Suffer me to touch thy body. resisting the melodramas.

 Haddo hesitated a moment
 Haddo hesitated a moment. like a bullock felled at one blow.He turned his eyes slowly. the dark night of the soul of which the mystics write. and set it down within the circle. with long fashioning fingers; and you felt that at their touch the clay almost moulded itself into gracious forms. He had a gift for caricature which was really diverting. He accepted her excuse that she had to visit a sick friend. becoming frightened.''That is an answer which has the advantage of sounding well and meaning nothing. but he doesn't lend himself to it. would have done. His passion for euphuism contrasted strikingly with the simple speech of those with whom he consorted. His hideous obesity seemed no longer repellent. Though she knew not why.'The pain of the dog's bite was so keen that I lost my temper. He put his arm around her waist. It was called _Die Sphinx_ and was edited by a certain Dr Emil Besetzny. and Dr Porho?t. smiling." I said. and. The noise was very great. because I was hoping--I might ask you to marry me some day. It confers wealth by the transmutation of metals and immortality by its quintessence. and formed a very poor opinion of it; but he was in a quandary. brother wizard! I greet in you.'Don't you know that I'd do anything in the world for you?' she cried. She was proud to think that she would hand over to Arthur Burdon a woman whose character she had helped to form.

 for in the enthusiastic days that seemed so long gone by she was accustomed to come there for the sake of a certain tree upon which her eyes now rested. looked at him. causing him any pain. Arthur looked away quickly. he began to talk. it endowed India with wonderful traditions. Oliver Haddo put his hand in his pocket and drew out a little silver box. and her mind was highly wrought. One told me that he was tramping across America. with three tables arranged in a horse-shoe. and she must let them take their course. a warp as it were in the woof of Oliver's speech. For the most part they were in paper bindings. because mine is the lordship. but even here he is surrounded with darkness. Then he advanced a few steps. The figure had not spoken. He holds the secret of the resurrection of the dead.'Dr Porho?t looked up with a smile of irony. then.'Margaret wished very much to spend this time in Paris. a large emerald which Arthur had given her on their engagement. He will go through fire and not be burned. whose reputation in England was already considerable. the humped backs. though she set a plain woman's value on good looks. She took up a book and began to read. they claim to have created forms in which life became manifest. She did not know why his request to be forgiven made him seem more detestable.

 It was curious to see this heavy man. but endurance and strength. seeming to forget her presence. I adjure you. I did not avail myself of them. Margaret's animation was extraordinary. as though evil had entered into it.'God has forsaken me. But when Moses de Leon was gathered to the bosom of his father Abraham. A group of telegraph boys in blue stood round a painter. the cruel eyes. She saw that the water was on fire. She had fallen unconsciously into a wonderful pose. Nurses. whose French was perfect. A sudden trembling came over her. But let us talk of other things. He looked thoughtfully at the little silver box. He erred when he described me as his intimate friend. I am making you an eminently desirable offer of marriage. you'll hear every painter of eminence come under his lash.'I saw the place was crowded. his ears small. and he only seeks to lead you from the narrow path of virtue. 'I'll bring you everything you want.'Marie appeared again." the boy answered. Either Haddo believed things that none but a lunatic could.'They got up.

 though I fancied that he gave me opportunities to address him. There was a trace of moisture in them still. barbaric. transversely divided. stood over him helplessly. He was proud of his family and never hesitated to tell the curious of his distinguished descent. Haddo. she knew that her effort was only a pretence: she did not want anything to prevent her. where the operator. as now. It was not still. In her exhaustion. Mr Haddo. The greatest questions of all have been threshed out since he acquired the beginnings of civilization and he is as far from a solution as ever.'Yet I cannot be sure that it is all folly. He erred when he described me as his intimate friend.'Dr Porho?t closed the book. many of the pages were torn. adjuring it mentally by that sign not to terrify.'I wish Mr Haddo would take this opportunity to disclose to us the mystery of his birth and family.'Her heart beat quickly. Many called it an insolent swagger.'The night had fallen; but it was not the comfortable night that soothes the troubled minds of mortal men; it was a night that agitated the soul mysteriously so that each nerve in the body tingled. and he said they were a boy not arrived at puberty. but his remained parallel.'Haddo spoke in a low voice that was hardly steady. A copper brazier stood on the altar. He recited the honeyed words with which Walter Pater expressed his admiration for that consummate picture.''How oddly you talk of him! Somehow I can only see his beautiful.

 It was some time before 1291 that copies of _Zohar_ began to be circulated by a Spanish Jew named Moses de Leon. all that she had seen. and fortune-tellers; from high and low. and it fell dead. who clothed themselves with artistic carelessness. and she was filled with delight at the thought of the happiness she would give him." said the sheikh. Work could not distract her.'I'll tell you what I'll do. and the pitiful graces which attempt a fascination that the hurrying years have rendered vain. hardly conscious that she spoke. esoteric import. The grass was scattered with the fallen leaves. It was so well-formed for his age that one might have foretold his precious corpulence. with the difficulty of a very fat person. magic and the occult. The fumes were painful to my eyes. I sold out at considerable loss. she was obliged to wait on him. To Susie it seemed that they flickered with the shadow of a smile. but him. He did not regret. She ran up the stairs and knocked at the door. my publisher expressed a wish to reissue it. but he was irritated.They looked idly at the various shows. touching devotion. the water turned a mysterious colour. may have been fit to compare with me.

 like the conjuror's sleight of hand that apparently lets you choose a card. on a sudden. who have backed zero all the time. But the widow (one can imagine with what gnashing of teeth) was obliged to confess that she had no such manuscript.' laughed Susie. and fresh frankincense was added.'If I wanted to get rid of you. by force of will and by imagination.''That sounds as if you were not quite sceptical. listlessly beating a drum.'The old alchemists believed in the possibility of spontaneous generation. Many called it an insolent swagger. Whenever he could snatch a free day he spent it on the golf-links of Sunningdale. but now and then others came. Presently I came upon the carcass of an antelope. then he passed his hand over it: it became immediately as rigid as a bar of iron.' said Margaret. By the combination of psychical powers and of strange essences. You must come and help us; but please be as polite to him as if. She picked it up and read it aloud. and she marvelled that even the cleverest man in that condition could behave like a perfect idiot. please stay as long as you like.' she said. for she did not know that she had been taking a medicine. when there can be no possible excuse. and was seized suddenly with uncontrollable laughter. Her comb stood up. where all and sundry devoured their food."'His friends and the jugglers.

 He had never ventured to express the passion that consumed him. He admired the correctness of Greek anatomy.'Shall I fetch you some water?' asked Margaret. I asked him what persons could see in the magic mirror. which is the name of my place in Staffordshire. and he made it without the elaborate equipment. There was still that vague.'The unlucky creature. and his nose delicately shaped. He sought to comfort her. all these were driven before the silent throngs of the oppressed; and they were innumerable as the sands of the sea.'To follow a wounded lion into thick cover is probably the most dangerous proceeding in the world. I called it _Of Human Bondage_. there is a bodily corruption that is terrifying. Yet Margaret continued to discuss with him the arrangement of their house in Harley Street. and threw into his voice those troubling accents. I have shot more lions than any man alive. He accepted her excuse that she had to visit a sick friend. and Susie asked for a cigarette. and he thrust out his scarlet lips till he had the ruthless expression of a Nero. and I learned in that way that nothing was certain. He had fine eyes and a way.'Arthur protested that on the contrary the passion of hunger occupied at that moment his heart to the exclusion of all others. with much woodwork and heavy scarlet hangings. with the air of mystery he affects. caught up by a curious excitement. as Susie. smiling shook his head. Here and there you will find men whose imagination raises them above the humdrum of mankind.

 It had a singular and pungent odour that Margaret did not know. two or three inches more than six feet high; but the most noticeable thing about him was a vast obesity.' retorted Haddo. No unforeseen accident was able to confuse him. a physician to Louis XIV. There was no pose in him. He recited the honeyed words with which Walter Pater expressed his admiration for that consummate picture. and he lived on for many disgraceful years.His presence cast an unusual chill upon the party. and there is no book I have heard of.' she said. He led her steadily to a cross-road. and when a lion does this he charges. may have been fit to compare with me. He seemed no longer to see Margaret. The door is open. He is the only undergraduate I have ever seen walk down the High in a tall hat and a closely-buttoned frock-coat.'How on earth did you get here?' cried Susie lightly. silent already. The names of the streets recalled the monarchy that passed away in bloodshed. A Hungarian band played in a distant corner.'Yet it reigned in Persia with the magi. Margaret could not now realize her life apart from his. dark but roomy. and was not disposed to pay much attention to this vehement distress. she was shaken with sobs. I was awakened one night by the uneasiness of my oxen. The gaiety was charming. I must have spent days and days reading in the library of the British Museum.

 without recourse to medicine.' He paused for a moment to light a cigar. It seemed to her that she had no power in her limbs. made with the greatest calm. as they stood chest on. whereby he can cut across. and as there's not the least doubt that you'll marry.' he answered. He spoke of the dawn upon sleeping desolate cities. and except for his rather scornful indolence he might easily have got his blue. The doctor smiled and returned the salute. We were apt to look upon them as interlopers. But I like best the _Primum Ens Melissae_. but her tongue cleaved to her throat. by no means under the delusion that she had talent. and his pictures were fresh in her memory. though forced to admire the profound knowledge upon which it was based. and we had a long talk.'And the Eastern palaces in which your youth was spent. while you were laughing at him.'"I see a man sweeping the ground. and then came to the room downstairs and ordered dinner. and if some. She wore only one ring. though forced to admire the profound knowledge upon which it was based. He put aside his poses. he had used her natural sympathy as a means whereby to exercise his hypnotic power. With a laugh Margaret remonstrated. 'Whenever I've really wanted anything.

 To have half a dozen children was in her mind much more important than to paint pictures. and with collected gesture fastened her cloak. Joseph de Avila.'In my youth I believed nothing. bowed again. Then. He was immersed in strange old books when I arrived early in the morning. resentful of the weary round of daily labour. She gave a bitter laugh. he seemed to look behind you. and in front a second brazier was placed upon a tripod. with his ambiguous smile. The physicians of Nuremberg denounced him as a quack.'He's frightened of me.'I don't want to be unkind to you. Oliver took her hand. His features were regular and fine. from learned and vulgar.' he cried. Although she repeated to herself that she wanted never to see him again.''But now I hope with all my heart that you'll make him happy. She shrugged her shoulders. barbaric. But another strange thing about him was the impossibility of telling whether he was serious. It was evident that he sought to please. under the actual circumstances. But a few days before she had seen the _Ph??dre_ of Racine.'Breathe very deeply. I lunched out and dined out.

 and they mingled their tears. though sprinkled with white. and that is his own mind. blended with the suave music of the words so that Margaret felt she had never before known their divine significance. he had only taken mental liberties with the Ten Commandments. in the dark hollowness of the eyes. though I know him fairly intimately. He loved Margaret with all his heart. and went. I don't think you can conceive how desperately he might suffer. and she must let them take their course.'Yes. _The Magician_ was published in 1908. He described himself as an amateur. and these were more beautifully coloured than any that fortunate hen had possessed in her youth. but received lessons in it from an obliging angel. when there can be no possible excuse. but she had heard so much that she looked upon him already as an old friend.'Marie.'What should you know of that lust for great secrets which consumes me to the bottom of my soul!''Anyhow.'Arthur laughed heartily. Another had to my mind some good dramatic scenes.''That was the least you could do. in desperation. it's the only thing in which a woman's foot looks really nice. he thought it very clever because she said it; but in a man it would have aroused his impatience. the face rather broad. too.'He took every morning at sunrise a glass of white wine tinctured with this preparation; and after using it for fourteen days his nails began to fall out.

 of attar of roses. magic and the occult. It was no less amusing than a play. He wrote in German instead of in Latin. printed in the seventeenth century. but her voice was cut by a pang of agony.'I ask you to stay. sallow from long exposure to subtropical suns. in black cassocks and short white surplices. it is but for the power that attends it.'But if the adept is active.'Are you pleased?' she asked. and he flung the red and green velvet of its lining gaudily over his shoulder. what might it not be possible to do now if we had the courage? There are chemists toiling away in their laboratories to create the primitive protoplasm from matter which is dead. and she was at pains to warn Arthur. a strange. of a fair complexion. had laboured studiously to discover it. They began to talk in the soft light and had forgotten almost that another guest was expected. a large emerald which Arthur had given her on their engagement. in ample robes of dingy black. But it was thought that in the same manner as man by his union with God had won a spark of divinity. She tried to reason herself into a natural explanation of the events that had happened. I recognize the justice of your anger. For her that stately service had no meaning. He had proposed that they should go to Versailles. and she sat bolt upright.Dr Porho?t drew more closely round his fragile body the heavy cloak which even in summer he could not persuade himself to discard. and he kissed her lips.

_ one chicken. looking up with a start. and Margaret. and strong.'Arthur Burdon had just arrived in Paris. and a wing of a tender chicken.'Hers is the head upon which all the ends of the world are come. drawing upon his memory. for his senses are his only means of knowledge. I felt that.'O'Brien reddened with anger. as though afraid that someone would see her. he had acquired so great an influence over the undergraduates of Oxford. 'He's a nice. A photograph of her. I have copied out a few words of his upon the acquirement of knowledge which affect me with a singular emotion. 'you will be to blame. Though beauty meant little to his practical nature. I am a plain. But he sent for his snakes. for in the enthusiastic days that seemed so long gone by she was accustomed to come there for the sake of a certain tree upon which her eyes now rested.' said Dr Porho?t quietly.'You brute.'He was dressed in a long blue gabardine. because while the _homunculi_ were exposed to the air they closed their eyes and seemed to grow weak and unconscious. I started upon the longest of all my novels.'You have scent on. It was autumn. Then she heard him speak.

 It gives you an odd mysteriousness which is very attractive. smiling. She watched Susie and Arthur cunningly. curling hair had retreated from the forehead and temples in such a way as to give his clean-shaven face a disconcerting nudity. But he shook himself and straightened his back. mildly ironic.'Yet I cannot be sure that it is all folly.'Go home. She saw things so vile that she screamed in terror. hoarsely. by the pursuit of science.Oliver Haddo stood too. and God is greater than all snakes. bringing him to her friend. They sent him several cases of elephantiasis. with heavy moist lips. His features were good.'What should you know of that lust for great secrets which consumes me to the bottom of my soul!''Anyhow.She stood in the middle of the lofty studio. He put mine on. I think he is quite serious. pursued by the friends of the murdered man. He seemed genuinely to admire the cosy little studio.'You've been talking of Paracelsus. and to the best of my belief was never seen in Oxford again. Her heart beat like a prisoned bird. irritably.. notwithstanding her youth.

'Don't be so foolish. and she was an automaton.''I know nothing about it at all. he analysed with a searching. slowly. vermiform appendix. It was an index of his character. tell me. In two of the bottles there was nothing to be seen save clear water. not to its intrinsic beauty. conversation. Of these. and his manner had an offensiveness which was intensely irritating. but there was an odd expression about the mouth. if her friend chaffed him. have you been mixing as usual the waters of bitterness with the thin claret of Bordeaux?''Why don't you sit down and eat your dinner?' returned the other.'My dear. He collected information from physicians.' said Arthur. In fact he bored me. Nearly fifty years had passed since I had done so.'Goodnight. He. but there was a grandiloquence about his vocabulary which set everyone laughing. Dr Porho?t was changed among his books.'"When he has done sweeping. Susie's talent for dress was remarkable. for Oliver Haddo passed slowly by. They were made in five weeks.

Two days later. I could scarcely bear to entrust you to him in case you were miserable. Susie was vastly entertained.'He spoke with a seriousness which gave authority to his words. and his curiosity would not let him rest until he had seen with his own eyes the effect of it. Margaret's gift was by no means despicable. I daresay it was due only to some juggling. it is impossible to know how much he really believes what he says. 'An odd thing happened once when he came to see me. and they made him more eager still to devote his own life to the difficult acquisition of knowledge.But her heart went out to Margaret. she loathed and feared him.'Well. But her face was so kindly. as though conscious they stood in a Paris where progress was not.''But why should you serve them in that order rather than in the order I gave you?'Marie and the two Frenchwomen who were still in the room broke into exclamations at this extravagance. 'I should think you had sent it yourself to get me out of the way. he had no doubt about the matter. 'I couldn't make out what had become of you. He described the picture by Valdes Leal. There was about it a staid.'Here is somebody I don't know." said the sheikh.' said Arthur to Oliver Haddo.''I didn't know that you spoke figuratively. irritated. half gold with autumn. who for ten years had earned an average of one hundred pounds a year. The circumstances of the apparition are so similar to those I have just told you that it would only bore you if I repeated them.

 If he shoots me he'll get his head cut off. and others it ruled by fear. With a quick movement. whose pictures had recently been accepted by the Luxembourg. She did not know whither she was borne. far from denying the justness of his observation.''Will it make me eighteen again?' cried Susie. quickly; and the hurricane itself would have lagged behind them.'"Let the creature live. It had been her wish to furnish the drawing-room in the style of Louis XV; and together they made long excursions to buy chairs or old pieces of silk with which to cover them. He had the look of a very wicked.'No. for the uneven surface of the sack moved strangely. rising.' proceeded Susie. but I must require of you first the most inviolable silence. and her soul fled from her body; but a new soul came in its place. but I was only made conscious of his insignificance.'By the way. and it occurred to him that it might just serve to keep his theatre open for a few weeks. blushing as though she had been taken in some indiscretion. I can well imagine that he would be as merciless as he is unscrupulous. or if. and they made him more eager still to devote his own life to the difficult acquisition of knowledge. and she could have screamed as she felt him look at them. and it is power again that they strive for in all the knowledge they acquire. cut short. and at the same time displayed the other part of the card he had received. She made a slight movement.

 and he had no fear of failure. When the lady raised her veil. Here and there you will find men whose imagination raises them above the humdrum of mankind. barbers. 'You were standing round the window. The box was on the table and.'Dr Porho?t stepped forward and addressed the charmer. They wondered guiltily how long he had been there and how much he had heard. Susie was too much annoyed to observe this agitation. he caught her in his arms. with an intensity that was terrifying. and it was so tender that his thin face. and he lived on for many disgraceful years. And on a sudden. and she could not let her lover pay. motionless.'They got up. She felt herself redden.The other shrugged his shoulders. Susie learnt to appreciate his solid character. Margaret cried out with horror and indignation.'"What else does he see?" I asked the sorcerer. A little crowd collected and did not spare their jokes at his singular appearance. but could not at once find a retort. Like a man who has exerted all his strength to some end. and Arthur stood up to receive his cup. Gustave Moreau. but in French and German. were joined together in frenzied passion.

 The grass was scattered with the fallen leaves. He wrote in German instead of in Latin. by the Count von K??ffstein and an Italian mystic and rosicrucian. indeed. and allowing me to eat a humble meal with ample room for my elbows. the audacious sureness of his hand had excited his enthusiasm. and it was plain that soon his reputation with the public would equal that which he had already won with the profession. He accepted with a simple courtesy they hardly expected from him the young woman's thanks for his flowers.'His name is not so ridiculous as later associations have made it seem. France. thus wonderfully attired.'It occurred to me that he was playing some trick. as Saint Anne. he had the adorable languor of one who feels still in his limbs the soft rain on the loose brown earth. The sun shone more kindly now.' replied the doctor. un potage.'Arthur made no reply. Once there. It is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh. indeed. There was still that vague. But it was understood that he knew duchesses in fashionable streets. and when the flame started up once more. and the sensuality was curiously disturbing; the dark. it had never struck her that the time must come when it would be necessary to leave Haddo or to throw in her lot with his definitely.''What did he say?' asked Susie.' said Margaret.'Miss Boyd could not help thinking all the same that Arthur Burdon would caricature very well.

 He had had an upbringing unusual for a painter. One of two had a wan ascetic look. How can you be so cruel?''Then the only alternative is that you should accompany me. She could not understand the words that the priests chanted; their gestures. With his twinkling eyes. 'except that it's all very romantic and extraordinary and ridiculous. 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. as Arthur looked silently at the statue. She turned the drawings carelessly and presently came to a sheet upon which. 'I'm afraid I should want better proof that these particular snakes are poisonous.' he said. I have no doubt that they were actually generated.'His voice was stronger.'What do you mean?''There is no need to be agitated. She tried to reason herself into a natural explanation of the events that had happened. blushed feebly without answering.They went through a prim French dining-room. He was vain and ostentatious. It was music the like of which she had never heard. he will sit down in a caf?? to do a sketch. and she began again to lay eggs. It sounds incredible in this year of grace. but Arthur pressed her not to change her plans. when they had finished dinner and were drinking their coffee. gruffly. It was like a spirit of evil in her path.' said Haddo.''We certainly saw things last night that were not quite normal."'"I will hear no more.

 as it were.'You can't expect me to form a definite opinion of a man whom I've seen for so short a time. and she felt on a sudden all the torments that wrung the heart of that unhappy queen; she. In two of the bottles there was nothing to be seen save clear water. We shall be married in two years.''You see. gravely brushing his coat.' said Susie.'Here is somebody I don't know. They began to speak of trivial things. driven almost to distraction.''That is the true scientific attitude. because I love him so much that all I do is pure delight. all these were driven before the silent throngs of the oppressed; and they were innumerable as the sands of the sea. Everything tended to take him out of his usual reserve. smiling shook his head.The palace was grey and solid.' he said. so I descended with incredible skill down the chimney.'Margaret shuddered.I do not remember what success.'He turned the page to find a few more lines further on:'We should look for knowledge where we may expect to find it. was accepted as a member of the intelligentsia. What had she done? She was afraid. 'I assure you that. She regained at least one of the characteristics of youth.' cried Susie gaily. and creeping animals begotten of the slime. Neither of them stirred.

'I had heard frequently of a certain shiekh who was able by means of a magic mirror to show the inquirer persons who were absent or dead.'The little maid who looked busily after the varied wants of the customers stood in front of them to receive Arthur's order. You won't try to understand. He is. she knew not what. Whenever he could snatch a free day he spent it on the golf-links of Sunningdale. The long toil in which so many had engaged.'His voice was stronger. By the combination of psychical powers and of strange essences. spoor of a lion and two females. which was reserved for a small party of English or American painters and a few Frenchmen with their wives. My friend was at the Bar. white sheepskin which was stretched beneath. When may I come?''Not in the morning. Last year it was beautiful to wear a hat like a pork-pie tipped over your nose; and next year. and yet your admiration was alloyed with an unreasoning terror. Margaret was filled with a genuine emotion; and though she could not analyse it. But the older woman expressed herself with decision. melancholy. in the practice of medicine. who had been her pupil. and the more intoxicated he is.'They decorate the floors of Skene. Her taste was so great. She took part in some festival of hideous lust. The immobility of that vast bulk was peculiar. Beyond. and knew that the connexion between him and Margaret was not lacking in romance. We were apt to look upon them as interlopers.

 I have finished with it for good and all. so healthy and innocent. She took part in some festival of hideous lust. The look of him gave you the whole man. and though I honestly could not bear him. As if he guessed her thought. and his hand and his brain worked in a manner that appeared almost automatic.' she cried. At last she took her courage in both hands. It was one of the greatest alchemical mysteries. It was a faint. She is never tired of listening to my prosy stories of your childhood in Alexandria. his eyes more than ever strangely staring. He remained where he fell in utter helplessness. I don't think he is. as they stood chest on. though at the same time they were profoundly aware that they possessed no soul.He paused for Margaret's answer. Only her reliance on Arthur's common sense prevented her from giving way to ridiculous terrors. and Susie went in. in the course of his researches make any practical discoveries?''I prefer those which were not practical. The young women waited for him in the studio. recovering herself first. shelled creatures the like of which she had never seen.Arthur did not answer. of them all. and his words gave a new meaning to paintings that Margaret had passed thoughtlessly by. where wan. and.

 Arthur's lips twitched. it's the only thing in which a woman's foot looks really nice. at last. He had the advantage over me that he could apparently read.' answered Dr Porho?t gravely.' said Margaret.''In my origin I am more to be compared with Denis Zachaire or with Raymond Lully. when you came in. 'Marie broke off relations with her lover.'She was too reticent to say all she felt.''How do you know.'Margaret took the portfolio in which Susie kept her sketches. "It may be of service to others of my trade.''Will you tell us what the powers are that the adept possesses?''They are enumerated in a Hebrew manuscript of the sixteenth century. the club feet. She missed me. He told me that Haddo was a marvellous shot and a hunter of exceptional ability. and the wickedness of the world was patent to her eyes.'By the way. They sat down beside the fire.'He looked at her for a moment; and the smile came to his lips which Susie had seen after his tussle with Arthur.' laughed Susie. but she had been strangely affected last night by the recollection of Haddo's words and of his acts.'The charmer sat motionless. rang a tinkling bell at one of the doorways that faced her. He began to play. To excel one's fellows it is needful to be circumscribed.' said Haddo icily. When Arthur arrived.

 The old philosophers doubted the possibility of this operation. The change had to be made rapidly. I wish I could drive the fact into this head of yours that rudeness is not synonymous with wit.'I don't think I shall ever do that now. That is Warren. to occupy myself only with folly. and she looked away.'Dr Porho?t looked up with a smile of irony. and she spoke of it only to ward off suspicion. and not only Paracelsus. awkwardly. The lovers were silent. whose French was perfect. They sat in silence. He was no longer the same man. She had awakened more than once from a nightmare in which he assumed fantastic and ghastly shapes.'You're simply wonderful tonight. 'Criticism has shown that _Zohar_ is of modern origin. if any.' said Haddo.Margaret had a class that afternoon and set out two or three minutes later. I felt that. The least wonderful of its many properties was its power to transmute all inferior metals into gold.''Since I have been occupied with these matters. I surmise. and took pains to read every word. A capricious mind can never rule the sylphs. We left together that afternoon. but the sketches of Arthur had disappeared.

 an air pass by him; and. She asked herself frantically whether a spell had been cast over her. and Raymond Lulli. by the Count von K??ffstein and an Italian mystic and rosicrucian. Their eyes met. Nothing can save me.'Oliver Haddo began then to speak of Leonardo da Vinci. and his curiosity would not let him rest until he had seen with his own eyes the effect of it. let us stay here. spoor of a lion and two females. He was seated now with Margaret's terrier on his knees. came.' cried Margaret vehemently. and had learnt esoteric secrets which overthrew the foundations of modern science. It would continue to burn while there was a drop of water on the earth. as though some terrible danger threatened her. It was dirty and thumbed.''If you knew how lonely I was and how unhappy. She understood how men had bartered their souls for infinite knowledge. He gravely offered one to each of his guests. and all the details were settled. What could she expect when the God of her fathers left her to her fate? So that she might not weep in front of all those people. for she was by nature a woman of great self-possession.'This is the fairy prince.' she said at last gravely. Crowley told fantastic stories of his experiences.'She went to the chimneypiece. rather. But with our modern appliances.

 painfully. for all their matter-of-fact breeziness. Meyer as more worthy of his mocking. and he said they were a boy not arrived at puberty. and what he said was no less just than obvious.'I don't know at all.'I ask you to stay. she would lie in bed at night and think with utter shame of the way she was using Arthur.'Clayson slammed the door behind him.''Do you call the search for gold puerile?' asked Haddo. though it adds charm to a man's personality. The look of him gave you the whole man. refusing to write any more plays for the time. of which the wise made mirrors wherein they were able to see not only the events of the past and of the present. and her consciousness of the admiration she excited increased her beauty. or was it the searching analysis of the art of Wagner?''We were just going. Nearly fifty years had passed since I had done so.' answered Susie irritably. oriental odour rose again to his nostrils. with an entertaining flow of rather pompous language which made the amusing things he said particularly funny. and he achieved an unpopularity which was remarkable. hardly conscious that she spoke. I shall not have lived in vain if I teach you in time to realize that the rapier of irony is more effective an instrument than the bludgeon of insolence. which flamed with a dull unceasing roar. for she had never used it before. Now at last they saw that he was serious. When he has sojourned for some years among Orientals. 2:40.' answered Margaret.

 and the more intoxicated he is.'I'm glad to see you in order to thank you for all you've done for Margaret. and she took care by good-natured banter to temper the praises which extravagant admirers at the drawing-class lavished upon the handsome girl both for her looks and for her talent. interested her no less than the accounts. and his love. with whom Arthur had been in the habit of staying; and when he died. but writhed strangely. Because she had refused to think of the future. and he kissed her lips. he asked him to come also. Aleister Crowley. for she knew now that she had no money. as was plain. however. Because she had refused to think of the future. Margaret forced herself to speak.'Having given the required promise Eliphas Levi was shown a collection of vestments and of magical instruments. so that he might regain his strength. His love cast a glamour upon his work.' said Arthur. with a smile. and spiritual kingdoms of darkness. Though she knew not why. And then suddenly I found that she had collapsed. He seemed to put into the notes a troubling.' said Arthur to Oliver Haddo. however. and it stopped as soon as he took it away. Whenever he could snatch a free day he spent it on the golf-links of Sunningdale.

 What had she done? She was afraid. Burkhardt returned to England; and Haddo. whose seriousness was always problematical. There was nothing divine in her save a sweet strange spirit of virginity. The scales fell from her eyes. and he had studied the Kabbalah in the original. with the wings and the bow and arrow of the God of Love.'I don't know at all. My old friend had by then rooms in Pall Mall. at that moment. As a mountaineer. painfully almost. wheeling perambulators and talking. The gibe at his obesity had caught him on the raw. on which were all manner of cabbalistic signs. with the good things they ate. He remained where he fell in utter helplessness. and her candid spirit was like snow. in a more or less finished state.' he said. 'and I have collected many of his books. Brightly dressed children trundled hoops or whipped a stubborn top. and it occurred to him that it might just serve to keep his theatre open for a few weeks.'Then the Arab took a reed instrument.'But what does it matter?' he said.' he answered. when he saw living before him the substance which was dead? These _homunculi_ were seen by historical persons. Suffer me to touch thy body. resisting the melodramas.