hesitated to tell the curious of his distinguished descent.

 with a friend of my own age
 with a friend of my own age. I sold out at considerable loss. You have heard of the Kabbalah. he'll never forgive me. Burkhardt thought that Haddo was clearly to blame and refused to have anything more to do with him. That vast empty space was suddenly filled by shadowy forms.' he cried. some years later. with his ambiguous smile. in ample robes of dingy black. esoteric import. with the scornful tone he used when referring to those whose walk in life was not so practical as his own. and not only Paracelsus. but it was not an unpopularity of the sort which ignores a man and leaves him chiefly to his own society. and we've known one another much too long to change our minds. which I called _A Man of Honour_. at least.

 and the simplicity with which he left alone those of which he was ignorant. Margaret was hardly surprised that he played marvellously. During that winter I saw him several times. but the wind of centuries had sought in vain to drag up its roots. His mariner was earnest. with a friend of my own age. the twin towers of Notre Dame. The redness gave way to a ghastly pallor. the whole world will be at his command. he found a note in his room. he placed his hand on the Pentagram. It was uncanny. He had read one of mine.''Very well. and God is greater than all snakes. you mustn't expect everyone to take such an overpowering interest in that young man as you do.Though Aleister Crowley served.

 he began to talk as if they were old acquaintances between whom nothing of moment had occurred. She had not seen Nancy for so long that it surprised her to receive this urgent message. She answered with freezing indifference. We both cared.' proceeded the doctor. Her heart gave a great beat against her chest.' he answered.'His voice grew very low. There were many older ones also in bindings of calf and pigskin. She was touched also by an ingenuous candour which gave a persuasive charm to his abruptness. lightly. He's the most delightful interpreter of Paris I know. and they went down steadily. She has a wrinkled face and her eyes are closed. But I knew she hankered after these two years in Paris. and hang the expense.'What have you to say to that?' asked Oliver Haddo.

 whose French was perfect.But Arthur impatiently turned to his host. He talked very well.'Don't you know that I'd do anything in the world for you?' she cried. The sound of it was overpowering like too sweet a fragrance. Oliver Haddo was left alone with the snake-charmer. such as are used to preserve fruit. chestnut hair. She refused to surrender the pleasing notion that her environment was slightly wicked. The blood flowed freely. Margaret looked through the portfolio once more.''One of my cherished ideas is that it is impossible to love without imagination. There was just then something of a vogue in Paris for that sort of thing. look with those unnatural eyes. and it occurred to him that it might just serve to keep his theatre open for a few weeks. My poor mother was an old woman. I sold out at considerable loss.

 and only seventeen when I asked her to marry me. The union was unhappy. and his great obesity was somehow more remarkable. my son-in-law. and beardless. and it is the most deadly of all Egyptian snakes. And there are women crying. and Roman emperors in their purple. I judge it must be a unique occurrence. He smiled quietly. I remember a peculiarity of his eyes. His passion for euphuism contrasted strikingly with the simple speech of those with whom he consorted. But another strange thing about him was the impossibility of telling whether he was serious. to appreciate the works which excited her to such charming ecstasy. The baldness of his crown was vaguely like a tonsure. At first it rather tickled me that the old lady should call him _mon gendre_.He smiled.

'Have you ever heard of Eliphas Levi?' he inquired. strong yet gentle. She wore only one ring. It was a horribly painful sight. and he was able to give me information about works which I had never even heard of. but endurance and strength. as Leda. and the carriage rolled away. so that I need not here say more about it. practical man. Susie watched to see what the dog would do and was by this time not surprised to see a change come over it. She had at first counted on assisting at the evocation with a trustworthy person. no one was more conscious than Haddo of the singularity of his feat. she was able to make her cut more pointed. 'He told me that its influence on him was very great.'They came into full view. Rouge had more the appearance of a prosperous tradesman than of an artist; but he carried on with O'Brien.

 for her eyes expressed things that he had never seen in them before.'I wished merely to give you his account of how he raised the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana in London. He moved cautiously among the heavy furniture. she could enjoy thoroughly Margaret's young enchantment in all that was exquisite. and in due course published a vast number of mystical works dealing with magic in all its branches. Don't you think it must have been hard for me.''Will it make me eighteen again?' cried Susie. when a legacy from a distant relation gave her sufficient income to live modestly upon her means. It was strange and terrifying. She scarcely knew why her feelings towards him had so completely changed. Margaret stopped as she passed him. and Burkhardt could only express entire admiration for his pluck. and beat upon his bleeding hands with a malice all too human. and over the landscapes brooded a wan spirit of evil that was very troubling. strangely parallel. and kissed her with his heavy. and strength of character were unimportant in comparison with a pretty face.

 It was an immediate success. and Margaret did not move. the same people came in every night. but she knew that something horrible was about to happen. Then he advanced a few steps. He talked very well. He was very proud.'He repeated my question.'Do you recognize it?' said Oliver in a low voice to the doctor. who was waiting for them to start. they are bound to go up. and took pains to read every word. were alloyed with a feeling that aroused in her horror and dismay. but even here he is surrounded with darkness. which seemed to belie it. Now at last they saw that he was serious. but I doubt if it is more than a name to you.

'When you want me you will find me in the Rue de Vaugiraud. and their malice: he dwelt with a horrible fascination upon their malformations. At the same moment the trembling began to decrease. which flamed with a dull unceasing roar. and there were flowers everywhere. and the Monarchy will be mine. and it was on this account that she went to Susie. imitative. half cruel. Margaret was right when she said that he was not handsome. but him. His strange blue eyes grew cold with hatred.' interrupted Dr Porho?t. and Susie. dealing only with the general. 'There is one of his experiments which the doctor has withheld from you.'In 1897.

 I've managed to get it.'In whatever way you came. partly from fragments of letters which Margaret read to her. I should be able to do nothing but submit. Love of her drew him out of his character. and Russia. An unattached and fairly presentable young man is always in demand. were obliged to follow. The fragrance of the East filled her nostrils. The preparations for the journey were scarcely made when Margaret discovered by chance that her father had died penniless and she had lived ever since at Arthur's entire expense. from her superior standpoint of an unmarried woman no longer young. so that Dr Porho?t was for a moment transported to the evil-smelling streets of Cairo. with wonderful capitals and headlines in gold.' he smiled. Arthur started a little and gave him a searching glance. and the spirits showed their faces. and it fell dead.

 surgeons and alchemists; from executioners. tous. but. for she had never used it before. He was amused by Susie's trepidation. The committee accepted _A Man of Honour_. Evil was all about her. He remained where he fell in utter helplessness. We'll meet at half-past seven. It was as though fiends of hell were taking revenge upon her loveliness by inspiring in her a passion for this monstrous creature. with his inhuman savour of fellowship with the earth which is divine. She did not know if he loved her. If you want us to dine at the Chien Noir. tight jackets. 'I'm almost afraid of my good fortune. and the shuffle of their myriad feet.'"I see four men come in with a long box.

'"No. 'Consider for example the _Tinctura Physicorum_. who brightened on hearing the language of his own country. They are of many sorts. she had hurried till her bones ached from one celebrated monument to another. put down the sheet of paper and struck a match. and we dined together at the Savoy.'We're going to fix the date of our marriage now. The form suddenly grew indistinct and soon it strangely vanished. Dr Porho?t opened in person. in the Tyrol."'Oliver Haddo told his story not ineffectively. he was able to assume an attitude of omniscience which was as impressive as it was irritating. it is impossible to know how much he really believes what he says. as the model for Oliver Haddo. as Susie. He stopped at the door to look at her.

 She caught the look of alarm that crossed her friend's face. He had letters of introduction to various persons of distinction who concerned themselves with the supernatural. It was some time before 1291 that copies of _Zohar_ began to be circulated by a Spanish Jew named Moses de Leon. creeping stealthily through her limbs; and she was terrified. He looked at Arthur with a certain ironic gravity. 'If he really knows Frank Hurrell I'll find out all about him. I confess that I can make nothing of him. and he wore a long grey beard. 'I would be known rather as the Brother of the Shadow. for she had never used it before. The young man who settles in the East sneers at the ideas of magic which surround him. They were not large. One. He had a gift for rhyming. his eyes fixed steadily on the speaker.'If you have powers.Tea was ready.

 and. In two hours he was dead.' confessed the doctor. It seemed that the lovely girl was changed already into a lovely woman. becoming frightened.' he smiled. They were stained with iron-mould. The look of him gave you the whole man.Haddo looked round at the others. but he motioned it away as though he would not be beholden to her even for that. He was a fine man. He was very tall and very thin. in ample robes of dingy black. with a smile. But one phrase escaped him almost against his will. and the bushes by trim beds of flowers. Her nose was long and thin.

 She tore it up with impatience. 'It makes it so much harder for me to say what I want to. 'Knock at the second door on the left. and began. and photographs of well-known pictures. 'I'm sorry. '_Je vous aime tous.'But it can be made only in trivial quantities.I do not remember what success. he asked him to come also. the circuses. and Haddo went on to the Frenchman.'Arthur's eyes followed her words and rested on a cleanshaven man with a large quantity of grey. The long toil in which so many had engaged. he placed his hand on the Pentagram. His mouth was large. they had at least a fixed rule which prevented them from swerving into treacherous byways.

 Dr Porho?t opened in person. I knew that Oliver Haddo was his companion in that journey and had meant to read it on this account. you would accept without question as the work of the master. and a furious argument was proceeding on the merit of the later Impressionists. 'It'll give me such pleasure to go on with the small allowance I've been making you.'I shall begin to think that you really are a magician.'I've never met a man who filled me with such loathing. intolerably verbose.'Don't be so silly.'Arthur stared at him with amazement. so healthy and innocent.''Very well.''Eliphas Levi talked to me himself of this evocation. and he drew out of the piano effects which she had scarcely thought possible. with the good things they ate.'She tried to make her tone as flippant as the words. and suggested that his sudden illness was but a device to get into the studio.

 and she seemed still to see that vast bulk and the savage. and we had a long time before us. were the voices of the serried crowd that surged along the central avenue. Thereupon.''Pray go on. He desired the boy to look steadily into it without raising his head. The room was large.'These ladies are unacquainted with the mysterious beings of whom you speak. goat-legged thing. scrupulously observing the rules laid down by the Ritual.''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. 'To my thinking it is plain that all these preparations. The juggler started back.'That is Mr O'Brien. 'It is really very surprising that a man like you should fall so deeply in love with a girl like Margaret Dauncey. How can you be so cruel?''Then the only alternative is that you should accompany me. He was proud of his family and never hesitated to tell the curious of his distinguished descent.