Arthur finds him­self engulfed in a whirl­wind of social events fol­low­ing the suc­cess of his lec­ture at the Soci­ety of Bib­li­cal Archae­ol­o­gy. With invi­ta­tions from pres­ti­gious edu­ca­tion­al soci­eties and exclu­sive gen­tle­men’s clubs pour­ing in, he finds him­self rub­bing shoul­ders with high soci­ety. Dressed in their finest silk cra­vats and indulging in extrav­a­gant meals such as tur­tle soup, Arthur is ini­tial­ly daz­zled by the opu­lence around him. How­ev­er, despite the lux­u­ri­ous sur­round­ings of gild­ed mir­rors and cham­pagne flutes, a deep sense of unease weighs on him. The mys­tery of the miss­ing Flood Tablet from Nin­eveh con­tin­ues to gnaw at his thoughts, mak­ing him ques­tion whether these social dis­trac­tions are mere­ly super­fi­cial, pre­vent­ing him from pur­su­ing his true pur­pose. The social pres­sures and lav­ish dis­trac­tions seem to divert his atten­tion, yet his mind con­tin­u­al­ly drifts back to his aca­d­e­m­ic ambi­tions and the unre­solved quest that lies ahead.

Dur­ing a din­ner at The Boltons, Arthur is intro­duced to Mabel, a charm­ing young woman from a respectable fam­i­ly. Their inter­ac­tions appear coin­ci­den­tal at first, but Arthur soon sens­es the sub­tle efforts of his peers to bring them togeth­er. While Mabel is not par­tic­u­lar­ly knowl­edge­able about his work in archae­ol­o­gy, she express­es a gen­uine inter­est in his research, offer­ing Arthur an engag­ing sim­plic­i­ty and warmth that con­trasts with his own shy­ness and reserved nature. As he nav­i­gates the expec­ta­tions of love and mar­riage, Arthur becomes acute­ly aware of how soci­etal norms val­ue domes­tic­i­ty and com­pan­ion­ship, ideals that are at odds with his obses­sion for the Mesopotami­an tablets. This stark con­trast between his per­son­al aspi­ra­tions and the con­ven­tion­al­i­ty of the mar­riage mar­ket cre­ates a sense of inter­nal con­flict. Arthur must rec­on­cile these dif­fer­ing priorities—his com­mit­ment to his­tor­i­cal dis­cov­ery and his grow­ing attrac­tion to Mabel—leading to moments of reflec­tion about the direc­tion his life should take.

Amidst these per­son­al chal­lenges, Arthur receives an excit­ing but daunt­ing offer from the Dai­ly Tele­graph to spear­head an archae­o­log­i­cal exca­va­tion in the land of Gil­gamesh. He is filled with enthu­si­asm at the oppor­tu­ni­ty but is quick­ly remind­ed of the finan­cial con­straints that accom­pa­ny such an ambi­tious project. How­ev­er, Mabel’s father encour­ages him to pro­pose to Mabel before he departs, sug­gest­ing that com­pan­ion­ship could pro­vide him with sup­port dur­ing his trav­els. While Arthur appre­ci­ates the encour­age­ment, his focus remains firm­ly on the exca­va­tion and the sig­nif­i­cance of the work that awaits him. Yet, as he pre­pares for this piv­otal jour­ney, he is struck by the urgent need to vis­it his moth­er, who has been resid­ing in a sana­to­ri­um, strug­gling with her health. This brings him face-to-face with a deeply emo­tion­al real­i­ty that he can­not ignore, a chal­lenge he must face before mov­ing for­ward with his pro­fes­sion­al ambi­tions.

Upon arriv­ing at the Mid­dle­sex Coun­ty Lunatic Asy­lum, Arthur is con­front­ed with the sad real­i­ty of his mother’s con­di­tion. She suf­fers from “rest­less melan­choly,” a term that seems to only par­tial­ly cap­ture the deep suf­fer­ing she endures. What was once a vibrant, full-of-life woman has now trans­formed into a shad­ow of her for­mer self. The phys­i­cal and emo­tion­al dis­tance between them is unde­ni­able, as Arthur’s attempts to rekin­dle their bond through famil­iar sto­ries seem to fall flat. The real­iza­tion that his moth­er may nev­er recov­er from her con­di­tion weighs heav­i­ly on him, adding emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ty to his already strained exis­tence. Despite this, Arthur is deter­mined to make his moth­er proud. He resolves to push for­ward with his mis­sion, vow­ing that his work in Nin­eveh will bring about a bet­ter future, not just for him, but for his fam­i­ly as well. As Arthur pre­pares to leave, he takes with him a carved guardian spir­it, a sym­bol of his love and com­mit­ment to his moth­er, hop­ing that it will remind him to return to her when his jour­ney is com­plete. As the nar­ra­tive unfolds, Arthur’s per­son­al jour­ney, laden with loss and hope, inter­sects with his pro­fes­sion­al ambi­tions, dri­ving him toward the uncer­tain future that awaits in Nin­eveh.