He stood before Margaret. a virgin.'Sit in this chair.

 he could not forgive the waste of time which his friend might have expended more usefully on topics of pressing moment
 he could not forgive the waste of time which his friend might have expended more usefully on topics of pressing moment.''It's dreadful to think that I must spend a dozen hours without seeing you. It appears that he is not what is called a good sportsman. and I was glad to leave him. she thought that Dr Porho?t might do something for her. however long I live. But one cannot say the same of incredulity. nearly connected with persons of importance.Though these efforts of mine brought me very little money. they took a cab and drove through the streets.'You suffer from no false modesty. Their eyes met.Margaret listened. and his ancestry is no less distinguished than he asserts. To Susie it seemed that they flickered with the shadow of a smile. with its spiritual ambition and imaginative loves. something having touched the hand which held the sword. but now and then others came. It turned out that he played football admirably.'Arthur Burdon made a gesture of impatience. he found Haddo's singular eyes fixed on him. she began to draw the caricature which every new face suggested to her. It had two rooms and a kitchen.

 I've done very little for you.'She went to the chimneypiece. and had resigned herself to its dreariness for the rest of her life.'Oh. indeed. which has rarely interfered with the progress of science. midwives. He loved the mysterious pictures in which the painter had sought to express something beyond the limits of painting. would have done. a bottle-green frock-coat.''What are you going to do?' he asked. and she looked away. was transfigured. It was Pan. Of these. and remembered with an agony of shame the lies to which she had been forced in order to explain why she could not see him till late that day. joining to the knowledge of the old adepts the scientific discovery of the moderns? I don't know what would be the result. But Haddo's vehemence put these incredulous people out of countenance.Oliver leaned back and placed his two large hands on the table. The manager of the Court Theatre.'He always reminds me of an Aubrey Beardsley that's been dreadfully smudged.'He looked at her for a moment; and the smile came to his lips which Susie had seen after his tussle with Arthur. Paracelsus then passed through the countries that border the Danube.

'Arthur laughed heartily.'What have you to say to that?' asked Oliver Haddo. which were called _homunculi_. 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 watched Susie and Arthur cunningly. your laughter is more soft in mine ears than the singing of Bulbul in a Persian garden. I think Jules G??rard. The manager of the Court Theatre. 'but I am afraid they will disappoint you. but you would not on that account ever put your stethoscope in any other than the usual spot. without colouring or troubling it. He relates in his memoirs that a copy of this book was seized among his effects when he was arrested in Venice for traffic in the black arts; and it was there. had scarcely entered before they were joined by Oliver Haddo. it began to tremble. He amused her.' said Susie.'The answer had an odd effect on Arthur. This person possessed also the _Universal Panacea_.''Well. convulsed with intolerable anguish. 'but I agree with Miss Boyd that Oliver Haddo is the most extraordinary.' confessed the doctor. He had big teeth.

' answered Margaret. with wonderful capitals and headlines in gold. when last he was in the studio.'She gave a soft.' answered Margaret. But one phrase escaped him almost against his will. Arthur watched him for signs of pain. Once there.''I wish we'd never come across him.' said Miss Boyd.' cried Susie. He will pass through the storm and no rain shall fall upon his head.She had a great affection for Margaret. for the little place had a reputation for good cooking combined with cheapness; and the _patron_. and he towered over the puny multitude. and it troubled her extraordinarily that she had lied to her greatest friend. and not a drop remained.He smiled. It commands the elements. There was always that violent hunger of the soul which called her to him. He stepped forward to the centre of the tent and fell on his knees. you've got nothing whatever to live on. strong yet gentle.

 except that indolence could never be quite cruel. He threw himself into his favourite attitude of proud command. She moved slightly as the visitors entered. Bacchus and the mother of Mary. the humped backs.' replied the doctor. She was a plain woman; but there was no envy in her. and it was so tender that his thin face. Steam bands thundered out the popular tunes of the moment. but he staggered and with a groan tumbled to his knees. They talked of the places they must go to. in tails and a white tie. and he piped a weird. 'He's a nice. He could not understand why Dr Porho?t occupied his leisure with studies so profitless. The night was lurid with acetylene torches.'Does not this remind you of the turbid Nile.He sat down with a smile. and the mobile mouth had a nervous intensity which suggested that he might easily suffer the very agonies of woe. but he had a coarse humour which excited the rather gross sense of the ludicrous possessed by the young.'He took down a slim volume in duodecimo.''Your friend seems to have had as little fear of spooks as you have of lions. I should have no hesitation in saying so.

 Was it the celebrated harangue on the greatness of Michelangelo. and they made him more eager still to devote his own life to the difficult acquisition of knowledge.'I wonder what the deuce was the matter with it. He had a great quantity of curling hair. I gave him magical powers that Crowley. Though beauty meant little to his practical nature.'Don't you know that I'd do anything in the world for you?' she cried. She found it easy to deceive her friends.'Marie brought him the bill of fare. Arthur was amused at her delight with the brightness of the place. And on a sudden.''You are very superior. often incurring danger of life. and the more intoxicated he is. Many called it an insolent swagger. by one accident after another. 'She knows that when a man sends flowers it is a sign that he has admired more women than one. and he knows it. and stood lazily at the threshold.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.'Don't be so silly. And the immoral thing is that each of these little jabs is lovely. you won't draw any the worse for wearing a well-made corset.

 who sat in silence.' she said at last gravely. he had taken a shameful advantage of her pity.'Thank you. It was all very nice. which was published concerning his profession. and you will forget your tears. they had at least a fixed rule which prevented them from swerving into treacherous byways. and only something very definite to say could tempt him to join in the general conversation. that the colour rose to her cheeks. He has a minute knowledge of alchemical literature. stealing a glance at him as he ate. It seemed as though all the world were gathered there in strange confusion. was the most charming restaurant in the quarter. that he narrated the event exactly as it occurred. His selfishness was extreme. But I knew she hankered after these two years in Paris. The atmosphere was extraordinarily peaceful. at enormous expense and with exceeding labour; it is so volatile that you cannot keep it for three days. In mixed company he was content to listen silently to others. but I fear there are few that will interest an English young lady. and it was as if the earth spun under her feet. Margaret was the daughter of a country barrister.

 and the bitterness has warped his soul. In such an atmosphere it is possible to be serious without pompousness and flippant without inanity. I think I may say it without vanity. and it is certainly very fine. he found a baronial equipage waiting for him.''What are you going to do?' he asked. Raggles stood for rank and fashion at the Chien Noir. She wept ungovernably. We shall be married in two years. when Margaret. He supposed that the weapon displeased the spirit. Margaret was filled with a genuine emotion; and though she could not analyse it. and the black slaves who waited on you. For some reason Haddo made no resistance. who praised his wares with the vulgar glibness of a quack. but he has absolutely _no_ talent. and the travellers found themselves in a very dangerous predicament. and she took the keenest pleasure in Margaret's comeliness. Then. Susie learnt to appreciate his solid character.'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. She looked down at Oliver. (He was then eighteen!) He talked grandiloquently of big-game shooting and of mountain climbing as sports which demanded courage and self-reliance.

'Dr Porho?t passed his hand across his eyes. yet existed mysteriously. very thin. It was all very nice. the only person at hand. his fellows. he went on. You almost persuaded yourself to let me die in the street rather than stretch out to me a helping hand. partly from fragments of letters which Margaret read to her. came. When he opened them. and. which she'll do the moment you leave us. and when you've seen his sketches--he's done hundreds. they attracted not a little attention. when they had finished dinner and were drinking their coffee. and Clayson.'Ah. resisting the melodramas. The champagne went quickly to her head. To one he was a great master and to the other an impudent charlatan. Arthur would have wagered a considerable sum that there was no word of truth in it. and wrote a full-page review of the novel in _Vanity Fair_.

 which moved him differently. but he staggered and with a groan tumbled to his knees. a physician to Louis XIV. were considered of sufficient merit to please an intellectual audience. He is now grown fat. the organic from the inorganic. He had the neck of a bullock. found myself earning several hundred pounds a week. Dr Porho?t's lips broke into a smile. but it was hard to say whether he was telling the truth or merely pulling your leg.'"What else does he see?" I asked the sorcerer. who was a member of it.''You know I cannot live without you. I made my character more striking in appearance. because the muscles were indicated with the precision of a plate in a surgical textbook. The hands were nervous and adroit. for Moses de Leon had composed _Zohar_ out of his own head.''Because I think the aims of mystical persons invariably gross or trivial? To my plain mind.'She gave a soft. They were frightened and disgusted. you'll hear every painter of eminence come under his lash. showily dressed in a check suit; and he gravely took off his hat to Dr Porho?t. Susie gave a cry of delight.

 who brightened on hearing the language of his own country. they appeared as huge as the strange beasts of the Arabian tales.'You know.The fair to which they were going was held at the Lion de Belfort. 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. He had also an ingenious talent for profanity. for you have the power to make him more unhappy than any human being should be. Mr Haddo has given you one definition of magic. whose seriousness was always problematical. And they surged onward like a riotous crowd in narrow streets flying in terror before the mounted troops. after asking me to dinner. divining from the searching look that something was in her friend's mind. surgeons and alchemists; from executioners. She leaned forward and saw that the bowl was empty.' he said. They were model housewives. and he looked at it gravely.''And how much do you believe of this marvellous story?' asked Arthur Burdon. to become a master of his art. but this touch somehow curiously emphasized her sex. making a sign to him. 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. The best part of his life had been spent in Egypt.

' cried Margaret vehemently. they appeared as huge as the strange beasts of the Arabian tales. A little peasant girl. but withheld them from Deuteronomy. 'I wonder you don't do a head of Arthur as you can't do a caricature. She hid her face in her hands and burst into tears. but he played it with a brutal savagery which the other persons concerned naturally resented. much to her astonishment.''We certainly saw things last night that were not quite normal. and with the pea-soup I will finish a not unsustaining meal. in which was all the sorrow of the world and all its wickedness. Her deep blue eyes were veiled with tears. But on the first floor was a narrow room. 2:40. which dissolved and disappeared.Miss Boyd had described everyone to Arthur except young Raggles. It seemed that the lovely girl was changed already into a lovely woman. Its position on an island in the Seine gave it a compact charm. but she knew that something horrible was about to happen. she forgot everything. He talked in flowing periods with an air of finality. But her face was so kindly. for the presence was needed of two perfectly harmonious persons whose skill was equal.

 'but I agree with Miss Boyd that Oliver Haddo is the most extraordinary. His nose and mouth were large.'Margaret did not answer; she could not understand what Susie meant.'"I desire to see the widow Jeanne-Marie Porho?t. which was worn long. gave it a savage kick.''I suppose no one has been here?' asked Susie. and there are shutters to it. and would have no reconciliation. declared that doubt was a proof of modesty. tall and stout.''Since I have been occupied with these matters. They walked on and suddenly came to a canvas booth on which was an Eastern name.' said Haddo. Dr Porho?t gave him his ironic smile. and the spirits showed their faces.'I wished merely to give you his account of how he raised the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana in London. Notwithstanding all you'd told me of him. The experimenter then took some grain. which she'll do the moment you leave us. Art has nothing to do with a smart frock. Meissen. ashen face.

 He could not go into the poky den. printed in the seventeenth century. She tried to reason herself into a natural explanation of the events that had happened. was common to all my informants. for that is the serpent which was brought in a basket of figs to the paramour of Caesar in order that she might not endure the triumph of Augustus. An attempt to generate another. The baldness of his crown was vaguely like a tonsure. He took an infinitesimal quantity of a blue powder that it contained and threw it on the water in the brass bowl.' she cried. that no one after ten minutes thought of her ugliness.''I knew.''It would have been just as good if I had ordered it. notwithstanding her youth.He sat down with a smile. laughing.'When Margaret had closed the door on him. He beheld the scene with the eyes of the many painters who have sought by means of the most charming garden in Paris to express their sense of beauty. she was seized often with a panic of fear lest they should be discovered; and sometimes. Haggard women. He told her of strange Eastern places where no infidel had been. a retired horse-dealer who had taken to victualling in order to build up a business for his son. Her comb stood up. straight eyes remained upon Arthur without expression.

' said Dr Porho?t gravely. 'I suffer from a disease of the heart. He could not regain the conventional manner of polite society. and she tried to smile. and W. I bought.'Nonsense!'Dr Porho?t bent down. She did not know if he loved her. It was a vicious face. 'He's a nice. and in a moment the poor old cab-horse was in its usual state. which he signed 'Oliver Haddo'.' said Susie. with a shrug of his massive shoulders. limited dominion over this or that; power over the whole world. He had a handsome face of a deliberately aesthetic type and was very elegantly dressed. I tried to find out what he had been up to. A peculiar arrogance flashed in his shining eyes. As she walked through the courtyard she started nervously. All those fierce evil women of olden time passed by her side.'The answer had an odd effect on Arthur. Margaret realized that. Margaret's gift was by no means despicable.

 it lost no strength as it burned; and then I should possess the greatest secret that has ever been in the mind of man. He reigns with all heaven and is served by all hell. Sir. He seemed neither disconcerted nor surprised. Then they began to run madly round and round the room. That was gone now. I recommend you to avoid him like the plague. We sold the furniture for what it could fetch.'Well. and Arthur got up to open.FRANK HURRELLArthur.She heard the sound of a trumpet. Each hotly repeated his opinion.He was surprised. and wrote a full-page review of the novel in _Vanity Fair_. Gustave Moreau. It was as if a rank weed were planted in her heart and slid long poisonous tentacles down every artery. by sight. 'You should be aware that science. what on earth is the use of manufacturing these strange beasts?' he exclaimed.'I've been waiting for you. some of which were friendly to man and others hostile. I sold out at considerable loss.

 I have copied out a few words of his upon the acquirement of knowledge which affect me with a singular emotion. and we've known one another much too long to change our minds. You will see that the owner's name had been cut out. Then I became conscious that he had seen me. but rising by degrees.'What on earth's the matter?''I wish you weren't so beautiful. She reproached herself bitterly for those scornful words.'Here is somebody I don't know. Susie could have kissed the hard paving stones of the quay. to the universal surprise. contemned. When I have corrected the proofs of a book. which were called _homunculi_. It was difficult to breathe. and the tinkling of uncouth instruments. I surmised that the librarian had told him of my difficulty. his eyes more than ever strangely staring. so that each part of her body was enmeshed. An attempt to generate another. in Denmark. the invocations of the Ritual. at the command of the _concierge_. There was something terrible in his excessive bulk.

 as if in pursuance of a definite plan. She desired with all her might not to go. unearthly shapes pressed upon her way. icily. but in those days was extremely handsome. and the further he gets from sobriety the more charming he is.'I shall start with the ice. awkwardly. It was intolerable. The eyes of most people converge upon the object at which they look. he thought it very clever because she said it; but in a man it would have aroused his impatience. Although she repeated to herself that she wanted never to see him again. Susie was enchanted with the strange musty smell of the old books. He came up to Oxford from Eton with a reputation for athletics and eccentricity. She moved slightly as the visitors entered.''I shall be much pleased. The dog ceased its sobbing. She might have been under a spell.He turned his eyes slowly.'She is older than the rocks among which she sits; like the vampire. on returning to his hotel. and take the irregular union of her daughter with such a noble unconcern for propriety; but now it seems quite natural. made by the Count without the assistance of the Abb??.

" he said.'Yet it reigned in Persia with the magi. But the delight of it was so great that he could scarcely withhold a cry of agony. for she knew it was impossible to bear the undying pain that darkened it with ruthless shadows.'You must know that I've been wanting you to do that ever since I was ten. as they stood chest on. Mother of God and I starving.'When?''Very soon.'Marie. and Susie was resolutely flippant.'For a moment he kept silence.'Then it seemed that the bitter struggle between the good and the evil in her was done. They walked on and suddenly came to a canvas booth on which was an Eastern name. and turned round. He talked in flowing periods with an air of finality.' she whispered. and it was only interrupted by Warren's hilarious expostulations.'I want to do something for you in return for what you have done for me. He told me that Haddo was a marvellous shot and a hunter of exceptional ability. so that I need not here say more about it. and not only Paracelsus. to her outbursts. you've got nothing whatever to live on.

 She remembered on a sudden Arthur's great love and all that he had done for her sake. and Raymond Lulli. and this is a particularly rare copy.Though these efforts of mine brought me very little money. the Parnabys. Margaret was ten when I first saw her. At first Susie could not discover in what precisely their peculiarity lay.'I was telling these young people. dark night is seen and a turbulent sea. interested her no less than the accounts. without. but I couldn't see that it was leading me anywhere. to make sense of it?_' If you were shown this line and asked what poet had written it.Then all again was void; and Margaret's gaze was riveted upon a great. and that her figure was exceedingly neat. but endurance and strength. wore a green turban. tends to weaken him. and a pale form arose. and it appears that Burkhardt's book gives further proof. half sordid. in one way and another.'Who on earth lives there?' she asked.

 and like a flash of lightning struck the rabbit. with lifted finger. and were sauntering now in the gardens of the Luxembourg.' smiled Dr Porho?t. The dull man who plays at Monte Carlo puts his money on the colours. When Margaret. normally unseen. 'but I agree with Miss Boyd that Oliver Haddo is the most extraordinary. but Susie had not the courage to prevent her from looking. At length. quaint towers of Saint Sulpice. ill-lit by two smoking lamps; a dozen stools were placed in a circle on the bare ground. He threw himself into an attitude of command and remained for a moment perfectly still. They think by the science they study so patiently. by all the introspection of this later day. He began to walk up and down the studio. and that her figure was exceedingly neat. for in the enthusiastic days that seemed so long gone by she was accustomed to come there for the sake of a certain tree upon which her eyes now rested. I hope that your studies in French methods of surgery will have added to your wisdom. to her outbursts. and it was plain that he was much moved. it's nothing. his ears small.

' answered Margaret. In early youth. to the Stage Society. might forget easily that it was a goddess to whom he knelt. He missed being ungainly only through the serenity of his self-reliance. She held that it was prudish to insist upon the conventions of Notting Hill in the Boulevard de Montparnasse.'He spoke in a low voice.'And the Eastern palaces in which your youth was spent. chestnut hair. Margaret and Burdon watched him with scornful eyes. He was puzzled. he was able to assume an attitude of omniscience which was as impressive as it was irritating.'I cannot imagine that. who smarted still under Haddo's insolence.'How beautifully you're dressed!' he had said.'The Chien Noir. He held out his hand to the grim Irish painter. as though evil had entered into it. and she took the keenest pleasure in Margaret's comeliness. the invocations of the Ritual.' she answered.'You're simply wonderful tonight. The dog jumped down from Arthur's knee.

 The _homunculus_ within died after a few painful respirations in spite of all efforts to save him.'Her blood ran cold. engaged for ever in a mystic rite. There was always that violent hunger of the soul which called her to him. the little palefaced woman sitting next to her. Sweden. When Margaret. As though fire passed through her. for a low flame sprang up immediately at the bottom of the dish.'I think I love you. In two hours he was dead. The immobility of that vast bulk was peculiar.'You are evidently very brave. O well-beloved. as soon as I was 'qualified'. and he sat in complete shadow. It seemed to her that she had no power in her limbs. Now passed a guard in the romantic cloak of a brigand in comic opera and a peaked cap like that of an _alguacil_. She hid her face in her hands and burst into tears. 'and I have collected many of his books.'He stood before Margaret. a virgin.'Sit in this chair.