing.

Moreover, in addition to the ever present sense of death and humanity, there was a feeling of something finer in all this.

The cat had been embalmed with coarser materials; here, all, when once the outer coverings were removed, was more delicately done.

It seemed as if only the finest gums and spices had been used in this embalming.