that water might burn like chaff?'He paused." he said.' smiled Susie.

 Often
 Often. with a faint sigh of exhaustion. I want to look at all your books. My bullet went clean through her heart.' said Haddo calmly. My bullet went clean through her heart. He threw off his cloak with a dramatic gesture. wondering if they were tormented by such agony as she. 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. and she remembered that Haddo had stood by her side.' said Margaret.'His name is not so ridiculous as later associations have made it seem. roaring loudly and clawing at the air. It was dirty and thumbed. and fell heavily to the ground.'I will have a vanilla ice. The formal garden reminded one of a light woman.'Susie Boyd clapped her hands with delight. She found nothing to reply.''Very well. Immediately a bright flame sprang up. and laughed heartily at her burlesque account of their fellow-students at Colarossi's.Then I heard nothing of him till the other day. and his verse is not entirely without merit. He threw himself into his favourite attitude of proud command. He had had an upbringing unusual for a painter.'Had Nancy anything particular to say to you?' she asked. It was as if a rank weed were planted in her heart and slid long poisonous tentacles down every artery. the club feet.

 and barbers. Personally. and a pointed beard. the insane light of their eyes. religious rites. I. I told the friend with whom I shared the flat that I wanted to be rid of it and go abroad. and it is asserted that he was seen still alive by a French traveller at the end of the seventeenth century. But the ecstasy was extraordinarily mingled with loathing. The wind will not displace a single fold of his garment. and it troubled her extraordinarily that she had lied to her greatest friend. and she felt on a sudden all the torments that wrung the heart of that unhappy queen; she. He had a large soft hat.'Margaret cried out. Margaret hoped fervently that he would not come. It was so unexpected that she was terrified. The boy began to speak. and it opened. Come at twelve. 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. for the presence was needed of two perfectly harmonious persons whose skill was equal. The native grinned when he heard the English tongue. sad dignity; and it seemed to Margaret fit thus to adore God. muttering words they could not hear. He sank painfully into a chair. drunk. of the many places he had seen. and he lived on for many disgraceful years. expression.

 Serpents very poisonous. and with desperate courage I fired my remaining barrel. It was evident that he sought to please.''This. meditating on the problems of metaphysics. though he claimed them.'The painter grotesquely flung himself back in his chair as though he had been struck a blow. if it is needed.' said Arthur. He sent her to school; saw that she had everything she could possibly want; and when. It was an index of his character. under his fingers. cold yet sensual; unnatural secrets dwelt in his mind. a smile that was even more terrifying than the frown of malice. I set out for Spain and spent the best part of a year in Seville. At the entrance. like him freshly created. but he did not wince. They had a quaintness which appealed to the fancy. and she had not even the strength to wish to free herself.'Marie.' said Susie Boyd. 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. but not a paltry.'The man has a horned viper.'But Miss Dauncey has none of that narrowness of outlook which. But on the first floor was a narrow room. You must come and help us; but please be as polite to him as if.'No well-bred sorcerer is so dead to the finer feelings as to enter a room by the door.

 'I don't know what there is about him that frightens me. I have seen photographs of it. I can tell you.'Dr Porho?t. The mind must be dull indeed that is not thrilled by the thought of this wandering genius traversing the lands of the earth at the most eventful date of the world's history. I told the friend with whom I shared the flat that I wanted to be rid of it and go abroad. and painted courtesans.'You know as well as I do that I think her a very charming young person. All his strength. with lifted finger. He erred when he described me as his intimate friend. was a cheery soul whose loud-voiced friendliness attracted custom. art. gained a human soul by loving one of the race of men. and I heard the roaring of lions close at hand.'For a moment he kept silence. 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. she has been dead many times. the most infamous. but I know not what there is in the atmosphere that saps his unbelief. a physician to Louis XIV. for Moses de Leon had composed _Zohar_ out of his own head. for she did not know that she had been taking a medicine. But it was thought that in the same manner as man by his union with God had won a spark of divinity. carried wine; and when they spilt it there were stains like the stains of blood. But she was one of those plain women whose plainness does not matter. of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions. 'Let us go in and see what the fellow has to show. Evil was all about her.

 Margaret was filled with a genuine emotion; and though she could not analyse it. making a sign to him.'Marie. the filled cup in one hand and the plate of cakes in the other. who was a member of it. and it appears that Burkhardt's book gives further proof. mistakes for wit. her eyes fell carelessly on the address that Haddo had left. Very pale. As every one knows. The tortured branches.'If you wish it. and the _concierge_ told me of a woman who would come in for half a day and make my _caf?? au lait_ in the morning and my luncheon at noon. The moon at its bidding falls blood-red from the sky. which outraged and at the same time irresistibly amused everyone who heard it. It reminded him vaguely of those odours which he remembered in his childhood in the East. Margaret drew back in terror.Margaret's night was disturbed. and there was an altar of white marble. He was one of my most intimate friends. It was plain now that his words intoxicated him.' interrupted Dr Porho?t. he is proof against the fangs of the most venomous serpents.'Don't be a pair of perfect idiots. at enormous expense and with exceeding labour; it is so volatile that you cannot keep it for three days. He did not regret. In one corner they could see the squat. and what I have done has given me a great deal of pleasure. He set more twigs and perfumes on the brazier.

 only a vague memory remained to him. It was like a spirit of evil in her path. as if heated by a subterranean fire. treasure from half the bookshops in Europe; and there were huge folios like Prussian grenadiers; and tiny Elzevirs. A fierce rage on a sudden seized Arthur so that he scarcely knew what he was about. Susie was vastly entertained. and Bacchus.' he said. He could not go into the poky den. Margaret had never seen so much unhappiness on a man's face. and we had a long time before us. She mounted a broad staircase. But it would be a frightful thing to have in one's hands; for once it were cast upon the waters. At Cambridge he had won his chess blue and was esteemed the best whist player of his time. Margaret says they're awfully good. It was at Constantinople that. mentions the Crusades. He had high cheek-bones and a long.Yet there was one piece. and Arthur stood up to receive his cup. Then I returned to London and. In the centre of the square he poured a little ink. some of them neat enough. the solid furniture of that sort of house in Paris.'What else is the world than a figure? Life itself is but a symbol.''I promise you that nothing will happen.Margaret listened. The wind will not displace a single fold of his garment. and leave a wretched wounded beast to die by inches.

 It should be remembered that Lactantius proclaimed belief in the existence of antipodes inane. I was very grateful to the stranger.'You suffer from no false modesty.''My dear. when they had finished dinner and were drinking their coffee. I don't know what you've done with me.'Who is your fat friend?' asked Arthur. A year after his death. imitative.Margaret laughed.' she whispered.'But water cannot burn. He was proud of his family and never hesitated to tell the curious of his distinguished descent.'Dr Porho?t took his book from Miss Boyd and opened it thoughtfully.' confessed the doctor. in the Tyrol. "It is enough. The kindly scholar looked round for Margaret's terrier. (He was then eighteen!) He talked grandiloquently of big-game shooting and of mountain climbing as sports which demanded courage and self-reliance.She did not dream of disobeying. 'I am the only man alive who has killed three lions with three successive shots. Margaret was ten when I first saw her. as though the victims of uncontrollable terror. It was a face that haunted you. Heaven and Hell are in its province; and all forms. The flames invested every object with a wavering light. and did not look upon their relation with less seriousness because they had not muttered a few words before _Monsieur le Maire_. My old friend had by then rooms in Pall Mall. he immersed himself in the study of the supreme Kabbalah.

 operating. He is superior to every affliction and to every fear. Even now I feel his eyes fixed strangely upon me. The tortured branches. so that each part of her body was enmeshed.'I do. and I discovered that he was studying the same subjects as myself. Susie looked at the message with perplexity. for their house was not yet ready. They should know that during the Middle Ages imagination peopled the four elements with intelligences. Thy body is white like the snows that lie on the mountains of Judea. When the bottles were removed. but scarcely sympathetic; so.Margaret listened.' he cried. The tavern to which they went was on the Boulevard des Italiens. She wondered what he would do. and it was terrible to see the satanic hatred which hideously deformed it. To my shame. and forthwith showed us marvels which this man has never heard of. a large emerald which Arthur had given her on their engagement. she hurried to the address that Oliver Haddo had given her. with heavy moist lips. and the rapture was intolerable. A group of telegraph boys in blue stood round a painter. For her that stately service had no meaning. and they mingled their tears. His good fortune was too great to bear. He put mine on.

'Don't you know that I'd do anything in the world for you?' she cried.'It must be plain even to the feeblest intelligence that a man can only command the elementary spirits if he is without fear. frightened eye upon Haddo and then hid its head. almost against your will. and of the crowded streets at noon.''Did I not say that you were a matter-of-fact young man?' smiled Dr Porho?t. that his son should marry her daughter. Then he began to play things she did not know. I took one step backwards in the hope of getting a cartridge into my rifle. are impressed with the dignity of man. he resented the effect it had on him. many of the pages were torn. his appearance. 'She wept all over our food. When Arthur arrived. and warriors in their steel.'"No. The throng seemed bent with a kind of savagery upon amusement. There was something satanic in his deliberation. O well-beloved. to become a master of his art. He is.'That is Mr O'Brien. As you flip through the pages you may well read a stanza which. Sir. and she felt on a sudden all the torments that wrung the heart of that unhappy queen; she. Crowley told fantastic stories of his experiences.' proceeded the doctor. He is the only undergraduate I have ever seen walk down the High in a tall hat and a closely-buttoned frock-coat.

 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. with scarcely a trace of foreign accent.''May I ask how you could distinguish the sex?' asked Arthur. but. She hoped that the music she must hear there would rest her soul. The champagne went quickly to her head. She sprang up. that led to the quarter of the Montparnasse. were joined together in frenzied passion. and the nails of the fingers had grown.'I never know how much you really believe of all these things you tell us. I lunched out and dined out. used him with the good-natured banter which she affected. But it was understood that he knew duchesses in fashionable streets. An abject apology was the last thing she expected. and then he makes a jab at the panel. though an odious attraction bound her to the man.'He spoke in a low voice. She sat down. 'but he's very paintable. 'I assert merely that. No harm has come to you. He looked at Arthur with a certain ironic gravity. as though the mere fact of saying the same thing several times made it more convincing. a physician to Louis XIV.'Go home.'You must know that I've been wanting you to do that ever since I was ten.''I'm glad that I was able to help you. and our kindred studies gave us a common topic of conversation.

 The date had been fixed by her. Though he knew so many people. look with those unnatural eyes. there is a bodily corruption that is terrifying. with an intensity that was terrifying. and she seemed still to see that vast bulk and the savage. Susie looked forward to the meeting with interest. In fact he bored me. He is now grown fat. 'I am the only man alive who has killed three lions with three successive shots. in one way and another.'You look as if you were posing.Clayson had a vinous nose and a tedious habit of saying brilliant things. and was prepared to take it off our hands. it lost no strength as it burned; and then I should possess the greatest secret that has ever been in the mind of man. had brought out a play which failed to please. half-consumed. Margaret drew back in terror.L. And what devil suggested. It seemed to her that she had no power in her limbs. like the conjuror's sleight of hand that apparently lets you choose a card.''That is an answer which has the advantage of sounding well and meaning nothing. that no one after ten minutes thought of her ugliness. Naked and full of majesty he lay. She hid her face in her hands and burst into tears. like most of us. and noisome brutes with horny scales and round crabs' eyes. Oliver Haddo proceeded to eat these dishes in the order he had named.

 Then he advanced a few steps. But they had a living faith to sustain them. he asked him to come also. so that you were reminded of those sweet domestic saints who lighten here and there the passionate records of the Golden Book.''I didn't know that you spoke figuratively. with the scornful tone he used when referring to those whose walk in life was not so practical as his own. for what most fascinated the observer was a supreme and disdainful indifference to the passion of others. and would not be frankly rude. It was the look which might fill the passionate eyes of a mystic when he saw in ecstasy the Divine Lady of his constant prayers. with a smile. the cylinders of oxygen and so forth. and you were kept perpetually on the alert. with a faint sigh of exhaustion. who was sufficiently conscious of his limitations not to talk of what he did not understand. Though I have not seen Haddo now for years. I wish I could drive the fact into this head of yours that rudeness is not synonymous with wit. but she was much too pretty to remain one.' he said casually. he at once consented. Since then she had worked industriously at Colarossi's Academy. She saw things so vile that she screamed in terror. I was very grateful to the stranger.' pursued the Frenchman reflectively. when he was arranging his journey in Asia. I have shot more lions than any man alive.' said Arthur Burdon. with wonderful capitals and headlines in gold. His mariner was earnest. He smiled quietly.

 for I felt it as much as anyone. Her contempt for him. He opened his eyes. I didn't know before. but it could not be denied that he had considerable influence over others.'The words were so bitter.Suddenly he released the enormous tension with which he held her. roaring loudly and clawing at the air. power over all created things.'"When he has done sweeping. Susie looked forward to the meeting with interest. Her busy life had not caused the years to pass easily. The gibe at his obesity had caught him on the raw. normally unseen. it occurred to her suddenly that she had no reason to offer for her visit. and the key of immortality. Nor would he trouble himself with the graceful trivialities which make a man a good talker. with his hand so shaky that he can hardly hold a brush; he has to wait for a favourable moment. He is thought to have known more of the mysteries than any adept since the divine Paracelsus._'She ran downstairs. Susie could have kissed the hard paving stones of the quay. a virgin.'Not many people study in that library. which Dr. There was hardly space to move. of those who had succeeded in their extraordinary quest. At last she took her courage in both hands. and I was glad to leave him. sallow from long exposure to subtropical suns.

_ one chicken. He was a liar and unbecomingly boastful. Her soul yearned for a beauty that the commonalty of men did not know. She picked it up and read it aloud.' said Margaret. were strange to her. he had taken a shameful advantage of her pity.' laughed Clayson. When Margaret talked of the Greeks' divine repose and of their blitheness.'Here is one of the most interesting works concerning the black art. touching devotion. when. Then. Hastily I slipped another cartridge in my rifle.'I wonder if it is for the same reason that Mr Haddo puzzles us so much. with the air of mystery he affects. She turned the drawings carelessly and presently came to a sheet upon which. by Count Max Lemberg. brought about the beginning of free thought in science. which for the same reason I have been obliged to read. and when you've seen his sketches--he's done hundreds. Margaret withdrew from Arthur's embrace and lightly looked at her friend.''Do you call the search for gold puerile?' asked Haddo.'Susie settled herself more comfortably in her chair and lit a cigarette. It is a beauty wrought out from within upon the flesh. and she had not even the strength to wish to free herself. The juggler started back. It was so well-formed for his age that one might have foretold his precious corpulence. She made a little sketch of Arthur.

 The immobility of that vast bulk was peculiar. more vast than the creatures of nightmare.'That is Mr O'Brien. He seemed no longer to see Margaret. at the top of his voice. I deeply regret that I kicked it.'I've been waiting for you. Susie began to understand how it was that. used him with the good-natured banter which she affected. and they faced one another. He kills wantonly.'For a moment he kept silence. And the immoral thing is that each of these little jabs is lovely.' pursued the Frenchman reflectively. Though I wrote repeatedly. beheld the wan head of the Saint. the most marvellous were those strange beings. and a thick vapour filled the room. and all the details were settled. The terrier followed at his heels. much diminished its size. His mocking voice rang in her ears. Don't you think it must have been hard for me. like radium. Everything tended to take him out of his usual reserve. shelled creatures the like of which she had never seen. combined in his cunning phrases to create. mademoiselle. declared that doubt was a proof of modesty.

 hangmen. and a tiny slip of paper on which was written in pencil: _The other half of this card will be given you at three o'clock tomorrow in front of Westminster Abbey_."The boy was describing a Breton bed. and then without hesitation I will devour the wing of a chicken in order to sustain myself against your smile. At length she could control herself no longer and burst into a sudden flood of tears. 'But it's too foolish.' he gasped. into which the soul with all its maladies has passed. He had been greatly influenced by Swinburne and Robert Browning. Eliphas Levi saw that she was of mature age; and beneath her grey eyebrows were bright black eyes of preternatural fixity. he is proof against the fangs of the most venomous serpents. By some accident one of the bottles fell one day and was broken. and in a moment a head was protruded. he asked him to come also. He began to play. very white and admirably formed. Aleister Crowley. but Paracelsus asserts positively that it can be done. It was proposed to call forth the phantom of the divine Apollonius. I can with difficulty imagine two men less capable of getting on together. and keeps their fallen day about her; and trafficked for strange evils with Eastern merchants; and. An enigmatic smile came to her lips. with the scornful tone he used when referring to those whose walk in life was not so practical as his own. Wait and see._'She ran downstairs.' she said. Moses. and these were more beautifully coloured than any that fortunate hen had possessed in her youth. my son-in-law.

 He described the picture by Valdes Leal. which covered nearly the whole of his breast. He loved Margaret with all his heart. and some were leafless already. dark night is seen and a turbulent sea. A fierce rage on a sudden seized Arthur so that he scarcely knew what he was about.' he answered. I didn't mean to hurt you. and its large simplicity was soothing. and I am sure that you will eventually be a baronet and the President of the Royal College of Surgeons; and you shall relieve royal persons of their. and it was terrible to see the satanic hatred which hideously deformed it. and when James I. as she put the sketches down. I daresay it was a pretty piece of vituperation. and told him what she knew. he caught her in his arms. We sold the furniture for what it could fetch. Haddo has had an extraordinary experience.'Everyone can make game of the unknown. His height was great.'Goodnight.'He had been so quiet that they had forgotten his presence. She would have cried for help to Arthur or to Susie. under his fingers.'Much. no one was more conscious than Haddo of the singularity of his feat. to occupy myself only with folly. She tried to collect herself. His height was great.

 The result of this was that in a very little while other managers accepted the plays they had consistently refused. You will find it neither mean nor mercenary. as though the victims of uncontrollable terror. At first Susie could not discover in what precisely their peculiarity lay. and then he makes a jab at the panel. very fair. The room was large. as though too much engrossed in his beloved really to notice anyone else; and she wondered how to make conversation with a man who was so manifestly absorbed. Then the depth of the mirror which was in front of him grew brighter by degrees. followed by a crowd of disciples. Now. He amused. irritated. it's one of our conventions here that nobody has talent. Because she had refused to think of the future. She struggled. but could not at once find a retort. often incurring danger of life. I confess that I can make nothing of him.' said Arthur. Nothing can save me. When she spoke. my O'Brien. He is the only undergraduate I have ever seen walk down the High in a tall hat and a closely-buttoned frock-coat.'I never cease to be astonished at the unexpectedness of human nature. he presented it with a low bow to Margaret. was horrible to look upon.'Oliver Haddo looked at him before answering. like a man racked by torments who has not the strength even to realize that his agony has ceased.

Altogether. It was thus that I first met Arnold Bennett and Clive Bell. but not entirely a fake.'You have modelled lions at the Jardin des Plantes. but Margaret and Arthur were too much occupied to notice that she had ceased to speak. You noticed then that her hair. and the freedom to go into the world had come too late; yet her instinct told her that she was made to be a decent man's wife and the mother of children. Can't you see the elderly lady in a huge crinoline and a black poke bonnet. and Susie. and he was probably entertained more than any man in Oxford.'Don't be so foolish. She had seen portraits of him. and he growled incessantly. We shall be married in two years. Sometimes it happened that he had the volumes I asked for. The silence was so great that each one heard the beating of his heart. blushing as though she had been taken in some indiscretion. and it stopped as soon as he took it away.' said Dr Porho?t gravely. and she was an automaton. Arthur. He had the advantage over me that he could apparently read. and tinged the eyelids and the hands. He appeared to stand apart from human kind.'Her blood ran cold. of their home and of the beautiful things with which they would fill it. Mr Burdon was very right to thrash me. power over the very elements. which he published sumptuously at his own expense.

 and a pale form arose. He fell into a deep coma. disembarrass me of this coat of frieze. perhaps only once.' said Arthur. power over the very elements. they were to be married in a few weeks. but give me one moment. Burkhardt had met him by chance at Mombasa in East Africa. The comparison between the two was to Arthur's disadvantage. in Denmark. If you listen to him. He can forgive nobody who's successful. was first initiated into the Kabbalah in the land of his birth; but became most proficient in it during his wanderings in the wilderness. Haddo has had an extraordinary experience. and directs the planets in their courses. but immensely reliable and trustworthy to the bottom of his soul.' replied the doctor.Asking her to sit down. as did the prophets of old. For there would be no end of it. 'I don't know what is the matter with me.'He replaced the precious work. and his crest was erect. and what he chose seemed to be exactly that which at the moment she imperatively needed. and that her figure was exceedingly neat. in postponing your marriage without reason for two mortal years. but Susie had not the courage to prevent her from looking.'Don't be a pair of perfect idiots.

''Art-student?' inquired Arthur. had not noticed even that there was an animal in the room.' she smiled. but with great distinctness. There is nothing in the world so white as thy body.'How stupid of me! I never noticed the postmark. With a little laugh.Clayson had a vinous nose and a tedious habit of saying brilliant things. Copper.''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. walked away. for her eyes expressed things that he had never seen in them before. the second highest mountain in India. rang a tinkling bell at one of the doorways that faced her. The baldness of his crown was vaguely like a tonsure. painfully.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. and next day she was unable to go about her work with her usual tranquillity.'Arthur got up to stretch his legs.''How oddly you talk of him! Somehow I can only see his beautiful.'Don't be so foolish. It was thus with disinclination that I began to read _The Magician_. Tradition says that. actresses of renown. wondering if they were tormented by such agony as she. They were therefore buried under two cartloads of manure. I felt that. and they broke into peal upon peal of laughter. it pleased him to see it in others.

 he had taken a shameful advantage of her pity. or lecturing at his hospital. abundantly loquacious. Suddenly he stopped.'Margaret shuddered. 'didn't Paracelsus.'Everything has gone pretty well with me so far. and creeping animals begotten of the slime. at least. his eyes more than ever strangely staring. I have never been able to make up my mind whether he is an elaborate practical joker.''How do you know. I know I shall outrage the feelings of my friend Arthur. To her. printed in the seventeenth century. his secretary. and with the wine. As a rule. and I made up my mind to wait for the return of the lions. 'Let Margaret order my dinner for me.'Ah. Her deep blue eyes were veiled with tears.She did not dream of disobeying. muttering words they could not hear. Hastily I slipped another cartridge in my rifle. and she wished to begin a new life. and was not disposed to pay much attention to this vehement distress.' he said. and some were leafless already.

'Then there was the _Electrum Magicum_. the glittering steel of armour damascened. it strangely exhilarated her. and noisome brutes with horny scales and round crabs' eyes. She moved slightly as the visitors entered. At last their motion ceased; and Oliver was holding her arm. They talked of the places they must go to. We both cared. a foolish youth. It was a feather in my cap. and not only Paracelsus. muttering words they could not hear. and it is the most deadly of all Egyptian snakes. however long I live. He spoke not of pictures now. and there is nothing in the world but decay. and I was able to take a bedroom in the same building and use his sitting-room to work in. Raggles put on his coat with the scarlet lining and went out with the tall Jagson.'He did not reply. In his drunkenness he had forgotten a portion of the spell which protected him. and Margaret did not move. and over the landscapes brooded a wan spirit of evil that was very troubling.'This is the fairy prince. I prefer to set them all aside. being a descendant of the Prophet. and with Napoleonic instinct decided that I could only make room by insulting somebody. hardly conscious that she spoke.' he said.'Again Arthur Burdon made no reply.

'Then you have not seen the jackal. more suited to the sunny banks of the Nile than to a fair in Paris. somewhat against their will. Susie was enchanted with the strange musty smell of the old books. It seemed as though all the world were gathered there in strange confusion.' laughed Arthur. Many called it an insolent swagger. or was it the searching analysis of the art of Wagner?''We were just going. and his nose delicately shaped. red face. Oliver Haddo put his hand in his pocket and drew out a little silver box. When he opened it. tends to weaken him. It turned a suspicious. This was a large room. The best part of his life had been spent in Egypt. but rather cold. The writhing snake dangled from his hand. She did not know why his request to be forgiven made him seem more detestable.' said Arthur. the American sculptor. And Jezebel looked out upon her from beneath her painted brows. mingling with his own fantasies the perfect words of that essay which. Dr Porho?t walked with stooping shoulders. At length Susie's voice reminded him of the world. The doctor smiled and returned the salute. Obey my call and come.' said Oliver."'"I will hear no more.

 and. but his name is Jagson.'Breathe very deeply. At length.She had learnt long ago that common sense. Margaret and Burdon watched him with scornful eyes.'Susie went to the shelves to which he vaguely waved. that she was able to make the most of herself. He set more twigs and perfumes on the brazier.'Ah. He had protruding. and the pile daily sprinkled with a certain liquor prepared with great trouble by the adepts.'In 1897. It was written by Aleister Crowley. but not unintelligently. esoteric import. But you know that there is nothing that arouses the ill-will of boys more than the latter. and yet it was divine. unearthly shapes pressed upon her way. She asked herself frantically whether a spell had been cast over her. Then. He spoke not of pictures now. He missed being ungainly only through the serenity of his self-reliance. but once she had at least the charm of vivacious youth. lacking in wit. It seemed unfair that he should have done so much for her. Her laughter was like a rippling brook. Her radiant loveliness made people stare at Margaret as she passed. I hope I shall never see him again.

 I prepared by the magician's direction frankincense and coriander-seed.Oliver's face turned red with furious anger. could only recall him by that peculiarity. but there's a depth in your eyes that is quite new. and they faced one another.' said Arthur. chestnut hair. almost acrid perfume that he did not know. It had a singular and pungent odour that Margaret did not know. She was determined that if people called her ugly they should be forced in the same breath to confess that she was perfectly gowned. slowly. and he thrust out his scarlet lips till he had the ruthless expression of a Nero. Without a sound. As she stood on the landing. It is the _Clavicula Salomonis_; and I have much reason to believe that it is the identical copy which belonged to the greatest adventurer of the eighteenth century. if she would give him the original manuscript from which these copies were made.''My dear. dealing with the black arts. The blood flowed freely.' I did not do so. and he felt singularly joyful. She wept ungovernably. It was the look which might fill the passionate eyes of a mystic when he saw in ecstasy the Divine Lady of his constant prayers. crowding upon one another's heels. Though he preserved the amiable serenity which made him always so attractive. and they became quite still.''But now I hope with all my heart that you'll make him happy. and he drew out of the piano effects which she had scarcely thought possible. by Count Franz-Josef von Thun.

 A gallant Frenchman had to her face called her a _belle laide_.'In my youth I believed nothing. Susie feared that he would make so insulting a reply that a quarrel must ensure. 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. with the flaunting hat?''That is the mother of Madame Rouge. but my friend Oliver Haddo claims to be a magician. as she helped herself. the unaccountable emotion.' cried Warren. my novel had when it was published. Putting the sketches aside. that she turned away to enter Dr Porho?t's house. He travelled in Germany. and winged serpents. His love cast a glamour upon his work.'The lie slipped from Margaret's lips before she had made up her mind to tell it. I think you would be inclined to say. We can disbelieve these circumstantial details only by coming to the conclusion beforehand that it is impossible they should be true. as he kissed away her tears. Margaret and Susie got out. And in a moment she grew sick with fear. though an odious attraction bound her to the man. and he knows it.' cried Margaret vehemently. and now she lives with the landscape painter who is by her side. It made Margaret shudder with sudden fright. Her busy life had not caused the years to pass easily. She reproached herself bitterly for those scornful words. abnormally lanky.

Though Aleister Crowley served. Margaret could hear her muttered words. which was reserved for a small party of English or American painters and a few Frenchmen with their wives. her vivacity so attractive. and Arthur looked at him with amazement. and the acrid scents of Eastern perfumes. with a sort of poetic grace: I am told that now he is very bald; and I can imagine that this must be a great blow to him. and beardless. and his commonplace way of looking at life contrasted with Haddo's fascinating boldness. But even while she looked.'And the Eastern palaces in which your youth was spent. to her outbursts.''You could not please me more. There had ever been something cold in her statuesque beauty. If you do not guarantee this on your honour. and she needed time to get her clothes.Two days later. She did not know why she wanted to go to him; she had nothing to say to him; she knew only that it was necessary to go. bare of any twig.''I'll write and ask him about you. He fell into a deep coma. Suddenly he began to speak. with their cunning smile. and Cologne; all you that come from the countries along the Danube and the Rhine.Arthur came forward and Margaret put her hands on his shoulders. Margaret could hear her muttered words. Iokanaan! Thy body is white like the lilies of a field that the mower hath never mowed. His emotion was so great that it was nearly pain.'"What else does he see?" I asked the sorcerer.

 'I wouldn't let him out of my sight for worlds. for heaven's sake don't cry! You know I can't bear people who weep. and the more intoxicated he is. which represents a priest at the altar; and the altar is sumptuous with gilt and florid carving. notwithstanding the pilgrimages. It confers wealth by the transmutation of metals and immortality by its quintessence. It had a singular and pungent odour that Margaret did not know. Porho?t's house. by sight. When Margaret. surgeons and alchemists; from executioners. Though his gaze preserved its fixity. and by many others. looking at him. He can be no one's friend. The long toil in which so many had engaged. would have done.'She went to the chimneypiece. There was the portrait of a statuary by Bronzino in the Long Gallery of the Louvre.'Much. and she was at pains to warn Arthur. He had proposed that they should go to Versailles. Mona Lisa and Saint John the Baptist. I walked alone. Her good-natured. He observed with satisfaction the pride which Arthur took in his calling and the determination. and I have enough to burn up all the water in Paris? Who dreamt that water might burn like chaff?'He paused." he said.' smiled Susie.