'I wonder what the deuce was the matter with it.

 thought well enough of my crude play to publish it in _The Fortnightly Review_
 thought well enough of my crude play to publish it in _The Fortnightly Review_. for the presence was needed of two perfectly harmonious persons whose skill was equal.'The answer added a last certainty to Margaret's suspicion. Her features were chiselled with the clear and divine perfection of this Greek girl's; her ears were as delicate and as finely wrought. all these were driven before the silent throngs of the oppressed; and they were innumerable as the sands of the sea. for what most fascinated the observer was a supreme and disdainful indifference to the passion of others. Her deep blue eyes were veiled with tears. Margaret remembered that her state had been the same on her first arrival in Paris. and. dark night is seen and a turbulent sea. My bullet went clean through her heart. Everything goes too well with me. He threw himself into an attitude of command and remained for a moment perfectly still. All things about them appeared dumbly to suffer. that led to the quarter of the Montparnasse. a few puny errors which must excite a smile on the lips of the gentle priest. The young women who had thrown in their lives with these painters were modest in demeanour and quiet in dress. or else he was a charlatan who sought to attract attention by his extravagances. Susie's brave smile died away as she caught this glance. She would have cried for help to Arthur or to Susie. but fell in love with a damsel fair and married her.' smiled Dr Porho?t.'She was quite willing to give up her idea of Paris and be married without delay. He is the only undergraduate I have ever seen walk down the High in a tall hat and a closely-buttoned frock-coat. as a result of which the man was shot dead.

 and his face assumed a new.''I see that you wish me to go.The water had been consumed. could only recall him by that peculiarity.'Margaret took the portfolio in which Susie kept her sketches. he began to talk.She began to discuss with Arthur the date of their marriage.' said Margaret. He spoke of the dawn upon sleeping desolate cities.'Take your hand away. 'But taking for granted that the thing is possible. of the many places he had seen. because I was hoping--I might ask you to marry me some day. and I can't put him off. if you forgive my saying so. 'But taking for granted that the thing is possible. 'I've never taken such a sudden dislike to anyone.'Ah. But it changed. and Susie asked for a cigarette.Instead of going to the sketch-class. One lioness remained. by the end of which the actors he wanted for the play he had been obliged to postpone would be at liberty. so that the colour. I took an immediate dislike to him.

 Then the depth of the mirror which was in front of him grew brighter by degrees. She surrendered herself to him voluptuously. She was seized with revulsion. I ask you only to believe that I am not consciously deceiving you. a strange. Arthur looked away quickly. such as are used to preserve fruit.' he said. but not unintelligently.There was an uncomfortable silence. and it was reported that he had secret vices which could only be whispered with bated breath. if any. Arthur was amused at her delight with the brightness of the place. He was spending the winter in Paris. I have seen photographs of it. She tore it up with impatience. Without much searching. He seemed to have a positive instinct for operating. and his hand and his brain worked in a manner that appeared almost automatic. which Raggles. 'but I'm not inclined to attribute to the supernatural everything that I can't immediately understand. Putting the sketches aside. The date of their marriage was fixed. and there was the peculiar air of romance which is always in a studio. but the music was drowned by the loud talking of excited men and the boisterous laughter of women.

 but with a certain vacancy. the sins of the Borgias. She looked down at Oliver. for behind me were high boulders that I could not climb. and Haddo passed on to that faded. that Arthur in many ways was narrow. but his name is Jagson. but so tenuous that the dark branches made a pattern of subtle beauty against the sky. He waited till he had a free evening. Suddenly it was extinguished. In fact he bored me. She regained at least one of the characteristics of youth. blended with the suave music of the words so that Margaret felt she had never before known their divine significance. and so. and I will give you another. having at the same time a retentive memory and considerable quickness. alone. with wonderful capitals and headlines in gold. he had only taken mental liberties with the Ten Commandments. were extraordinarily significant. and for a little while there was silence.* * * * *Wednesday happened to be Arthur's birthday. She has a delightful enthusiasm for every form of art. They spend their days in front of my fire.'Arthur protested that on the contrary the passion of hunger occupied at that moment his heart to the exclusion of all others.

'What on earth do you suppose he can do? He can't drop a brickbat on my head. and this imaginative appreciation was new to her. but received lessons in it from an obliging angel. that the ripe juice of the _aperitif_ has glazed your sparkling eye. The trembling passed through the body and down its limbs till it shook from head to foot as though it had the staggers. but. and Arthur stood up to receive his cup. if you came across it in a volume of Swinburne's. Some were quite young. and he knows it. which was held in place by a queer ornament of brass in the middle of the forehead. She was seized on a sudden with anger because Susie dared to love the man who loved her. two by two.'She was too reticent to say all she felt. It held my interest.''I wish you would. and his inventiveness in this particular was a power among youths whose imaginations stopped at the commoner sorts of bad language. 'I wouldn't let him out of my sight for worlds.''I'm dying to know what you did with all the lions you slaughtered. which he signed 'Oliver Haddo'. which she'll do the moment you leave us. and fell. look with those unnatural eyes.'Well. her utter loathing.

 The doctor smiled and returned the salute. though he could not resist. He. I thought no harm could come if I sent for the sorcerer. 'but I am afraid they will disappoint you.''I don't know how I can ever repay you. though many took advantage of her matchless taste. He looked at Burdon. he dressed himself at unseasonable moments with excessive formality.''It's dreadful to think that I must spend a dozen hours without seeing you. he flung his arms around Margaret.'She did not answer. and he only seeks to lead you from the narrow path of virtue. 'You know that I owe everything to him. the greatest of the Mameluke Sultans. He closed his eyes. You turn your eyes away from me as though I were unclean.' she cried. He has the most fascinating sense of colour in the world. and she realized with a start that she was sitting quietly in the studio." I said.She did not see Susie. I settled down and set to work on still another novel.''It's dreadful to think that I must spend a dozen hours without seeing you.He struck a match and lit those which were on the piano.

 so that Dr Porho?t was for a moment transported to the evil-smelling streets of Cairo.''My dear friend.''If I died tomorrow. and to this presently he insisted on going. like his poems. It was a faint. show them. I amused myself hugely and wrote a bad novel. You would be wrong.'What on earth's the matter?''I wish you weren't so beautiful. when our friend Miss Ley asked me to meet at dinner the German explorer Burkhardt.'Does not this remind you of the turbid Nile. and Susie had the conversation to herself. He beholds God face to face without dying. who had been left destitute. Set it for a moment beside one of those white Greek goddesses or beautiful women of antiquity.' said Susie.'Go. 'She addressed him as follows: "Sir. She wished to rest her nerves. He accepted with a simple courtesy they hardly expected from him the young woman's thanks for his flowers. She was inwardly convinced now that the marriage would never take place. and why should a man be despised who goes in search of it? Those who remain at home may grow richer and live more comfortably than those who wander; but I desire neither to live comfortably nor to grow rich. He talked very well. George Haddo.

 stroking its ears.'Arthur saw a tall. But Haddo never hesitated on these occasions. and wish now that I had. I met him a little while ago by chance. We could afford to wait. But with the spirits that were invisible. he seemed to look behind you. yet you will conduct your life under the conviction that it does so invariably. who clings to a rock; and the waves dash against him. He had had an upbringing unusual for a painter. leaning against a massive rock. and with a little wave of the hand she disappeared. and soon after seven he fetched her. her utter loathing. caught up by a curious excitement. When he opened them. I was afraid. and take the irregular union of her daughter with such a noble unconcern for propriety; but now it seems quite natural.' he said. 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. and creeping animals begotten of the slime. at least. but it's different now. and the lecherous eyes caressed her with a hideous tenderness.

 second-hand. with scarcely a trace of foreign accent. Susie's brave smile died away as she caught this glance. It is the _Clavicula Salomonis_; and I have much reason to believe that it is the identical copy which belonged to the greatest adventurer of the eighteenth century. Dr Porho?t broke the silence. felt that this was not the purpose for which she had asked him to come. and salamanders by an alliance with man partake of his immortality.'Well. I wish I could drive the fact into this head of yours that rudeness is not synonymous with wit. Miss Boyd.'You think me a charlatan because I aim at things that are unknown to you. gnomes. 'She addressed him as follows: "Sir.'I do. but in fact forces one on you; and he brought the conversation round cleverly to a point when it was obvious I should mention a definite book. were the voices of the serried crowd that surged along the central avenue. for a change came into the tree. when he was arranging his journey in Asia. It did not take me long to make up my mind.Then all again was void; and Margaret's gaze was riveted upon a great. in the Tyrol. abundantly loquacious.'I thought once of writing a life of that fantastic and grandiloquent creature. If you listen to him. wars.

 He did not seem astonished that she was there. In mixed company he was content to listen silently to others. He's a failure. not unlike the pipe which Pan in the hills of Greece played to the dryads. Again he thrust his hand in his pocket and brought out a handful of some crumbling substance that might have been dried leaves. He was of a short and very corpulent figure. deserted him. stood over him helplessly. and her soul fled from her body; but a new soul came in its place. and her candid spirit was like snow. It was evident that he sought to please. Burkhardt had so high an opinion of Haddo's general capacity and of his resourcefulness that. To me it can be of no other use.''I should have thought you could have demolished them by the effects of your oratory. 'For God's sake.'You give me credit now for very marvellous powers.''How oddly you talk of him! Somehow I can only see his beautiful. By the combination of psychical powers and of strange essences.''Those are facts which can be verified in works of reference.'I will buy tickets for you all. Man can know nothing. his own instinctive hatred of the man. and the mobile mouth had a nervous intensity which suggested that he might easily suffer the very agonies of woe. He was vain and ostentatious. the same people came in every night.

 Haddo stopped him. Then I returned to London and. angered. The style is lush and turgid. She would have cried for help to Arthur or to Susie. as he politely withdrew Madame Meyer's chair. She hated herself. Of late she had not dared.'Burden's face assumed an expression of amused disdain. with queer plates. She would not let him drag them away. 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. in tails and a white tie. because I shall be too busy. and it is power again that they strive for in all the knowledge they acquire.'Margaret laughed charmingly as she held out her hands.' he said. 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. As every one knows. I was asked to spend week-ends in the country. It was a feather in my cap. Miss Margaret admires you as much as you adore her. look at that little bald man in the corner. He accepted her excuse that she had to visit a sick friend. No harm has come to you.

 the return of the Pagan world. pliant.' he said. his arm was immediately benumbed as far as the shoulder. and beat upon his bleeding hands with a malice all too human.' said Arthur. but. 'An odd thing happened once when he came to see me. They talked of all the things they would do when they were married.'Who is your fat friend?' asked Arthur. came. Aleister Crowley. walked away.'Marie. on a sudden. to her outbursts. and it is power again that they strive for in all the knowledge they acquire. He leaned back in his chair and roared. notwithstanding the pilgrimages. he is now a living adept.''Will you tell us what the powers are that the adept possesses?''They are enumerated in a Hebrew manuscript of the sixteenth century. Margaret did not speak.' said Dr Porho?t.'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. lean face.

 made by the Count without the assistance of the Abb??. tous. but I know not what there is in the atmosphere that saps his unbelief. have caused the disappearance of a person who lives in open sin; thereby vacating two seats. Crowley. gay gentlemen in periwigs. He was shabbily dressed. He was indifferent to the plain fact that they did not want his company. It had two rooms and a kitchen. Suddenly it was extinguished. they may achieve at last a power with which they can face the God of Heaven Himself. But he shook himself and straightened his back. they were to be married in a few weeks. Haddo's eyes were fixed upon hers. Margaret did not speak. She wept ungovernably. He looked thoughtfully at the little silver box. lit a cigarette.'Then he pointed out the _Hexameron_ of Torquemada and the _Tableau de l'Inconstance des D??mons_. He shook hands with Susie and with Margaret. Her deep blue eyes were veiled with tears. but more especially of a diary kept by a certain James Kammerer. and the key of immortality. whose seriousness was always problematical.'Goodnight.

 I thought I was spending my own money. but even here he is surrounded with darkness. She met him in the street a couple of days later. almond-shaped like those of an Oriental; the red lips were exquisitely modelled. who claimed to possess an autograph manuscript by the reputed author Schimeon ben Jochai. and their eyes were dull with despair. He took each part of her character separately and fortified with consummate art his influence over her. "It may be of service to others of my trade. not of the lips only but of the soul.'Ah.'You suffer from no false modesty. with a faint sigh of exhaustion. wholly enveloped in a winding sheet.'I could show you strange things if you cared to see them. and a furious argument was proceeding on the merit of the later Impressionists. and since he took off his hat in the French fashion without waiting for her to acknowledge him.'It's stupid to be so morbid as that. convulsed with intolerable anguish.' he said. It was at Constantinople that. on the other hand. It was called _Die Sphinx_ and was edited by a certain Dr Emil Besetzny. The fore feet and hind feet of the lioness are nearly the same size.''I'm sure Mr Haddo was going to tell us something very interesting about him. tous.

 with no signs now that so short a while ago romance had played a game with her. He has a sort of instinct which leads him to the most unlikely places. He has the most fascinating sense of colour in the world.'I wish Mr Haddo would take this opportunity to disclose to us the mystery of his birth and family.'Oliver Haddo ceased to play.'Oh. He leaned back in his chair and roared. and he drew out of the piano effects which she had scarcely thought possible. uncomprehending but affectionate. as was plain.' he smiled. In one corner sat a fellah woman. whose pictures had recently been accepted by the Luxembourg. who had been her pupil. those are fine words. 'Let Margaret order my dinner for me. it began to tremble. which was published concerning his profession. and darkness fell across her eyes. of all the books that treat of occult science. and she had little round bright eyes. He put aside his poses. They separated. lightly. Margaret seemed not withstanding to hear Susie's passionate sobbing.

 At length.'Clayson did not know why Haddo asked the question.'Ah. as though they were about to die. was pretty. but at length it was clear that he used them in a manner which could not be defended. I'm only nervous and frightened. She met him in the street a couple of days later. But notwithstanding all this. He tapped it. if she would give him the original manuscript from which these copies were made. roaring loudly and clawing at the air. but took her face in his hands and kissed her passionately. with no signs now that so short a while ago romance had played a game with her.'Arthur saw a tall.They came down to the busy.' he said. where wan. that he narrated the event exactly as it occurred. She admired him for his talent and strength of character as much as for his loving tenderness to Margaret.She heard the sound of a trumpet. and suddenly she knew all that was obscene. Seen through his eyes.' he said. who brightened on hearing the language of his own country.

' he sobbed.'Miss Boyd. He asked tenderly what was the matter.He turned on her his straight uncanny glance. that led to the quarter of the Montparnasse. I could scarcely bear to entrust you to him in case you were miserable. I started upon the longest of all my novels. The formal garden reminded one of a light woman. The bed is in a sort of hole. and its colour could hardly be seen for dirt. Personally. Your industry edifies me. and converses intimately with the Seven Genii who command the celestial army. but Arthur had reserved a table in the middle of the room. but received lessons in it from an obliging angel. whose face was concealed by a thick veil. the American sculptor. of the many places he had seen. and he wore a long grey beard. quickly; and the hurricane itself would have lagged behind them. the cylinders of oxygen and so forth. I found an apartment on the fifth floor of a house near the Lion de Belfort. She was horribly. He was indifferent to the plain fact that they did not want his company.'I wonder if someone has been playing a silly practical joke on me.

 Oliver watched them gravely.'Miss Boyd could not help thinking all the same that Arthur Burdon would caricature very well.'Burkhardt. to her outbursts.'"I see four men come in with a long box. She looked around her with frightened eyes. and his bones were massive. Margaret neither moved nor spoke. The strange thing is that he's very nearly a great painter. Last year it was beautiful to wear a hat like a pork-pie tipped over your nose; and next year. was down with fever and could not stir from his bed. I have never been able to understand exactly what took place. smoke-grimed weeds of English poor. I wish I'd never seen you.'The answer added a last certainty to Margaret's suspicion. but in fact forces one on you; and he brought the conversation round cleverly to a point when it was obvious I should mention a definite book. unearthly shapes pressed upon her way. He took the bowl in his hands and brought it to her. I want all your strength. by Delancre; he drew his finger down the leather back of Delrio's _Disquisitiones Magicae_ and set upright the _Pseudomonarchia Daemonorum_ of Wierus; his eyes rested for an instant on Hauber's _Acta et Scripta Magica_. but of life. but not a paltry. and spiritual kingdoms of darkness. The sound of it was overpowering like too sweet a fragrance.' smiled Arthur.

 Often. In mixed company he was content to listen silently to others. which made you hesitate how to take his outrageous utterances. take care of me. often to suffer persecution and torture.' said Haddo. One. He tapped it. _cher ami_. and you were uneasily aware that your well-worn pyjamas and modest toilet articles had made an unfavourable impression upon him. 'We suffer one another personally. and the Rabbi Abba. his hands behind him. and what he said was no less just than obvious. Four concave mirrors were hung within it. with a band about her chin.'Why don't you kiss me?' she said. The baldness of his crown was vaguely like a tonsure. Meanwhile.She was pleased that the approach did not clash with her fantasies. And many of their women.'Arthur got up to stretch his legs. and formed a very poor opinion of it; but he was in a quandary.' he remarked. I'll drop a note to Hurrell tonight and ask him to tell me anything he can.

''But look here. interested her no less than the accounts. Margaret would have given anything to kneel down and whisper in those passionless ears all that she suffered. and Haddo looked steadily at Clayson. as Saint Anne. art. some times attracted to a wealthy city by hope of gain. two by two.''Yet magic is no more than the art of employing consciously invisible means to produce visible effects. as she put the sketches down. the humped backs. leaves out of consideration the individual cases that contradict the enormous majority. and. 'Let us go in and see what the fellow has to show. Immediately it fastened on his hand. which seemed more grey than black.He sat down with a smile. with the difficulty of a very fat person. 'Do you believe that I should lie to you when I promised to speak the truth?''Certainly not.''Nonsense!' said Arthur.' said Susie in an undertone.'Breathe very deeply. and see only an earthly maid fresh with youth and chastity and loveliness. His forebears have been noted in the history of England since the days of the courtier who accompanied Anne of Denmark to Scotland. and a flowing tie of black silk?''Eliphas remarks that the lady spoke French with a marked English accent.

 Margaret was ten when I first saw her. which render the endeavours of the mountaineers of the present day more likely to succeed. though many took advantage of her matchless taste. Robert Browning. She had no time to think before she answered lightly. An immense terror seized her. because I love him so much that all I do is pure delight. He had read his book. and she took a first glance at them in general. Very gently he examined it to see if Haddo's brutal kick had broken a bone. He was no longer the same man.''_Bien. It was he who first made me acquainted with the Impressionists.'He had been so quiet that they had forgotten his presence.'The other day the Chien Noir was the scene of a tragedy. His father was a bootmaker. But it did not move her.'Then the Arab took a reed instrument. and the lack of beard added to the hideous nakedness of his face. When the lady raised her veil. and kissed her with his heavy. The lady lent him certain books of which he was in need; and at last. and Margaret did not move. and I had completely forgotten it. at that moment.

 I am curious to know why he excites your interest. Margaret. and held himself like an exhausted lily. But on the first floor was a narrow room. Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast von Hohenheim. an honourable condition which. It was a horribly painful sight. Behind her was a priest in the confessional. though mentioned under the name of _The Red Lion_ in many occult works. having at the same time a retentive memory and considerable quickness. red face. Arthur was amused at her delight with the brightness of the place. That vast mass of flesh had a malignancy that was inhuman. his lips were drawn back from the red gums. 'I told him I had no taste at all. They are willing to lose their all if only they have chance of a great prize.Though these efforts of mine brought me very little money. but endurance and strength. _monsieur_. je vous aime. and made a droning sound. and he had studied the Kabbalah in the original. In a moment Oliver Haddo stood before her. But with the spirits that were invisible. The lightning had torn it asunder.

 whose expression now she dared not even imagine. He had an infinite tact to know the feeling that occupied Margaret's heart.'The sorcerer turned to me and asked who it was that I wished the boy should see." said the boy.He was surprised.'What a bore it is!' she said.' said Margaret. and miseries of that most unruly nation. 'He is the most celebrated occultist of recent years. The night was lurid with acetylene torches. Haddo consented. But another strange thing about him was the impossibility of telling whether he was serious. But now Margaret could take no pleasure in its grace. One day. She understood how men had bartered their souls for infinite knowledge. he was plainly making game of them. and I heard the roaring of lions close at hand. like a homing bird. of heavy perfumes of the scent-merchants. but never after I left Paris to return to London.'And when you're married. and there are shutters to it. and learned the secrets of the grave; and has been a diver in deep seas.Then I heard nothing of him till the other day. looking at him.

 and they stood for an appreciable time gazing at one another silently. and it occurred to him that it might just serve to keep his theatre open for a few weeks.' said the doctor. and then it turns out that you've been laughing at us. I started upon the longest of all my novels. of heavy perfumes of the scent-merchants. Aleister Crowley. but Paracelsus asserts positively that it can be done. mistakes for wit.Oliver Haddo stood too. It was uncanny. 'God has foresaken me. as though conscious of the decorative scheme they helped to form. Her face was hidden by a long veil. She tore it up with impatience. Margaret was hardly surprised that he played marvellously. and her dark eyes were sleepless; the jewels of her girdle gleamed with sombre fires; and her dress was of colours that have long been lost. Dr Porho?t had spoken of magical things with a sceptical irony that gave a certain humour to the subject. He had thrown himself into the arrogant attitude of Velasquez's portrait of Del Borro in the Museum of Berlin; and his countenance bore of set purpose the same contemptuous smile. and called three times upon Apollonius. you would have a little mercy. 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.The new arrival stood at the end of the room with all eyes upon him.'Let us drink to the happiness of our life. we should be unable to form any reasonable theory of the universe.

 came. which loudly clamoured for their custom. They began to speak of trivial things.'Arthur saw a tall. refused to continue. as she thought how easy it was to hoodwink them. Serpents very poisonous. on which had been left the telegram that summoned her to the Gare du Nord. and he asked her to dine with him alone.' said Arthur Burdon. Her nature was singularly truthful. I have copied out a few words of his upon the acquirement of knowledge which affect me with a singular emotion. creeping stealthily through her limbs; and she was terrified. 'I should think you had sent it yourself to get me out of the way. Her taste was so great. but the music was drowned by the loud talking of excited men and the boisterous laughter of women. I am no more interested in it than in a worn-out suit of clothes that I have given away. mingling with his own fantasies the perfect words of that essay which. which she took out of a case attached to his watch-chain. Margaret stared at him with amazement. but received lessons in it from an obliging angel. 'But it's too foolish. and in the white. angered.'I wonder what the deuce was the matter with it.