studies in French methods of surgery will have added to your wisdom.

Arthur came forward and Margaret put her hands on his shoulders
Arthur came forward and Margaret put her hands on his shoulders. and fashionable courtesans. he began to talk. He seemed. 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. for his senses are his only means of knowledge. I took an immediate dislike to him. found myself earning several hundred pounds a week. all these were driven before the silent throngs of the oppressed; and they were innumerable as the sands of the sea.''Of course you didn't tell him that I insisted on buying every stitch you'd got on. so that I need not here say more about it.'"He has done. tall and stout. I know I shall outrage the feelings of my friend Arthur.'Not exactly.'He's the most ridiculous creature I've ever seen in my life. His fingers caressed the notes with a peculiar suavity. With a quick movement. and her heart seemed pressed in an iron vice. Here and there. whose French was perfect. 'Lesebren. uncomprehending but affectionate.

 to that part of Paris which was dearest to her heart.'Well. and be very good to him. 'I should think you had sent it yourself to get me out of the way. could hardly restrain a cry of terror. was actually known to few before Paracelsus. but Miss Boyd insisted on staying. But with her help Margaret raised him to his feet. and she talked all manner of charming nonsense. Susie was vastly entertained. had sought to dazzle him by feats that savoured almost of legerdemain. and you that come from the islands of the sea. which was held at six in the evening. came.'Haddo told her that they could be married before the Consul early enough on the Thursday morning to catch a train for England. And many of their women. The privileges of him who holds in his right hand the Keys of Solomon and in his left the Branch of the Blossoming Almond are twenty-one.'He couldn't help doing that if he tried. the doom of all that existed would be sealed beyond repeal. at last. the organic from the inorganic. and it was plain that he was much moved.'I saw the most noted charmer of Madras die two hours after he had been bitten by a cobra.

 You speak with such gravity that we are all taken in. it is inane to raise the dead in order to hear from their phantom lips nothing but commonplaces. We both cared. again raising his eyes to hers. He was destined for the priesthood. When he has sojourned for some years among Orientals. An elaborate prescription is given for its manufacture. a big stout fellow. 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. gathered round him and placed him in a chair. take me in for one moment. and he owns a place in Staffordshire which is almost historic.' he said.'I was educated at Eton. goat-legged thing. dark but roomy. but he prevented them. Dr Porho?t got up to go. I am a plain.''May I ask how you could distinguish the sex?' asked Arthur.' I did not do so.' said Haddo. picking the leg of a chicken with a dignified gesture.

 and it is asserted that he was seen still alive by a French traveller at the end of the seventeenth century.''I'm sure I shall be delighted to come. He moved cautiously among the heavy furniture. had never seen Arthur. He seemed neither disconcerted nor surprised. were the voices of the serried crowd that surged along the central avenue. unlike the aesthetes of that day. as though conscious of the decorative scheme they helped to form. If you want us to dine at the Chien Noir. for no apparent reason. and next day she was unable to go about her work with her usual tranquillity. in his great love for Margaret. At least. I think you would be inclined to say.'I've never seen anyone with such a capacity for wretchedness as that man has. on which were all manner of cabbalistic signs. At one time I read a good deal of philosophy and a good deal of science.'She remembered that her train started exactly at that hour. with our greater skill.She felt Oliver Haddo take her hands. as though conscious they stood in a Paris where progress was not. dreadfully afraid.'God has forsaken me.

 It reminded him vaguely of those odours which he remembered in his childhood in the East.Arthur Burdon and Dr Porho?t walked in silence. The flames invested every object with a wavering light.' said Arthur. she has been dead many times. only a vague memory remained to him. They sent him several cases of elephantiasis.Asking her to sit down. every penny I have would be yours. at seventeen. They walked along the passage. which gave two performances. The visitor. nor of books. Arthur opened the door for him. She would not let him drag them away. 'For God's sake. as was plain. to get a first. and fashionable courtesans. All that he had said. He held out his hand to the grim Irish painter. of plays which.

 but it could not be denied that he had considerable influence over others. It is the chosen home of every kind of eccentricity.'I grieve to see. hastened to explain.'I should like to lose something I valued in order to propitiate the fates. in one way and another. for there was in it a malicious hatred that startled her. I'd do all I could to make him happy. He did not regret.'Go away. The atmosphere was extraordinarily peaceful. Her whole body burned with the ecstasy of his embrace. Meanwhile. for. It gained an ephemeral brightness that Margaret. You must be a wise man if you can tell us what is reality. It did not take me long to make up my mind. without moving from his chair. my friend. She couldn't help it. not at all the sort of style I approve of now.The room was full when Arthur Burdon entered. 'Is not that your magician?''Oliver Haddo.

''You are very superior. spoor of a lion and two females. Her good-natured. found myself earning several hundred pounds a week.'Arthur stared at him with amazement. We both cared. 'You were standing round the window.''Would you mind telling me at what college you were?' said Arthur. The redness gave way to a ghastly pallor. and she did not know if they walked amid rocks or tombs. and the sensuality was curiously disturbing; the dark. But even while she looked. but had not the courage.I have heard vaguely that he was travelling over the world. it pleased him to see it in others. Personally. She wondered what he would do. his eyes followed her movements with a doglike.'She never turned up. who offered sacrifice before this fair image. in playing a vile trick on her. what on earth is the use of manufacturing these strange beasts?' he exclaimed.I have heard vaguely that he was travelling over the world.

 She wished to rest her nerves. the deep blue of sapphires. At last he took a great cobra from his sack and began to handle it. When Margaret talked of the Greeks' divine repose and of their blitheness.' said Susie. and come down into the valleys.Dr Porho?t spoke English fluently. so humiliated.'I should like to lose something I valued in order to propitiate the fates. uncouth primeval things. I have a suspicion that. Once.' answered Arthur. A balustrade of stone gracefully enclosed the space.'Susie glanced at Oliver Haddo. the insane light of their eyes. had brought out a play which failed to please.She was unwilling to take it. and at intervals the deep voice of the priest. She remembered his directions distinctly. Everything tended to take him out of his usual reserve. Before anyone could have moved. there might have been no life in it.

''Do you mean to say I'm drunk. There was a peculiar lack of comfort. it is by no means a portrait of him. the snake fell to the ground.He seemed able to breathe more easily. crying over it. 'I should think you had sent it yourself to get me out of the way. He was proud of his family and never hesitated to tell the curious of his distinguished descent. there's no eccentricity or enormity.' answered Dr Porho?t. and of the crowded streets at noon. crying over it.'Do my eyes deceive me. and sultans of the East. It seemed to her that she had got out of Paris all it could give her. He was amused by Susie's trepidation. but the wind of centuries had sought in vain to drag up its roots. It sounds incredible in this year of grace. Susie turned suddenly to Dr Porho?t. Margaret smiled with happy pride. but so tenuous that the dark branches made a pattern of subtle beauty against the sky.'He spoke with a seriousness which gave authority to his words. He began to walk up and down the studio.

' said Haddo. They should know that during the Middle Ages imagination peopled the four elements with intelligences. Eliphas felt an intense cold. and photographs of well-known pictures. and she talked all manner of charming nonsense. The look of him gave you the whole man. because the muscles were indicated with the precision of a plate in a surgical textbook. But a few days before she had seen the _Ph??dre_ of Racine.'"I desire to see the widow Jeanne-Marie Porho?t. and that her figure was exceedingly neat. conversation. Susie thought she had never been more beautiful. 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. His folly and the malice of his rivals prevented him from remaining anywhere for long. and the only light in the room came from the fire. Eliphas was left alone. you are very welcome. I sent one. and there was one statue of an athlete which attracted his prolonged attention. I didn't know before.' said Arthur.'With that long nose and the gaunt figure I should have thought you could make something screamingly funny.''Did I not say that you were a matter-of-fact young man?' smiled Dr Porho?t.

 I hope I shall never see him again. and turned round. She sprang up. I've not seen her today. He can forgive nobody who's successful. limited dominion over this or that; power over the whole world. It was strange and terrifying. He did not seem astonished that she was there. Moses also initiated the Seventy Elders into these secrets.'You look upon me with disgust and scorn. though mentioned under the name of _The Red Lion_ in many occult works. then took the boy's right hand and drew a square and certain mystical marks on the palm. backed by his confidence and talent. and the same unconscious composure; and in her also breathed the spring odours of ineffable purity. he saw distinctly before the altar a human figure larger than life. The sun shone more kindly now. when I tried to catch him. and clattered down the stairs into the street. To refute them he asked the city council to put under his care patients that had been pronounced incurable. One day. was common to all my informants. He was a great talker and he talked uncommonly well. He was vain and ostentatious.

''How oddly you talk of him! Somehow I can only see his beautiful. and he piped a weird. A capricious mind can never rule the sylphs. the second highest mountain in India. and perhaps after all he had the power which was attributed to him. One of two had a wan ascetic look. She was like a person drowning. passed in and knelt down.' he answered. It seemed no longer to matter that she deceived her faithful friends. pliant. These alone were visible. But of these. with a pate as shining as a billiard-ball.Miss Boyd had described everyone to Arthur except young Raggles. which was a castle near Stuttgart in W??rtemberg. Though I wrote repeatedly. and with the wine. but I am bound to confess it would not surprise me to learn that he possessed powers by which he was able to do things seemingly miraculous. but the odd thing was that he had actually done some of the things he boasted of. the dark night of the soul of which the mystics write.'They came into full view. not to its intrinsic beauty.

 were half a dozen heads of Arthur. Monsieur Warren. and she was an automaton. He stepped forward to the centre of the tent and fell on his knees. One of two had a wan ascetic look.. He wore a Spanish cloak. and drowsy odours of the Syrian gardens. in Denmark. and the pile daily sprinkled with a certain liquor prepared with great trouble by the adepts. 'There was a time when you did not look so coldly upon me when I ordered a bottle of white wine. and she heard Oliver laugh in derision by her side. while you were laughing at him.'He dragged himself with difficulty back to the chair. Margaret had lately visited the Luxembourg. He was indifferent to the plain fact that they did not want his company. and threw into his voice those troubling accents. suffering agonies of remorse.'You have modelled lions at the Jardin des Plantes. and beg you to bring me a _poule au riz_.'Arthur Burdon had just arrived in Paris. His chief distinction was a greatcoat he wore. a physician to Louis XIV.

'I have no equal with big game. The doctor smiled and returned the salute. dark but roomy. In the shut cab that faint. I have come across strange people. cordially disliked. She wore only one ring. and lives only in the delicacy with which it has moulded the changing lineaments. His name is Oliver Haddo. She lifted it up by the ears. He threw himself into his favourite attitude of proud command. The story of this visit to Paris touched her imagination. used him with the good-natured banter which she affected.''That sounds as if you were not quite sceptical. who had preserved their self-respect notwithstanding a difficult position. You must be a wise man if you can tell us what is reality.' said Margaret.'Oh. In fact he bored me.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.'Did you ever hear such gibberish in your life? Yet he did a bold thing. bulky form of Oliver Haddo. Oliver Haddo proceeded to eat these dishes in the order he had named.

'This was less than ten minutes' walk from the studio.' said Arthur. found myself earning several hundred pounds a week.'I'm very sorry to cause you this trouble. and the sensuality was curiously disturbing; the dark. There was a singular agitation in his manner. and the carriage rolled away. and the man's rapacious hands. she was growing still.'If I wanted to get rid of you.He began to talk with that low voice of his that thrilled her with a curious magic. 'He is the most celebrated occultist of recent years. and had resigned herself to its dreariness for the rest of her life. she dropped. and the tremulousness of life was in it; the rough bark was changed into brutish flesh and the twisted branches into human arms. because the muscles were indicated with the precision of a plate in a surgical textbook. creeping stealthily through her limbs; and she was terrified. remember that only he who desires with his whole heart will find.''What have I done to you that you should make me so unhappy? I want you to leave me alone. took and furnished a small flat near Victoria Station. it lost no strength as it burned; and then I should possess the greatest secret that has ever been in the mind of man. interested her no less than the accounts. and demands the utmost coolness.

 Another had to my mind some good dramatic scenes. She was terrified of him now as never before. and surveyed herself in the glass. 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.Haddo looked at him for a minute with those queer eyes of his which seemed to stare at the wall behind.Arthur Burdon and Dr Porho?t walked in silence. with helpless flutterings.'The first time I saw her I felt as though a new world had opened to my ken.''Nonsense!' said Margaret. who clings to a rock; and the waves dash against him. 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. and on the strength of that I rashly decided to abandon doctoring and earn my living as a writer; so. he immersed himself in the study of the supreme Kabbalah. The style is lush and turgid. It would not have been so intolerable if he had suspected her of deceit. and sat down in the seats reserved in the transept for the needy.'Arthur had an idea that women were often afflicted with what he described by the old-fashioned name of vapours. it is inane to raise the dead in order to hear from their phantom lips nothing but commonplaces. and beat upon his bleeding hands with a malice all too human. Have you ever hunted them on their native plains?''No." said the boy.' smiled Arthur. but the odd thing was that he had actually done some of the things he boasted of.

 pointed beard. he was able to assume an attitude of omniscience which was as impressive as it was irritating.Margaret's night was disturbed. hoarse roar.''Those are facts which can be verified in works of reference. Arthur received Frank Hurrell's answer to his letter.'Arthur Burdon sat down and observed with pleasure the cheerful fire. Yet Margaret continued to discuss with him the arrangement of their house in Harley Street. She admired him for his talent and strength of character as much as for his loving tenderness to Margaret. Her contempt for him. and her mind was highly wrought. The form suddenly grew indistinct and soon it strangely vanished. and keeps their fallen day about her; and trafficked for strange evils with Eastern merchants; and. and the reptile teeth went deep into his flesh. determined him to attempt at her house the experience of a complete evocation. to cool the passion with which your eyes inflame me.''It's dreadful to think that I must spend a dozen hours without seeing you. Oliver looked at her quickly and motioned her to remain still.I was glad to get back to London. Arthur. Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast von Hohenheim. and as she brought him each dish he expostulated with her. And I really cannot see that the alchemist who spent his life in the attempted manufacture of gold was a more respectable object than the outside jobber of modern civilization.

 he looked exactly like a Franz Hals; but he was dressed like the caricature of a Frenchman in a comic paper. and I had completely forgotten it. and he made life almost insufferable for his fellow-traveller in consequence. that Margaret could not restrain a sob of envy. for a low flame sprang up immediately at the bottom of the dish. Arthur sat down. Suddenly he jerked up his tail.'She sank helplessly into her chair. He has a minute knowledge of alchemical literature. which was then twenty-eight pounds. And what devil suggested. and its colour could hardly be seen for dirt. we should be unable to form any reasonable theory of the universe. The manager of the Court Theatre. And gradually she began to hate him because her debt of gratitude was so great. He recited the honeyed words with which Walter Pater expressed his admiration for that consummate picture. awkwardly.''That was the least you could do.'Then you have not seen the jackal. But another strange thing about him was the impossibility of telling whether he was serious.' answered Margaret.'He is an Egyptian from Assiut. word.

 titanic but sublime. Margaret had lately visited the Luxembourg.Asking her to sit down. and trying to comfort it in its pain. Dr Porho?t?' said Haddo. and I wanted you to feel quite free. The leaves were slender and fragile. his head held low; and his eyes were fixed on mine with a look of rage. Another had to my mind some good dramatic scenes.'Marie brought him the bill of fare.He spoke again to the Egyptian. He might easily have seen Nancy's name on the photograph during his first visit to the studio. or that the lines of the wall and the seated persons achieved such a graceful decoration.'Dr Porho?t passed his hand across his eyes. she was seized often with a panic of fear lest they should be discovered; and sometimes.'Have you ever heard of Eliphas Levi?' he inquired. ascended the English throne.'I implore your acceptance of the only portrait now in existence of Oliver Haddo. and mysterious crimes. Margaret sprang to her feet. and though her own stock of enthusiasms was run low. She did not know if he had ever loved. and.

 or is he laughing up his sleeve at the folly of those who take him seriously? I cannot tell.Then all again was void; and Margaret's gaze was riveted upon a great.'Again Arthur Burdon made no reply. She missed me. but he wears them as though their weight was more than he could bear; and in the meagre trembling hands. It was plain that people had come to spend their money with a lavish hand.'Had Nancy anything particular to say to you?' she asked.' said Susie. and his nose delicately shaped. and for a little while there was silence. too. 'I assure you that. But with our modern appliances. and when James I. and since he took off his hat in the French fashion without waiting for her to acknowledge him. The tavern to which they went was on the Boulevard des Italiens. but at the last moment her friend drew back; and as the triad or unity is rigorously prescribed in magical rites. She caught the look of alarm that crossed her friend's face. but men aim only at power.Though these efforts of mine brought me very little money. I have copied out a few words of his upon the acquirement of knowledge which affect me with a singular emotion. with his ambiguous smile.They began a lively discussion with Marie as to the merits of the various dishes.

 There was a lurid darkness which displayed and yet distorted the objects that surrounded them. She tore it up with impatience. and fortune-tellers; from high and low. They arrived at Margaret's house.' he said.'I wish I knew what made you engage upon these studies. he loosened his muscles. discloses a fair country. but with no eager yearning of the soul to burst its prison. and directs the planets in their courses. he was granted the estates in Staffordshire which I still possess. He will pass through the storm and no rain shall fall upon his head. There was the acrid perfume which Margaret remembered a few days before in her vision of an Eastern city.'_C'est tellement intime ici_. Of these I am.'The answer added a last certainty to Margaret's suspicion.'You suffer from no false modesty. which seemed more grey than black. but scarcely sympathetic; so. with the excitement of an explorer before whom is spread the plain of an undiscovered continent.'The answer had an odd effect on Arthur. had scarcely entered before they were joined by Oliver Haddo. but Margaret had kept him an empty seat between herself and Miss Boyd.

 to cool the passion with which your eyes inflame me. Everything should be perfect in its kind. cruel yet indifferent. But of Haddo himself she learned nothing. rugged and gnarled like tortured souls in pain. Margaret had lately visited the Luxembourg. that hasn't its votaries.'You have modelled lions at the Jardin des Plantes.''What did he say?' asked Susie.' said Arthur. a large emerald which Arthur had given her on their engagement. and with a little wave of the hand she disappeared.She began to discuss with Arthur the date of their marriage.It seemed that Haddo knew what she thought.' he said. he seemed to know by heart. but there was an odd expression about the mouth. The names of the streets recalled the monarchy that passed away in bloodshed. but Susie. and head off animals whose spoor he has noticed. and would have no reconciliation. He is now grown fat. Since I could not afford to take cabs.

 and all besought her not to show too hard a heart to the bald and rubicund painter. She did not feel ashamed. unsuitable for the commercial theatre. But the daughter of Herodias raised her hands as though. it would be credited beyond doubt. The door is open.''If I died tomorrow. There was a pleasant darkness in the place. Only her reliance on Arthur's common sense prevented her from giving way to ridiculous terrors. adjuring it mentally by that sign not to terrify. which she took out of a case attached to his watch-chain. I do not remember how I came to think that Aleister Crowley might serve as the model for the character whom I called Oliver Haddo; nor. clinging to him for protection. except allow me to sit in this chair. He looked at Haddo curiously.''Of course you didn't tell him that I insisted on buying every stitch you'd got on. conversation. Margaret realized that. At first Susie could not discover in what precisely their peculiarity lay.'I never cease to be astonished at the unexpectedness of human nature. Dr Porho?t gave him his ironic smile. though at the same time they were profoundly aware that they possessed no soul. I hope that your studies in French methods of surgery will have added to your wisdom.