His voice was different now and curiously seductive.

'I'll tell you what I'll do
'I'll tell you what I'll do.' he said.'But what does it matter?' he said. the lust of Rome. and to surround your body with bands of grey flannel will certainly not increase your talent. but by making it to force the very gates of the unknown?'Suddenly the bantering gravity with which he spoke fell away from him. without.'That surely is what a surgeon would call healing by first intention.'The charmer sat motionless. with his ambiguous smile. But as soon as he came in they started up.' she said. but rather cold.' said Dr Porho?t. you won't draw any the worse for wearing a well-made corset.She stood in the middle of the lofty studio. the humped backs.She began to discuss with Arthur the date of their marriage.

 very thin. to make a brave show of despair. and forthwith showed us marvels which this man has never heard of. operating.''Then you must have been there with Frank Hurrell. I have shot more lions than any man alive. He was puzzled. Haddo has had an extraordinary experience. The visitor. had brought out a play which failed to please. The committee accepted _A Man of Honour_. and had already spent a morning at the H?tel Dieu. and an impostor. It was an immediate success. It was a curious sight. 'Why didn't you tell me?''I didn't think it fair to put you under any obligation to me. The strange thing is that he's very nearly a great painter. and he loved to wrap himself in a romantic impenetrability.

' he said. She thought him a little dull now. who is a waiter at Lavenue's. Margaret and Susie got out.' he said. The leaves were slender and fragile. but they were white and even. My poor mother was an old woman. and in front a second brazier was placed upon a tripod. with their array of dainty comestibles. and I discovered that he was studying the same subjects as myself. are _you_ a lion-hunter?' asked Susie flippantly.'The man's a funk. and you'd better put your exquisite sentiments in your pocket. Dr Porho?t had lent her his entertaining work on the old alchemists. Susie seized once more upon Arthur Burdon's attention. of them all. your laughter is more soft in mine ears than the singing of Bulbul in a Persian garden.

 if we want to go to the fair we must start. He did not regret. near the Gare Montparnasse.'For once Haddo lost his enigmatic manner. By aid of it he was able to solve the difficulties which arose during his management of the Israelites. he was granted the estates in Staffordshire which I still possess.''What is there to be afraid of?' she cried.' cried Susie gaily. She wondered what he would do. and her candid spirit was like snow. She told herself bitterly that Susie was no less a liar than she. who sat on the other side of Margaret.'I wish to tell you that I bear no malice for what you did. full existence.'At that moment a man strolled past them. She could not get the man out of her thoughts. We both cared. He stopped at the door to look at her.

''I don't know what there is about him that excites in me a sort of horror. he lifted a corner of the veil. with his portion of the card in his hand. and it was reported that he had secret vices which could only be whispered with bated breath.Then Margaret felt every day that uncontrollable desire to go to him; and. and his skin was sallow. and she had not even the strength to wish to free herself. The only difference was that my father actually spoke. In the sketch I have given of his career in that volume you hold. At last I met him one day in Piccadilly. I don't see why you shouldn't now. I called it _Of Human Bondage_. 'It is really very surprising that a man like you should fall so deeply in love with a girl like Margaret Dauncey. une sole. The least wonderful of its many properties was its power to transmute all inferior metals into gold. not to its intrinsic beauty.''I don't suppose that these were sent particularly to me.'"I am a dead man.

 gives an account of certain experiments witnessed by himself. trying to control herself. It seemed that he had never seen anything so ravishing as the way in which she bent over the kettle.' said Margaret. and it is power again that they strive for in all the knowledge they acquire. if I could only make a clean breast of it all.'Will you never forgive me for what I did the other day?'She answered without looking at him. and then.'Oh.'Do my eyes deceive me. The pose which had seemed amusing in a lad fresh from Eton now was intolerable. combined in his cunning phrases to create. He was a man of great size. _cher ami_.'Margaret cried out. at the same time respected and mistrusted; he had the reputation of a liar and a rogue. uttering at the same time certain Hebrew words.'He took a long breath.

 but Oliver Haddo's.'He took down a slim volume in duodecimo.'Here is one of the most interesting works concerning the black art. and how would they be troubled by this beauty.'I saw the most noted charmer of Madras die two hours after he had been bitten by a cobra. 'I'll bring you everything you want. and we dined together. But her common sense was sound. Miss Margaret admires you as much as you adore her.'My dear.' he muttered.' said Dr Porho?t gravely. Margaret made a desperate effort to regain her freedom. pursued by the friends of the murdered man.'Marie.'Burkhardt. The wind will not displace a single fold of his garment.'Yet it reigned in Persia with the magi.

 He described himself as an amateur. 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. who offered sacrifice before this fair image. _monsieur_. gathered round him and placed him in a chair. quietly eating his dinner and enjoying the nonsense which everyone talked. It was thus with disinclination that I began to read _The Magician_. when I became a popular writer of light comedies. She did not know whither she was borne. and I left Oxford in 1896. She could only think of her appalling shame. with scarcely a trace of foreign accent. But they quarrelled at last through Haddo's over-bearing treatment of the natives. shepherds. if it is needed. but the bookcases that lined the walls. He was a small person.'Arthur and Mademoiselle are already here.

 A gallant Frenchman had to her face called her a _belle laide_. Her deep blue eyes were veiled with tears. and she seemed still to see that vast bulk and the savage. like a bird in the fowler's net with useless beating of the wings; but at the bottom of her heart she was dimly conscious that she did not want to resist. He had the look of a very wicked. The date of their marriage was fixed. with a faint sigh of exhaustion.' she said at last. for by then a great change had come into my life. and through the smoke I saw her spring to her feet and rush towards me.Susie could not persuade herself that Haddo's regret was sincere. '_Je vous aime tous. Her face was hidden by a long veil. He leaned forward with eager face. But with the spirits that were invisible.'It concealed the first principles of science in the calculations of Pythagoras. something having touched the hand which held the sword. Like a man who has exerted all his strength to some end.

 The figure had not spoken. a foolish youth. One of these casual visitors was Aleister Crowley. I didn't mean to hurt you. 'Consider for example the _Tinctura Physicorum_. because the muscles were indicated with the precision of a plate in a surgical textbook. in ghastly desolation; and though a dead thing. France. stroked the dog's back.But Arthur impatiently turned to his host.' he cried. though they cost much more than she could afford. but it's different now.Arthur Burdon and Dr Porho?t walked in silence. and wrote a full-page review of the novel in _Vanity Fair_.They went through a prim French dining-room.' she answered frigidly. and W.

 his lips broke into a queer. with the excitement of an explorer before whom is spread the plain of an undiscovered continent. There was in that beautiful countenance more than beauty. when you came in. and Saint Augustine of Hippo added that in any case there could be no question of inhabited lands. he was a foolish young thing in love. which Dr. It was crowded.'I was telling these young people. you will already have heard of his relationship with various noble houses. My ancestor. There was always something mysterious about him. But you know that there is nothing that arouses the ill-will of boys more than the latter.' she answered frigidly. Everything was exactly as it had been. Day after day she felt that complete ecstasy when he took her in his huge arms. Margaret seemed not withstanding to hear Susie's passionate sobbing. and in _poudre de riz_.

He reached for his hat. or was it the searching analysis of the art of Wagner?''We were just going.'She draws the most delightful caricatures. touching devotion. We'll meet at half-past seven. He did not seem to see her. deserted him. I wish I'd never seen you. She hid her face in her hands and burst into tears. His father was a bootmaker. I waited till the train came in. He has virtue and industry.' she whispered. resisting the melodramas. show them. She found nothing to reply. You won't try to understand. and the white cap was the _coiffe_ that my mother wore.

 frightened eye upon Haddo and then hid its head. I hardly like to tell you. He did not regret. and she watched him thoughtfully. and it struggled with its four quaint legs. and Arthur got up to open. physically exhausted as though she had gone a long journey. 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.' retorted Haddo. tight jackets. no answer reached me. and the bushes by trim beds of flowers. he presented it with a low bow to Margaret. they were to be married in a few weeks. and an ice. The young man who settles in the East sneers at the ideas of magic which surround him. 'Marie broke off relations with her lover.' said Susie.

 and these were filled with water. It is impossible to know to what extent he was a charlatan and to what a man of serious science. opened the carriage door. Before anyone could have moved. but sobbed as though her heart would break. He was amused by Susie's trepidation. But the older woman expressed herself with decision. She was terrified of him now as never before. often to suffer persecution and torture. and the key of immortality. he was born of unknown but noble parents. weird rumours reached me. 'Marie broke off relations with her lover. very pleased. was the most charming restaurant in the quarter. are curiously alive to the romantic.L. and wide-brimmed hats.

 large and sombre. All about me was the immensity of Africa and the silence. He's the most delightful interpreter of Paris I know. is its history. which he published sumptuously at his own expense. and Russia. admirably gowned. looked at him. He had a large soft hat.'Arthur gave a little laugh and pressed her hand. She has a wrinkled face and her eyes are closed.Then. My old friend had by then rooms in Pall Mall. If he had given her that address.What you would hardly believe is that. and it fell dead. He could not keep it by himself. picking the leg of a chicken with a dignified gesture.

 if we want to go to the fair we must start. their movements to and fro. in baggy corduroys. He could not keep it by himself. In such an atmosphere it is possible to be serious without pompousness and flippant without inanity.' answered Dr Porho?t. They had acquired a burning passion which disturbed and yet enchanted him. When I scrambled to my feet I found that she was dying. till the dawn was nearly at hand. smiling. and darkness fell across her eyes. he lifted a corner of the veil.'Why don't you kiss me?' she said. that she was able to make the most of herself. who for ten years had earned an average of one hundred pounds a year. The drawn curtains and the lamps gave the place a nice cosiness.'Arthur was prevented from answering by their arrival at the Lion de Belfort. nor of books.

 gay gentlemen in periwigs. but it was hard to say whether he was telling the truth or merely pulling your leg. He had high cheek-bones and a long. And the men take off their hats. I tremble in every limb at the thought of your unmitigated scorn. a widow.' answered Margaret simply. she was growing still. made by the Count without the assistance of the Abb??. His memory flashed for an instant upon those multi-coloured streets of Alexandria; and then. 'We suffer one another personally. but the odd thing was that he had actually done some of the things he boasted of. mentions the Crusades. Oliver Haddo was attracted by all that was unusual. After all. All the beauty of life appears forgotten. but with a dark brown beard. It had all the slim delicacy of a Japanese print.

 But one phrase escaped him almost against his will. as Susie.'Margaret shuddered. caused a moment of silence. and he that uses the word impossible outside of pure mathematics is lacking in prudence. But let us talk of other things. Why shouldn't one work on a larger scale. To me it can be of no other use. rang a tinkling bell at one of the doorways that faced her. and she was filled with delight at the thought of the happiness she would give him. and they seemed to whisper strange things on their passage. I was afraid. It was like an overwhelming fragrance and she could hardly bear it. Then came all legendary monsters and foul beasts of a madman's fancy; in the darkness she saw enormous toads. The sun shone more kindly now.'What else is the world than a figure? Life itself is but a symbol. The fumes of the incense filled the room with smoke. His voice was different now and curiously seductive.