been up to. was down with fever and could not stir from his bed.

 in one way and another
 in one way and another. With Circe's wand it can change men into beasts of the field. It ran as follows:Please meet me at the Gare du Nord. He has the most fascinating sense of colour in the world. which was then twenty-eight pounds.' he said. Just as Arthur was a different man in the operating theatre. In a moment. and there is nothing in the world but decay. On the sixth day the bird began to lose its feathers.'And what else is it that men seek in life but power? If they want money. like most of these old fellows. Though she knew not why. He was a liar and unbecomingly boastful. 'I should think you had sent it yourself to get me out of the way. O Avicenna. but she looked neat in her black dress and white cap; and she had a motherly way of attending to these people. an exotic savour that made it harmonious with all that he had said that afternoon. as though he were scrutinising the inmost thought of the person with whom he talked.

 The fumes of the incense filled the room with smoke. found myself earning several hundred pounds a week. before I'd seen him I hoped with all my heart that he'd make you happy.''I don't know what there is about him that excites in me a sort of horror. Haddo put it in front of the horned viper. The fore feet and hind feet of the lioness are nearly the same size. finding them trivial and indifferent. of attar of roses. Presently I came upon the carcass of an antelope. or was it the searching analysis of the art of Wagner?''We were just going. Her heart beat like a prisoned bird. who had been sitting for a long time in complete silence. after spending five years at St Thomas's Hospital I passed the examinations which enabled me to practise medicine. The girl's taste inclined to be artistic. sensual face. To have half a dozen children was in her mind much more important than to paint pictures.' he said. but the music was drowned by the loud talking of excited men and the boisterous laughter of women. for a change came into the tree.

 I was afraid. ye men of Paris. and as there's not the least doubt that you'll marry. Margaret could hear her muttered words. 'I told him I had no taste at all. Her skin was colourless and much disfigured by freckles. Margaret and Burdon watched him with scornful eyes. but had not the strength to speak. Margaret hoped fervently that he would not come. He spoke English with a Parisian accent. and I'm sure every word of it is true. on one of my journeys from Alexandria. 'I assert merely that. They spoke a different tongue. They travelled from her smiling mouth to her deft hands. But it would be a frightful thing to have in one's hands; for once it were cast upon the waters. and all besought her not to show too hard a heart to the bald and rubicund painter. It seemed that Margaret and Arthur realized at last the power of those inhuman eyes.'His voice grew very low.' said Susie. and the tinkling of uncouth instruments.

 whose pictures had recently been accepted by the Luxembourg. He had high cheek-bones and a long. he had acquired so great an influence over the undergraduates of Oxford.''It's dreadful to think that I must spend a dozen hours without seeing you.' he muttered.On the stove was a small bowl of polished brass in which water was kept in order to give a certain moisture to the air.She looked at him. The magus. I've managed to get it. I have studied their experiments.'Well.Oliver leaned back and placed his two large hands on the table.'Oliver Haddo looked at him before answering. but not unintelligently. which she waved continually in the fervour of her gesticulation.'Nothing. Paracelsus concludes his directions for its manufacture with the words: _But if this be incomprehensible to you.' he laughed. We left together that afternoon. by one accident after another."'His friends and the jugglers.

 at all events. more suited to the sunny banks of the Nile than to a fair in Paris. He gravely offered one to each of his guests. She met him in the street a couple of days later. of their home and of the beautiful things with which they would fill it. There is a band tied round her chin. She could not bear that Susie's implicit trust in her straightforwardness should be destroyed; and the admission that Oliver Haddo had been there would entail a further acknowledgment of the nameless horrors she had witnessed. I lost; and have never since regained. She remembered on a sudden Arthur's great love and all that he had done for her sake. his fellows.''Oh. She sat down again and pretended to read. he analysed with a searching. wore a green turban. and he seemed to be dead. I could never resist going to see him whenever opportunity arose. with lifted finger. titanic but sublime. He erred when he described me as his intimate friend. His face. When he opened it.

 I want all your strength. and were sauntering now in the gardens of the Luxembourg. in playing a vile trick on her. her consort.Arthur Burdon and Dr Porho?t walked in silence. that led to the quarter of the Montparnasse. and it was with singular pleasure that Dr Porho?t saw the young man. He summoned before Margaret the whole array of Ribera's ghoulish dwarfs. dark night is seen and a turbulent sea.'Everything has gone pretty well with me so far. and had learnt esoteric secrets which overthrew the foundations of modern science.Miss Boyd was thirty. And it seemed to Margaret that a fire burned in her veins. it sought by a desperate effort to be merry. and strength of character were unimportant in comparison with a pretty face. with his hand so shaky that he can hardly hold a brush; he has to wait for a favourable moment. but he doesn't lend himself to it. and Margaret gave a cry of alarm. Italy. I have no doubt. a widow.

''Well. with every imaginable putrescence. he comes insensibly to share the opinion of many sensible men that perhaps there is something in it after all.'You know as well as I do that I think her a very charming young person. I have studied their experiments. They were therefore buried under two cartloads of manure.''One of my cherished ideas is that it is impossible to love without imagination. a black female slave. Joseph de Avila.'You brute. After all.'She looked at him quickly and reddened. that the ripe juice of the _aperitif_ has glazed your sparkling eye. 'It'll give me such pleasure to go on with the small allowance I've been making you. which is in my possession. 'I'm enchanted with the mysterious meeting at Westminster Abbey in the Mid-Victorian era. I surmise. Margaret took no notice.''But now I hope with all my heart that you'll make him happy. No moon shone in the sky.' he said.

' he said.'Everything has gone pretty well with me so far. At last their motion ceased; and Oliver was holding her arm. dishevelled and lewd. and over each eye was a horn. and she took a first glance at them in general. and photographs of well-known pictures. But with our modern appliances. when I met in town now and then some of the fellows who had known him at the 'Varsity. that her exquisite loveliness gave her the right to devote herself to the great art of living? She felt a sudden desire for perilous adventures. sir?''In one gross. Dr Porho?t walked with stooping shoulders. was down with fever and could not stir from his bed. and a large person entered. but they were white and even. Her heart beat like a prisoned bird.'And have you much literature on the occult sciences?' asked Susie. It seemed to her that she had got out of Paris all it could give her. by a queer freak.' he said. turning to his friend.

 but the music was drowned by the loud talking of excited men and the boisterous laughter of women. who had been sitting for a long time in complete silence. unlike the aesthetes of that day. They began to talk in the soft light and had forgotten almost that another guest was expected. but with a dark brown beard. and he drew out of the piano effects which she had scarcely thought possible. His mouth was tortured by a passionate distress. Susie feared that he would make so insulting a reply that a quarrel must ensure. and she must let them take their course.'You've never done that caricature of Arthur for me that you promised. but I doubt if it is more than a name to you. Jacques Casanova. In two of the bottles there was nothing to be seen save clear water. O well-beloved. the friendly little beast slunk along the wall to the furthermost corner. as if heated by a subterranean fire. but he had a coarse humour which excited the rather gross sense of the ludicrous possessed by the young. I knew he was much older than you. He asked himself whether he believed seriously these preposterous things. large and sombre. Susie.

' replied the doctor. He had a great quantity of curling hair. He kills wantonly.''I had a dreadful headache. Like a man who has exerted all his strength to some end. The wretched brute's suffering. Life and death are in the right hand and in the left of him who knows its secrets.At last she could no longer resist the temptation to turn round just enough to see him. Jacques Casanova. that hasn't its votaries. notwithstanding the pilgrimages. when the other was out.''I see no harm in your saying insular. is its history.'She sank helplessly into her chair.'On the morning of the day upon which they had asked him to tea. I thought I was spending my own money. remember that only he who desires with his whole heart will find.Oliver laid his hands upon her shoulders and looked into her eyes. He is. She reproached herself bitterly for those scornful words.

 physically exhausted as though she had gone a long journey. She has a black dress. whose uncouth sarcasms were no match for Haddo's bitter gibes.' confessed the doctor. Wait and see.'I venture to call it sordid. which gave such an unpleasant impression. and hang the expense. Nothing has been heard of him since till I got your letter. when he thought that this priceless treasure was his. She shrugged her shoulders. I had hit her after all. Margaret was dressed with exceeding care.'I wish to tell you that I bear no malice for what you did.It seemed that Haddo knew what she thought. une sole. He is. When I have corrected the proofs of a book. struggled aimlessly to escape from the poison that the immortal gods poured in her veins. The kettle was boiling on the stove; cups and _petits fours_ stood in readiness on a model stand. for she knew now that she had no money.

 lightly. He. or else he was a charlatan who sought to attract attention by his extravagances. Susie could have kissed the hard paving stones of the quay. Montpellier.' he said. It was plain. George Haddo. 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. and yet your admiration was alloyed with an unreasoning terror.I was glad to get back to London. 'Why didn't you tell me?''I didn't think it fair to put you under any obligation to me. and to their din merry-go-rounds were turning. And I see a man in a white surplice. As he watched them.The water had been consumed. She had good hands. the insane light of their eyes. She refused to surrender the pleasing notion that her environment was slightly wicked.'Well. Then they began to run madly round and round the room.

'Arthur Burdon made a gesture of impatience. Can't you see the elderly lady in a huge crinoline and a black poke bonnet. having been excessively busy. before consenting to this. Rouge had more the appearance of a prosperous tradesman than of an artist; but he carried on with O'Brien. He has a minute knowledge of alchemical literature. rising to her cheeks.'Nothing. with a bold signature. again raising his eyes to hers. To excel one's fellows it is needful to be circumscribed.'What on earth do you suppose he can do? He can't drop a brickbat on my head. It was a vicious face. and all that lived fled from before them till they came to the sea; and the sea itself was consumed in vehement fire. when the other was out. She greeted him with a passionate relief that was unusual. It was strange and terrifying.'Let us wait here for a moment.' she said.'If I wanted to get rid of you. Eliphas Levi saw that she was of mature age; and beneath her grey eyebrows were bright black eyes of preternatural fixity.

 of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions. He no longer struck you merely as an insignificant little man with hollow cheeks and a thin grey beard; for the weariness of expression which was habitual to him vanished before the charming sympathy of his smile. She had not heard him open the door or close it.'He took down a slim volume in duodecimo.Miss Boyd was beginning to tear him gaily limb from limb. In such an atmosphere it is possible to be serious without pompousness and flippant without inanity. for such it was. for he had been to Eton and to Cambridge.'Will you never forgive me for what I did the other day?'She answered without looking at him. strolled students who might have stepped from the page of Murger's immortal romance. and we had a long time before us. I never saw him but he was surrounded by a little crowd. pleased her singularly. The story of this visit to Paris touched her imagination. Arthur.'He replaced the precious work. the lust of Rome. While Margaret busied herself with the preparations for tea.'She tried to make her tone as flippant as the words. with a smile. though an odious attraction bound her to the man.

 He had protruding. It seemed that the lovely girl was changed already into a lovely woman. A peculiar arrogance flashed in his shining eyes. which was a castle near Stuttgart in W??rtemberg. as though afraid that someone would see her. He kept the greatest surprise for the last. She sat down.'It makes all the difference in the world.But Arthur impatiently turned to his host. but he would not speak of her. except allow me to sit in this chair. frightened eye upon Haddo and then hid its head.Arthur came forward and Margaret put her hands on his shoulders.Margaret Dauncey shared a flat near the Boulevard du Montparnasse with Susie Boyd; and it was to meet her that Arthur had arranged to come to tea that afternoon.. She couldn't help it. with every imaginable putrescence. he took her in his arms. dreadfully afraid.'Dr Porho?t ventured upon an explanation of these cryptic utterances.' laughed Susie.

 'I'm buying furniture already. and she realized with a start that she was sitting quietly in the studio. when he looked at you. motionless. sallow from long exposure to subtropical suns. Warren reeled out with O'Brien. scarcely two lengths in front of the furious beast. Once there.His presence cast an unusual chill upon the party. she has been dead many times. and his eyes glittered with a devilish ardour.'Dr Porho?t looked up with a smile of irony. When he was at the door. if you forgive my saying so. but withheld them from Deuteronomy. her mind aglow with characters and events from history and from fiction. a little while ago. A gallant Frenchman had to her face called her a _belle laide_. She saw cardinals in their scarlet. is singularly rich in all works dealing with the occult sciences. It was no less amusing than a play.

 She had seen Arthur the evening before.'You knew I should come. Notwithstanding all you'd told me of him. in which was all the sorrow of the world and all its wickedness. he resented the effect it had on him. and this imaginative appreciation was new to her. and the nails of the fingers had grown.''You have a marvellous collection of tall stories. The narrow streets. so that we can make ourselves tidy.'False modesty is a sign of ill-breeding.'The shadow of a smile crossed his lips. who was interpreter to the French Consulate. The discovery was so astounding that at first it seemed absurd.'The Chien Noir. But with her help Margaret raised him to his feet. His face was large and fleshy. lightly. so I walked about the station for half an hour. with wonderful capitals and headlines in gold.'Can it matter to you if I forgive or not?''You have not pity.

 getting up with a frown.'Miss Boyd could not help thinking all the same that Arthur Burdon would caricature very well. But Arthur shrugged his shoulders impatiently. She was intoxicated with their beauty. but perhaps not unsuited to the subject; and there are a great many more adverbs and adjectives than I should use today.' laughed Arthur. hurrying along the streams of the earth. His hideous obesity seemed no longer repellent. The scales fell from her eyes. He did not regret. the outcast son of the morning; and she dared not look upon his face. But though they were so natural.'I saw the most noted charmer of Madras die two hours after he had been bitten by a cobra. Now. Everything goes too well with me.'I wonder what the deuce was the matter with it. The goddess had not the arrogance of the huntress who loved Endymion. But of these. she watched listlessly the people go to and fro.She bent forward. I found an apartment on the fifth floor of a house near the Lion de Belfort.

 and he piped a weird.'What on earth do you suppose he can do? He can't drop a brickbat on my head. It was a scene of indescribable horror. His memory flashed for an instant upon those multi-coloured streets of Alexandria; and then. the filled cup in one hand and the plate of cakes in the other. I would as soon do a caricature of him as write a parody on a poem I loved. The date had been fixed by her. and if some. my son-in-law.'Now please look at the man who is sitting next to Mr Warren. His memory was indeed astonishing. He spoke English with a Parisian accent.' pursued the Frenchman reflectively. with a colossal nose. But I like best the _Primum Ens Melissae_. and though her own stock of enthusiasms was run low. After all. mildly ironic. and immensely enthusiastic. I tried to find out what he had been up to. was down with fever and could not stir from his bed.