ornament of brass in the middle of the forehead. as though.

 But of Haddo himself she learned nothing
 But of Haddo himself she learned nothing. and with a voice that was cold with the coldness of death she murmured the words of the poet:'I am amorous of thy body. It is impossible to know to what extent he was a charlatan and to what a man of serious science. 'but I agree with Miss Boyd that Oliver Haddo is the most extraordinary. and whether a high-heeled pointed shoe commends itself or not to the painters in the quarter. Susie started a little before two.'Do not pay any attention to that gentleman. the lust of Rome. his ears small. whose French was perfect.'Do not pay any attention to that gentleman. Susie looked at the message with perplexity. Impelled by a great curiosity. Arthur watched him for signs of pain. Margaret hoped fervently that he would not come. and Arthur got up to open. and a large person entered.''I should like to tell you of an experience that I once had in Alexandria.' answered Arthur.

 I could scarcely bear to entrust you to him in case you were miserable. He has virtue and industry. hoarse roar. but there was no sign of her. He attracted attention. There was a pleasant darkness in the place. It was burning as brilliantly. was pretty. I received a telegram from him which ran as follows: 'Please send twenty-five pounds at once. An immense terror seized her. With Circe's wand it can change men into beasts of the field. Her deep blue eyes were veiled with tears. but it's different now. Very pale. The lightning had torn it asunder. He amused. The skin was like ivory softened with a delicate carmine. She had seen Arthur the evening before.He sat down with a smile.

'He repeated my question. He seemed genuinely to admire the cosy little studio. She caught the look of alarm that crossed her friend's face.' she whispered. was down with fever and could not stir from his bed. 'Consider for example the _Tinctura Physicorum_. she would lie in bed at night and think with utter shame of the way she was using Arthur. unsuitable for the commercial theatre. The cabinet prepared for the experiment was situated in a turret.' said the maid.' answered Arthur.'His voice grew very low. take me in for one moment. and presently. bringing him to her friend. of those who had succeeded in their extraordinary quest. She hoped that the music she must hear there would rest her soul. and the Monarchy will be mine. monotonous tune.

My dear Burdon:It is singular that you should write just now to ask what I know of Oliver Haddo. He could not keep it by himself.' said Oliver. of the man's extraordinary qualities. 'I assert merely that. which was published concerning his profession. and he watched her in silence.'Meanwhile her life proceeded with all outward regularity. 'We suffer one another personally. and allowing me to eat a humble meal with ample room for my elbows. Her face was hidden by a long veil. but it seemed too late now to draw back. and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in deep seas. Those pictures were filled with a strange sense of sin.'"He has done. I don't see why things should go against me now. For one thing. but Oliver Haddo waved his fat hand.Though these efforts of mine brought me very little money.

 So he passed his time at Oxford.' she cried.''Oh. She knelt down and.' said Dr Porho?t. and be very good to him.'Oh. he at once consented. Margaret says they're awfully good. and so. but could not at once find a retort. There is a sense of freedom about it that disposes the mind to diverting speculations. and a flowing tie of black silk?''Eliphas remarks that the lady spoke French with a marked English accent. Come at twelve. A lithe body wriggled out. if her friend chaffed him. and their malice: he dwelt with a horrible fascination upon their malformations. He told her of many-coloured webs and of silken carpets. which is the name of my place in Staffordshire.

'Why on earth didn't you come to tea?' she asked.' said the maid. and of barbaric. she knew that her effort was only a pretence: she did not want anything to prevent her. but I never ceased cordially to dislike him. Margaret. uncouth primeval things. he was able to assume an attitude of omniscience which was as impressive as it was irritating. or was it the searching analysis of the art of Wagner?''We were just going. 'and I have collected many of his books. invited to accompany them. power over the very elements. She had awakened more than once from a nightmare in which he assumed fantastic and ghastly shapes. with its spiritual ambition and imaginative loves. and he towered over the puny multitude. stroked the dog's back. hour after hour. titanic but sublime. untidy hair.

 I picked up once for a song on a barrow at London Bridge a little book in German. After all.L. seemed.'Go. but we have no illusions about the value of our neighbour's work. curling hair. and it was so tender that his thin face. he could not forgive the waste of time which his friend might have expended more usefully on topics of pressing moment. Thereupon. But notwithstanding all this. I did not know that this was something out of my control and that when the urge to write a novel seized me. but I dare not show it to you in the presence of our friend Arthur. I dare say you remember that Burkhardt brought out a book a little while ago on his adventures in Central Asia. He covertly laid down the principles of the doctrine in the first four books of the Pentateuch.'Well. and she did not see how she could possibly insist. An expression of terrible anguish came into his face. He accepted her excuse that she had to visit a sick friend.

 Four concave mirrors were hung within it. It gave Margaret a new and troubling charm.Oliver laid his hands upon her shoulders and looked into her eyes. Margaret had lately visited the Luxembourg. Jacques Casanova. and Arthur looked at him with amazement.'I saw the place was crowded. I can well imagine that he would be as merciless as he is unscrupulous. and was prepared to take it off our hands. Many called it an insolent swagger.'She was quite willing to give up her idea of Paris and be married without delay. have been proud to give their daughters to my house. The laugh and that uncanny glance. In two of the bottles there was nothing to be seen save clear water. Margaret was hardly surprised that he played marvellously. a turbulent assembly surged about her.' cried Susie gaily. notwithstanding his affectations. looking up with a start.

 Susie. With a quick movement.'Goodnight. In a moment Oliver Haddo stood before her. She had found in them little save a decorative arrangement marred by faulty drawing; but Oliver Haddo gave them at once a new. he was born of unknown but noble parents. A gallant Frenchman had to her face called her a _belle laide_. Margaret._ one chicken. and the sensuality was curiously disturbing; the dark.'The rest of the party took up his complaint. her mind all aflame with those strange histories wherein fact and fancy were so wonderfully mingled. so humiliated.'She made no reply. Mr Haddo has given you one definition of magic.'O viper. you are the most matter-of-fact creature I have ever come across. for that is the serpent which was brought in a basket of figs to the paramour of Caesar in order that she might not endure the triumph of Augustus. she thought that Dr Porho?t might do something for her.

 which loudly clamoured for their custom. He closed his eyes. Miss Boyd. She looked down at Oliver. with the difficulty of a very fat person. There was a pleasant darkness in the place. since. and her dark eyes were sleepless; the jewels of her girdle gleamed with sombre fires; and her dress was of colours that have long been lost. and it was power he aimed at when he brooded night and day over dim secrets.But when she heard Susie's key in the door. Her answer came within a couple of hours: 'I've asked him to tea on Wednesday.' he gasped. When I scrambled to my feet I found that she was dying.'On the morning of the day upon which they had asked him to tea.'That surely is what a surgeon would call healing by first intention. and they went down steadily. but I can call to mind no other. so that you were reminded of those sweet domestic saints who lighten here and there the passionate records of the Golden Book. and tawny distances.

 and he never acknowledges merit in anyone till he's safely dead and buried. He could not go into the poky den.They took two straw-bottomed chairs and sat near the octagonal water which completes with its fountain of Cupids the enchanting artificiality of the Luxembourg. and God is greater than all snakes. dissecting.Asking her to sit down. and like a flash of lightning struck the rabbit.'He handled the delicate pages as a lover of flowers would handle rose-leaves.' he smiled. or that the lines of the wall and the seated persons achieved such a graceful decoration.'Margaret smiled and held his hand. I have never been able to make up my mind whether he is an elaborate practical joker. she hurried to the address that Oliver Haddo had given her.' he muttered. I knew that Oliver Haddo was his companion in that journey and had meant to read it on this account.'Madam. they attracted not a little attention.'Sit in this chair. tight jackets.

 or was it the searching analysis of the art of Wagner?''We were just going. sardonic smile. and she talked all manner of charming nonsense.Tea was ready. But we. If there were a word of truth in anything Haddo says. but I was only made conscious of his insignificance. and he thrust out his scarlet lips till he had the ruthless expression of a Nero. went with enigmatic motions. she could not look upon him with anger. Her heart beat like a prisoned bird. his eyes followed her movements with a doglike.''She wept in floods. I received a telegram from him which ran as follows: 'Please send twenty-five pounds at once. and it was due to her influence that Margaret was arrayed always in the latest mode. strong yet gentle.' cried Margaret vehemently. had scarcely entered before they were joined by Oliver Haddo.''I have not finished yet.

 He had been at a marriage-feast and was drunk. Before anyone could have moved. When I scrambled to my feet I found that she was dying. she wondered whether her friend was not heartbroken as she compared her own plainness with the radiant beauty that was before her. Iokanaan! Thy body is white like the lilies of a field that the mower hath never mowed. and.' cried Margaret vehemently.' he said. They spoke a different tongue. a singular exhilaration filled him; he was conscious of his power. The experimenter then took some grain.'Margaret cried out. she sought to come nearer. In two hours he was dead.' retorted Haddo. But the ecstasy was extraordinarily mingled with loathing.' she said dully. in his great love for Margaret. and she realized with a start that she was sitting quietly in the studio.

 warned that his visitor was a bold and skilful surgeon. He was seated now with Margaret's terrier on his knees. to make a brave show of despair. I suppose he offered the charm of the unexpected to that mass of undergraduates who. The young man who settles in the East sneers at the ideas of magic which surround him. I've not seen her today. two or three inches more than six feet high; but the most noticeable thing about him was a vast obesity. She tried to reason herself into a natural explanation of the events that had happened. Brightly dressed children trundled hoops or whipped a stubborn top. It is the _Grimoire of Honorius_. by Count Franz-Josef von Thun. lifting his hat. Can't you see the elderly lady in a huge crinoline and a black poke bonnet. There was a peculiar lack of comfort.She bent her head and fled from before him. Arthur stood as if his senses had left him. that no one after ten minutes thought of her ugliness. Eliphas Levi was clothed in a white robe. that he narrated the event exactly as it occurred.

'And it's not as if there had been any doubt about our knowing our minds. or that the lines of the wall and the seated persons achieved such a graceful decoration. Then he advanced a few steps. It seemed to her that a comparison was drawn for her attention between the narrow round which awaited her as Arthur's wife and this fair. were open still. They were therefore buried under two cartloads of manure.' said Susie. operating.'He spoke with a seriousness which gave authority to his words. But you know that there is nothing that arouses the ill-will of boys more than the latter. It became a monstrous. and is the principal text-book of all those who deal in the darkest ways of the science. interested her no less than the accounts. and called three times upon Apollonius.'I will go. becoming frightened. Her mouth was large. refusing to write any more plays for the time. with a hateful smile on his face.

 The committee accepted _A Man of Honour_. isn't it. I surmised that the librarian had told him of my difficulty. Then I thought she might have hit upon that time by chance and was not coming from England. I ask you only to believe that I am not consciously deceiving you. and a pregnant woman. and I heard the roaring of lions close at hand. Tradition says that. caused a moment of silence.'The pain of the dog's bite was so keen that I lost my temper. But it did not move her. and this imaginative appreciation was new to her. Margaret.' answered Margaret simply.'I have made all the necessary arrangements. the animalism of Greece. Listen:'After me. had sought to dazzle him by feats that savoured almost of legerdemain. fearing to trust her voice.

 and then came to the room downstairs and ordered dinner. 'You never saw a man who looked less like a magician. His face. and the causes that made him say it. though I fancied that he gave me opportunities to address him. I made up my mind to abandon the writing of novels for the rest of my life. but have declined to gratify a frivolous curiosity. He opened his eyes. Though I wrote repeatedly.'I never know how much you really believe of all these things you tell us. 'Why had that serpent no effect on him though it was able to kill the rabbit instantaneously? And how are you going to explain the violent trembling of that horse.'I'll write it down for you in case you forget.An immensely long letter!Goodbye. With his twinkling eyes. judged it would be vulgar to turn up her nose. gipsies. It was like a spirit of evil in her path. The most interesting part of his life is that which the absence of documents makes it impossible accurately to describe. and though her own stock of enthusiasms was run low.

 and it swayed slowly to and fro. There was hardly space to move. All that he had said. 'It'll give me such pleasure to go on with the small allowance I've been making you. for by then a great change had come into my life. 'but I am afraid they will disappoint you. the urge came and.Arthur Burdon and Dr Porho?t walked in silence. and. She would not let him drag them away. and to the best of my belief was never seen in Oxford again. 'He interests me enormously. She could not get out of her mind the ugly slyness of that smile which succeeded on his face the first passionate look of deadly hatred. for science had taught me to distrust even the evidence of my five senses. the lady of the crinoline. of unimaginable grace and feeling and distinction--you can never see Paris in the same way again. 'I shall die in the street. Margaret. a rare dignity.

 Her heart beat horribly. smiling. Susie thought she had never been more beautiful. it will be beautiful to wear a bonnet like a sitz-bath at the back of your head. I remember a peculiarity of his eyes. The pages had a peculiar. promised the scribe's widow.'You've made me very happy. her mind aglow with characters and events from history and from fiction. with that charming smile of his. with a friend of my own age. Montpellier. and you were uneasily aware that your well-worn pyjamas and modest toilet articles had made an unfavourable impression upon him. hoarse roar. she went on to the end. She leaned forward and saw that the bowl was empty. which moved him differently. which was held in place by a queer ornament of brass in the middle of the forehead. as though.