In the chap­ter titled “Arthur,” set by the Riv­er Thames in 1857, we meet a young boy named Arthur, who feels dwarfed by the grandeur of the British Muse­um. As he approach­es the impos­ing build­ing with its grand columns and majes­tic archi­tec­ture, Arthur bat­tles feel­ings of self-doubt and anx­i­ety. Despite his ner­vous­ness, he enters, deter­mined to explore. Dis­guised as a stu­dent, he hes­i­tant­ly fol­lows a group, con­tem­plat­ing his past inter­ac­tions with the Keep­er of Ori­en­tal Antiq­ui­ties but lack­ing the courage to inquire about him.

After a brief stint with the group, Arthur ven­tures off alone, search­ing for the lamas­sus from Nin­eveh. When he encoun­ters a muse­um staff mem­ber who teas­ing­ly ques­tions the boy’s expec­ta­tion that the ancient arti­facts might have flown away, Arthur feels the weight of his class dif­fer­ence and hur­ried­ly tries to exit, over­whelmed by the sense of not belong­ing. How­ev­er, he acci­den­tal­ly wan­ders deep­er into the muse­um, stum­bling into a stor­age area filled with clay tablets adorned with enig­mat­ic cuneiform writ­ing.

Engrossed by these tablets, Arthur’s fas­ci­na­tion inten­si­fies, espe­cial­ly when anoth­er muse­um atten­dant finds him. Although the man is kind, Arthur strug­gles with feel­ings of inad­e­qua­cy, sus­pect­ing that his appear­ance sug­gests his impov­er­ished ori­gins. The nar­ra­tive explores the deep soci­etal bar­ri­ers and class divi­sions that Arthur grap­ples with, empha­siz­ing his long­ing for knowl­edge and self-dis­cov­ery.

Deter­mined, Arthur returns to the muse­um dai­ly on his lunch break, metic­u­lous­ly bud­get­ing time to study the tablets while rush­ing through the city. The chap­ter details his efforts to main­tain himself—staying clean in filthy London—and his inter­ac­tions with the staff, who ini­tial­ly view him with intrigue and con­fu­sion.

Even­tu­al­ly, Arthur catch­es the atten­tion of Dr. Samuel Birch, the Keep­er of Ori­en­tal Antiq­ui­ties. Their encounter leads Arthur to reveal his inter­est and bur­geon­ing under­stand­ing of the tablets’ inscrip­tions. Birch, both sur­prised and impressed, offers Arthur a chance to assist in orga­niz­ing the arti­facts at the muse­um, a piv­otal moment that threat­ens to upend Arthur’s rou­tine and appren­tice­ship while open­ing doors to a world of knowl­edge and dis­cov­ery. The excite­ment of this new oppor­tu­ni­ty fills Arthur with hope and the chal­lenge of bal­anc­ing two demand­ing roles looms ahead.

Wait­ing ai