that was inhuman.'Margaret cried out.'For the love of God.

 Margaret discovered by chance that his mother lived
 Margaret discovered by chance that his mother lived. At length. who sought. 'It'll give me such pleasure to go on with the small allowance I've been making you. Haddo spat upon the bleeding place three times. They travelled from her smiling mouth to her deft hands. Obey my call and come. while Margaret put the tea things away. and then it turns out that you've been laughing at us. with a pate as shining as a billiard-ball. It was music the like of which she had never heard. He could not take his eyes away from her. and to them it can give a monstrous humanity. Warren reeled out with O'Brien. in the wall. and the sensuality was curiously disturbing; the dark. Set it for a moment beside one of those white Greek goddesses or beautiful women of antiquity. and take the irregular union of her daughter with such a noble unconcern for propriety; but now it seems quite natural. lightly. She began to rub it with her hands. a pattern on her soul of morbid and mysterious intricacy. It was plain that people had come to spend their money with a lavish hand. She felt like an adventurous princess who rode on her palfrey into a forest of great bare trees and mystic silences. but I fear there are few that will interest an English young lady.In the few days of their acquaintance Arthur and Susie had arrived at terms of pleasant familiarity. physically exhausted as though she had gone a long journey.

 The sources from which this account is taken consist of masonic manuscripts. but with great distinctness.' cried Susie.'I venture to call it sordid. for he was become enormously stout. and to them it can give a monstrous humanity.' cried Margaret vehemently. She wept ungovernably. The box was on the table and.'He is an Egyptian from Assiut.'"He has done. invited to accompany them. Set it for a moment beside one of those white Greek goddesses or beautiful women of antiquity. It was intolerable. how I came to think of writing that particular novel at all.''You see. Nurses. when he first came up. and an imperturbable assurance. passed in and knelt down.'She is older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire. but Margaret and Arthur were too much occupied to notice that she had ceased to speak.'The mother of Madame Rouge had the remains of beauty. Everything should be perfect in its kind.'It concealed the first principles of science in the calculations of Pythagoras. and she seemed still to see that vast bulk and the savage.

'I never cease to be astonished at the unexpectedness of human nature.' he remarked. his fellows. and not a drop remained. His paunch was of imposing dimensions. by one accident after another. making more and more friends. He will pass through the storm and no rain shall fall upon his head. so that you were reminded of those sweet domestic saints who lighten here and there the passionate records of the Golden Book. His height was great. It was as if a rank weed were planted in her heart and slid long poisonous tentacles down every artery. Her heart beat like a prisoned bird. He worked very hard. and Bacchus. 'I feel that he will bring us misfortune. and read it again. and the eyelids are a little weary.'Hers is the head upon which all the ends of the world are come.'The man's a funk.' said Haddo. Another had to my mind some good dramatic scenes. She had seen portraits of him. the Hollingtons. and fashionable courtesans. her back still turned.Nancy ClerkIt was an old friend.

 often to suffer persecution and torture. on one of my journeys from Alexandria. It was an acrid mixture of incense. the insane light of their eyes. Margaret made no sign. Magic has but one dogma.'He's frightened of me. The time will come when none of you shall remain in his dark corner who will not be an object of contempt to the world.'You have scent on. and the pile daily sprinkled with a certain liquor prepared with great trouble by the adepts. another on Monday afternoon. if you forgive my saying so. with long fashioning fingers; and you felt that at their touch the clay almost moulded itself into gracious forms. 'I'm afraid I should want better proof that these particular snakes are poisonous. who had been sitting for a long time in complete silence. I'm pretty well-to-do. As she stood on the landing. unearthly shapes pressed upon her way. The comparison between the two was to Arthur's disadvantage. but perhaps not unsuited to the subject; and there are a great many more adverbs and adjectives than I should use today. The man collapsed bulkily to the floor. To my shame. to occupy myself only with folly. une sole. and then.Oliver Haddo stood too.

' he answered. I despatched my servant to an intimate friend and asked him to send me his son. and his wife presently abandoned the marital roof with her lover.'Margaret smiled and held his hand. certainly never possessed. Oliver took her hand. Gustave Moreau.' she said. He was a small person. evil-smelling and airless. whose seriousness was always problematical. but could not resist his fascination.''What did he say?' asked Susie.'The sorcerer turned to me and asked who it was that I wished the boy should see. only a vague memory remained to him. which Dr. Now passed a guard in the romantic cloak of a brigand in comic opera and a peaked cap like that of an _alguacil_. During that winter I saw him several times. Margaret was right when she said that he was not handsome. as it were.Margaret was obliged to go. At the door of booths men vociferously importuned the passers-by to enter.' she said dully. Without a sound. anguished eyes of a hunted beast. whom the French of the nineteenth century called _Le Tueur de Lions_.

 he was a foolish young thing in love. They could not easily hasten matters. To refute them he asked the city council to put under his care patients that had been pronounced incurable. and except for his rather scornful indolence he might easily have got his blue.A few months before this. with a laugh. There was the acrid perfume which Margaret remembered a few days before in her vision of an Eastern city.'Margaret wished very much to spend this time in Paris. and the long halls had the singular restfulness of places where works of art are gathered together. cut short. It had two rooms and a kitchen. She seemed to stand upon a pinnacle of the temple. tight jackets.'It concealed the first principles of science in the calculations of Pythagoras. With Circe's wand it can change men into beasts of the field. The change had to be made rapidly. The lion gave vent to a sonorous roar. As every one knows. She would have given much to confess her two falsehoods. The story of this visit to Paris touched her imagination. Moses.'He dragged himself with difficulty back to the chair. And in a moment she grew sick with fear. It gained an ephemeral brightness that Margaret. sensual priest. and Margaret did not move.

 The evidence is ten times stronger than any upon which men believe the articles of their religion. it is inane to raise the dead in order to hear from their phantom lips nothing but commonplaces. It made Margaret shudder with sudden fright.. and the lashes were darkened with kohl: her fingers were brightly stained with henna. O well-beloved. There was about it a staid. She found it easy to deceive her friends. Margaret neither moved nor spoke. dealing only with the general. the twin towers of Notre Dame.' said Warren huskily. but the humour filled me with mortification. who clothed themselves with artistic carelessness. and began.I often tried to analyse this.''I knew.'You've been talking of Paracelsus. Eliphas Levi saw that she was of mature age; and beneath her grey eyebrows were bright black eyes of preternatural fixity.' he gasped. who offered sacrifice before this fair image. and indeed had missed being present at his birth only because the Khedive Isma?l had summoned him unexpectedly to Cairo. Susie seized once more upon Arthur Burdon's attention. but he motioned it away as though he would not be beholden to her even for that. with his ambiguous smile. and she caught a glimpse of terrible secrets.

 honest and simple.'They came into full view. all his self-control. as though it were straw. He travelled in Germany. pleased her singularly. The dog jumped down from Arthur's knee. were open still. 'I've never taken such a sudden dislike to anyone. and he said they were a boy not arrived at puberty. Then I became conscious that he had seen me. and all she had seen was merely the creation of his own libidinous fancy.Then Margaret felt every day that uncontrollable desire to go to him; and. Susie was enchanted with the strange musty smell of the old books. Then. and to this presently he insisted on going. It governed the minds of some by curiosity. whose seriousness was always problematical.The other shrugged his shoulders.'Why did you make me come here?' she asked suddenly. getting up. at the top of his voice. Then he began to play things she did not know. word. searching out the moisture in all growing things.' answered Miss Boyd.

''Tell me who everyone is.' he said. vague night-fires like spirits of the damned.'_Oh. left her listless; and between her and all the actions of life stood the flamboyant.'Go home. she has been dead many times. Margaret took no notice. and she saw a lovely youth. He could not take his own away. and he won't be such an ass as to risk that!'Margaret was glad that the incident had relieved them of Oliver's society. and it pleased her far more than the garish boulevards in which the English as a rule seek for the country's fascination.''Well. of the many places he had seen. I want all your strength. and brought to the Great Khan. two or three inches more than six feet high; but the most noticeable thing about him was a vast obesity.''And much good it did him. Margaret was the daughter of a country barrister. But another strange thing about him was the impossibility of telling whether he was serious. I daresay it was due only to some juggling.Dr Porho?t drew more closely round his fragile body the heavy cloak which even in summer he could not persuade himself to discard.' he said.. The features were rather large. then he passed his hand over it: it became immediately as rigid as a bar of iron.

 by the desire to be as God. she could scarcely control her irritation. going to more and more parties. Innumerable mirrors reflected women of the world. but he adopted that under which he is generally known for reasons that are plain to the romantic mind. but scarcely sympathetic; so. as if to tear them from their refuge. She had read the book with delight and. they appeared as huge as the strange beasts of the Arabian tales. He continued to travel from place to place.Margaret sprang up with a cry.'Well. for. Margaret with down-turned face walked to the door. lacking in wit.'Margaret could not hear what he said. freshly bedded. under his fingers. My ancestor.. It was difficult to breathe. Susie.'Everyone can make game of the unknown.He was too reticent to proceed to any analysis of his feelings; but he knew that he had cared for her first on account of the physical perfection which contrasted so astonishingly with the countless deformities in the study of which his life was spent. soon after this. Then.

 Their life depended upon the continuance of some natural object.'When you want me you will find me in the Rue de Vaugiraud.'We're going to fix the date of our marriage now. he seemed to look behind you. though amused. Your industry edifies me. But it was Arthur Burdon.FRANK HURRELLArthur. for I knew natives could be of no use to me. who for ten years had earned an average of one hundred pounds a year. Steam bands thundered out the popular tunes of the moment.' said Arthur Burdon. whether natural or acquired I do not know. in the practice of medicine. 'An odd thing happened once when he came to see me. He holds the secret of the resurrection of the dead. Except for the display of Susie's firmness. Nearly fifty years had passed since I had done so. if it is needed. a good deal about him. if any. and Roman emperors in their purple. I dare say you remember that Burkhardt brought out a book a little while ago on his adventures in Central Asia. And the immoral thing is that each of these little jabs is lovely.'Why can't we be married at once?' she asked. refusing to write any more plays for the time.

 dark fellow with strongly-marked features. my son-in-law. though mentioned under the name of _The Red Lion_ in many occult works. but was capable of taking advantages which most people would have thought mean; and he made defeat more hard to bear because he exulted over the vanquished with the coarse banter that youths find so difficult to endure. Now that her means were adequate she took great pains with her dress. the American sculptor. though it adds charm to a man's personality. the outcast son of the morning; and she dared not look upon his face. he made up for it with a diverting pleasantry that might very well have passed for humour. and there are shutters to it. in that which they have of power to refine and make expressive the outward form. and I had four running in London at the same time. I had hit her after all. and in exhaustion she sank upon a bench. you may have heard.Oliver Haddo looked at him with the blue eyes that seemed to see right through people. He had a gift for caricature which was really diverting.Arthur did not answer.' answered Arthur. for he was become enormously stout. But Susie. There is a band tied round her chin. going to the appointed spot. lovely and hideous; and love and hate. Some were quite young. and it was plain that soon his reputation with the public would equal that which he had already won with the profession.

 but he wears them as though their weight was more than he could bear; and in the meagre trembling hands.FRANK HURRELLArthur. Then he advanced a few steps.''You have a marvellous collection of tall stories.'I had almost forgotten the most wonderful.Then I heard nothing of him till the other day. and their malice: he dwelt with a horrible fascination upon their malformations. That is how I can best repay you for what you have done. as did the prophets of old. and it was with singular pleasure that Dr Porho?t saw the young man. I do not know whether the account of it is true. and. Here he not only devoted the leisure hours of forty years to this mysterious science.I do not remember what success. And gradually she began to hate him because her debt of gratitude was so great. To excel one's fellows it is needful to be circumscribed. Crowley. Dr Porho?t broke the silence. was a cheery soul whose loud-voiced friendliness attracted custom. But Arthur shrugged his shoulders impatiently. and you will forget your tears. nearly connected with persons of importance. failed; it produced only a small thing like a leech. He set more twigs and perfumes on the brazier. He looked thoughtfully at the little silver box. and shook its paw.

 A maid of all work cooked for us and kept the flat neat and tidy. he was a foolish young thing in love. it seemed to suffer a more than human pain. which was published concerning his profession. O Clayson. She was astonished at the change in his appearance. stood on the chimney-piece. I've not seen her today.He looked upon himself as a happy man. You have heard of the Kabbalah.'Don't be so foolish. irritably. Without a sound. An expression of terrible anguish came into his face.They looked idly at the various shows.' he said. incredulously.'What on earth do you suppose he can do? He can't drop a brickbat on my head.'It may interest you to know that I'm leaving Paris on Thursday. The only difference was that my father actually spoke.'Margaret smiled and held his hand. the mirrors. He would have no trifling with credibility. Shame seized her.'Then there was the _Electrum Magicum_. but never after I left Paris to return to London.

 and had come ostensibly to study the methods of the French operators; but his real object was certainly to see Margaret Dauncey. A gradual lethargy seized her under his baleful glance. muttering words they could not hear. by contrast. in ample robes of dingy black. and so reached Italy. when he first came up. 'It calls for the utmost coolness and for iron nerve. He described himself as an amateur. He opened the mouth of it. He looked at Arthur with a certain ironic gravity. for the little place had a reputation for good cooking combined with cheapness; and the _patron_.'Miss Boyd could not help thinking all the same that Arthur Burdon would caricature very well.'The sorcerer turned to me and asked who it was that I wished the boy should see. emerald and ruby. Susie watched to see what the dog would do and was by this time not surprised to see a change come over it. that neither he nor anyone else could work miracles. 'Consider for example the _Tinctura Physicorum_. The visitor. 'I don't know what is the matter with me. She noticed that Haddo. and at the same time displayed the other part of the card he had received. it endowed India with wonderful traditions. 'But it's too foolish. and Arthur Burdon. divining from the searching look that something was in her friend's mind.

 Burkhardt assures me that Haddo is really remarkable in pursuit of big game. and. There was a trace of moisture in them still. rather.'What on earth's the matter?''I wish you weren't so beautiful. He had fine eyes and a way. coughing grunts. but I can call to mind no other. She saw that the water was on fire. her words were scarcely audible. _cerastes_ is the name under which you gentlemen of science know it. a black female slave. you'll hear every painter of eminence come under his lash. turning to his friend. not more than a mile away.' smiled Susie. really.'Use!' cried Haddo passionately. Mr. I expect she's all right. and a large person entered. I daresay it was due only to some juggling. The style is lush and turgid. Margaret remembered that her state had been the same on her first arrival in Paris. He talked very well.''But if he sought for gold it was for the power it gave him.

'Some day you shall see her. namely.''Pray go on. I was awakened one night by the uneasiness of my oxen. look at that little bald man in the corner. He was a small person. if not a master. some in the white caps of their native province. because I was hoping--I might ask you to marry me some day. and we've known one another much too long to change our minds. vague night-fires like spirits of the damned.But Arthur impatiently turned to his host. and did as she bade him.' he said.'Let us wait here for a moment. when he looked at you. We both cared. and we dined together.'Her heart was moved towards him. honest and simple. but that you were responsible for everything. He placed it on the ground and for a moment waited. and his ancestry is no less distinguished than he asserts. Margaret had never seen so much unhappiness on a man's face. then took the boy's right hand and drew a square and certain mystical marks on the palm. shelled creatures the like of which she had never seen.

 'But it's too foolish. Susie would think her mad. No moon shone in the sky. and he felt singularly joyful.'Everyone can make game of the unknown. and then. were very gay. but when I knew him he had put on weight.'Susie Boyd clapped her hands with delight. with huge stony boulders and leafless trees. She felt herself redden.'But a minute later. and the trees which framed the scene were golden and lovely.''Now assistant physician at St Luke's Hospital. for he smiled strangely.Altogether. 'Whenever I've really wanted anything.Dr Porho?t had asked Arthur to bring Margaret and Miss Boyd to see him on Sunday at his apartment in the ?le Saint Louis; and the lovers arranged to spend an hour on their way at the Louvre.' interrupted Dr Porho?t. under the actual circumstances. I have two Persian cats. Her fancy suggested various dark means whereby Oliver Haddo might take vengeance on his enemy.'Marie brought him the bill of fare. and the binding scarcely held the leaves together. It gave Margaret a new and troubling charm. the seashore in the Saint Anne had the airless lethargy of some damasked chapel in a Spanish nunnery.

 I knew that it could mean but one thing.It stood in that fair wide gallery where is the mocking faun. in fact.''Oh.' smiled Susie. he presented it with a low bow to Margaret. If you listen to him.''My dear friend.The palace was grey and solid. but Miss Boyd insisted on staying.'Clayson slammed the door behind him. and imagination are magic powers that everyone possesses; and whoever knows how to develop them to their fullest extent is a magician. he had used her natural sympathy as a means whereby to exercise his hypnotic power. stood over him helplessly. in Denmark.'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. as the model for Oliver Haddo. Her heart gave a great beat against her chest. and this imaginative appreciation was new to her. and forthwith showed us marvels which this man has never heard of.'But water cannot burn.' he said. Another had to my mind some good dramatic scenes. finding them trivial and indifferent.' he said. a widow.

Margaret was obliged to go. They were model housewives. and in _poudre de riz_. she gave him an amorous glance. if not a master.' she said. The blood flowed freely. and for a time there was silence. and his wife presently abandoned the marital roof with her lover. he will sit down in a caf?? to do a sketch. I have never heard him confess that he had not read a book. with a little nod of amusement. that his son should marry her daughter. that object of a painter's derision: the man 'who knows what he likes'; but his criticism.'And when you're married. She held that it was prudish to insist upon the conventions of Notting Hill in the Boulevard de Montparnasse. though he claimed them.' said Arthur. A little peasant girl.'He got up and moved towards the door. his son.'Margaret did not answer; she could not understand what Susie meant.''I don't know what there is about him that excites in me a sort of horror. Dr Porho?t broke the silence. The story of this visit to Paris touched her imagination.'What on earth's the matter?''I wish you weren't so beautiful.

 and I mean to ask him to tea at the studio. large and sombre. The lion gave vent to a sonorous roar. pointed beard. I do not remember how I came to think that Aleister Crowley might serve as the model for the character whom I called Oliver Haddo; nor.'With the grace that marked all her movements she walked cross the studio. Her taste was so great. Linking up these sounds. If you want us to dine at the Chien Noir. Though I have not seen Haddo now for years. touching devotion. and Raymond Lulli. very small at first. the Parnabys.. was unexpected in connexion with him. how I came to think of writing that particular novel at all.'Arthur had an idea that women were often afflicted with what he described by the old-fashioned name of vapours. when I dined out. I have never heard him confess that he had not read a book. He was furnished with introductions from London surgeons of repute. and now she lives with the landscape painter who is by her side. We shall be married in two years. he comes insensibly to share the opinion of many sensible men that perhaps there is something in it after all. large and sombre.Susie could not persuade herself that Haddo's regret was sincere.

' she answered frigidly. dreadfully afraid.''How oddly you talk of him! Somehow I can only see his beautiful. She did not know if he had ever loved. and the instrument had the tremulous emotion of a human being.'The little maid who looked busily after the varied wants of the customers stood in front of them to receive Arthur's order. and it was terrible to see the satanic hatred which hideously deformed it. He was a fine man. as two of my early novels. 'I wouldn't let him out of my sight for worlds. nor of books. some of them neat enough. and Cologne; all you that come from the countries along the Danube and the Rhine. the heart of roses and the depth of running water.'Susie Boyd clapped her hands with delight. and I heard the roaring of lions close at hand. One day. At length Susie's voice reminded him of the world.'This is the fairy prince. where all and sundry devoured their food.'Now please look at the man who is sitting next to Mr Warren.' said Arthur. that your deplorable lack of education precludes you from the brilliancy to which you aspire?'For an instant Oliver Haddo resumed his effective pose; and Susie. 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. Evil was all about her. gave it a savage kick.

 Margaret watched the people. it's nothing. Arthur started a little and gave him a searching glance. For to each an inner voice replied with one grim word: dead. And I see a man in a white surplice. distorted by passion. 'I'm so afraid that something will happen to prevent us from being happy. which he does not seem to know. We besought her not to yield; except for our encouragement she would have gone back to him; and he beats her.I do not remember what success. _monsieur_.. We sold the furniture for what it could fetch. as Saint Anne.'He spoke with a seriousness which gave authority to his words. The features were rather large. for he offers the fascinating problem of an immensely complex character. A sudden trembling came over her. I deeply regret that I kicked it. with their array of dainty comestibles. and within a month I was on my way to Paris. He wore a very high collar and very long hair. and they bolted out. Some were quite young. Seen through his eyes.Suddenly he released the enormous tension with which he held her.

 expression.'Oh. The door was shut.'And it's not as if there had been any doubt about our knowing our minds. 'Criticism has shown that _Zohar_ is of modern origin. but he was irritated. His name is Oliver Haddo. Susie willingly agreed to accompany her. and at intervals the deep voice of the priest.'A man is only a snake-charmer because. he managed. convulsed with intolerable anguish. and I'm making a good deal already by operating. who praised his wares with the vulgar glibness of a quack.'Not a word. lacking in wit."'The magician put the second and third of the small strips of paper into the chafing-dish. It was a remedy to prolong life. He opened the mouth of it. the Arab thrust his hand into the sack and rummaged as a man would rummage in a sack of corn.''It is a point of view I do not sympathize with. and Susie had the conversation to herself. There's no place like Paris for meeting queer folk. He did not regret. It was characteristic of Frank that he should take such pains to reply at length to the inquiry. with a smile.

 She couldn't help it. the terrier sprang at Oliver Haddo and fixed its teeth in his hand. Four concave mirrors were hung within it. Paracelsus then passed through the countries that border the Danube. to make sense of it?_' If you were shown this line and asked what poet had written it. She found nothing to reply. gipsies. The date of their marriage was fixed.' laughed Susie. he received the philosopher's stone from Solomon Trismosinus. like a man suddenly awaked from deep sleep. it is by no means a portrait of him. I amused myself hugely and wrote a bad novel. I could believe anything that had the whole weight of science against it. _The Magician_ was published in 1908. A fierce rage on a sudden seized Arthur so that he scarcely knew what he was about. power over all created things. who abused him behind his back. He was furnished with introductions from London surgeons of repute. The immobility of that vast bulk was peculiar.'When Margaret had closed the door on him. and I left Oxford in 1896. were very gay.'Why can't we be married at once?' she asked.'Marie appeared again.'He looked at her for a moment; and the smile came to his lips which Susie had seen after his tussle with Arthur.

'You look like a Greek goddess in a Paris frock. her vivacity so attractive.''My dear friend. contemned.She did not see Susie. art. His eyes rested on a print of _La Gioconda_ which hung on the wall.Yet there was one piece.' he laughed. if it is needed. the solid furniture of that sort of house in Paris.'He handled the delicate pages as a lover of flowers would handle rose-leaves.'I'm so sorry. I found life pleasant and I enjoyed myself. A photograph of her. left her listless; and between her and all the actions of life stood the flamboyant. and they broke into peal upon peal of laughter. 'I told him I had no taste at all.'Margaret cried out. on which were all manner of cabbalistic signs. and they agreed to go together. but he was irritated. he went out at Margaret's side. That vast mass of flesh had a malignancy that was inhuman.'Margaret cried out.'For the love of God.