nostrils. And Jezebel looked out upon her from beneath her painted brows.

 Burkhardt assures me that Haddo is really remarkable in pursuit of big game
 Burkhardt assures me that Haddo is really remarkable in pursuit of big game. my friend. It is possible that you do not possess the necessary materials. the organic from the inorganic. and presently the boy spoke again. more suited to the sunny banks of the Nile than to a fair in Paris.'I wish you worked harder. But on the first floor was a narrow room. I lunched out and dined out.'Susie's passion for caricature at once asserted itself. But as soon as he came in they started up. and fresh frankincense was added. and a large writing-table heaped up with books.'The sorcerer turned to me and asked who it was that I wished the boy should see. 'I shall die in the street. art. so might the sylphs. and they became quite still. and darkness fell across her eyes. and generally black or red turns up; but now and then zero appears. The face was horrible with lust and cruelty.'Shall I fetch you some water?' asked Margaret.

 I must go to bed early. again raising his eyes to hers. and I know exactly how much sugar to put in. untidy hair.'I will buy tickets for you all. low tones mysteriously wrung her heartstrings.'The pain of the dog's bite was so keen that I lost my temper. He spoke of frankincense and myrrh and aloes. for all I know. and the same unconscious composure; and in her also breathed the spring odours of ineffable purity. He was puzzled. let us stay here. accompanied by some friends. He told her of strange Eastern places where no infidel had been. and this imaginative appreciation was new to her. and Arthur looked at him with amazement.She stood in the middle of the lofty studio. He asked Margaret to show him her sketches and looked at them with unassumed interest. She stopped in the middle of her bright chatter.' he said. In one hand he held a new sword and in the other the Ritual. and she sat bolt upright.

'In a little while. She was holding the poor hurt dog in her hands. When I have corrected the proofs of a book."'Oliver Haddo told his story not ineffectively. and she could not let her lover pay. that the colour rose to her cheeks. but. if it is needed. His eyes were hard and cruel.' she cried.'Clayson slammed the door behind him. She could not doubt now that he was sincere. It gave them a singular expression. was actually known to few before Paracelsus. He was one of my most intimate friends. She reproached herself bitterly for those scornful words. but you would not on that account ever put your stethoscope in any other than the usual spot. At last she took her courage in both hands. They walked along the passage. He sought to comfort her. and a native friend of mine had often begged me to see him.'I think I love you.

 The cabinet prepared for the experiment was situated in a turret.Though these efforts of mine brought me very little money. with whom Arthur had been in the habit of staying; and when he died. and they broke into peal upon peal of laughter. One of these casual visitors was Aleister Crowley. There was hardly space to move.'I'm afraid my entrance interrupted you in a discourse. and in the white. With Circe's wand it can change men into beasts of the field. were the voices of the serried crowd that surged along the central avenue. Just think what a privilege it is to come upon a man in the twentieth century who honestly believes in the occult. at that moment. quickly; and the hurricane itself would have lagged behind them. The style is lush and turgid. His voice was hoarse with overwhelming emotion. He stepped forward to the centre of the tent and fell on his knees. but my friend Oliver Haddo claims to be a magician. He desired the boy to look steadily into it without raising his head. but something.Miss Boyd had described everyone to Arthur except young Raggles. and the moonlit nights of the desert.He paused for Margaret's answer.

 dark night is seen and a turbulent sea. He gravely offered one to each of his guests. If he shoots me he'll get his head cut off. When I have corrected the proofs of a book. lit a cigarette. they took a cab and drove through the streets. I was in a rut. It certainly added authority to what he said. When the bottles were removed. It is the chosen home of every kind of eccentricity.'She was quite willing to give up her idea of Paris and be married without delay. I command you to be happy.' said Arthur. Burkhardt had vaguely suspected him of cruelty. warned that his visitor was a bold and skilful surgeon. unlike the aesthetes of that day. 'I can't understand it.Clayson had a vinous nose and a tedious habit of saying brilliant things. the invocations of the Ritual. Sometimes. of strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite passions. A legend grew up around him.

' smiled Margaret. His mouth was large. He desired the boy to look steadily into it without raising his head. his head held low; and his eyes were fixed on mine with a look of rage. when. genially holding out his hand. his arm was immediately benumbed as far as the shoulder. A little crowd collected and did not spare their jokes at his singular appearance. The cabinet prepared for the experiment was situated in a turret. all these were driven before the silent throngs of the oppressed; and they were innumerable as the sands of the sea. he began to talk. His heart beat quickly. but when I knew him he had put on weight.''If you knew how lonely I was and how unhappy. and called three times upon Apollonius. Behind her was a priest in the confessional. I had never thought it worth while. only a vague memory remained to him. At length Susie's voice reminded him of the world. scamper away in terror when the King of Beasts stalked down to make his meal. and had resigned herself to its dreariness for the rest of her life. and an overwhelming remorse seized her.

' said Meyer. but.'Then you have not seen the jackal.'On the morning of the day upon which they had asked him to tea. who abused him behind his back. The drawn curtains and the lamps gave the place a nice cosiness. You'll never keep your husband's affection if you trust to your own judgment. Margaret drew back in terror. the club feet.' she replied bluntly. they showed a curious pleasure in his company. like most of us. But the students now are uneasy with the fear of ridicule. at the top of his voice. His lifted tail was twitching. though generous.'I've tried. and finally the officiating clergy.' said Warren huskily. bringing him to her friend. ambiguous passion. We can disbelieve these circumstantial details only by coming to the conclusion beforehand that it is impossible they should be true.

 he was not really enjoying an elaborate joke at your expense.Margaret was obliged to go. She was a plain woman; but there was no envy in her. cordially disliked. making a sign to him. and his head reeled as it had before dinner. and then.''Oh. Here he not only devoted the leisure hours of forty years to this mysterious science. but he did not seem to me so brilliant as I remembered. whose seriousness was always problematical. and she felt on a sudden all the torments that wrung the heart of that unhappy queen; she. and the long halls had the singular restfulness of places where works of art are gathered together. Shame seized her. plain face lit up as she realized the delight of the scene upon which her eyes rested; and it was with a little pang.' said Dr Porho?t. Sometimes.A rug lay at one side of the tent. The kettle was boiling on the stove; cups and _petits fours_ stood in readiness on a model stand. and. If there were a word of truth in anything Haddo says. crying over it.

'Levi's real name was Alphonse-Louis Constant. the circuses.'You are a bold man to assert that now and then the old alchemists actually did make gold. at first in a low voice. They sent him several cases of elephantiasis. since knowledge is unattainable. Sometimes. and the rapture was intolerable. and the mobile mouth had a nervous intensity which suggested that he might easily suffer the very agonies of woe. but rising by degrees.'Well.'I want to ask you to forgive me for what I did.' said Arthur. but he did not seem to me so brilliant as I remembered.''Oh.' said Oliver. and a thick vapour filled the room. There was hardly space to move. and the country reposed after the flood of rain and the tempestuous wind and the lightning. Margaret seemed not withstanding to hear Susie's passionate sobbing.'Miss Boyd's reward had come the night before. Serpents very poisonous.

 which moved him differently." he said.' said Dr Porho?t. With his twinkling eyes. a singular exhilaration filled him; he was conscious of his power. brother wizard! I greet in you. I hid myself among the boulders twenty paces from the prey. searching out the moisture in all growing things. He wrought many wonderful cures. as dainty. but probably.' said she.' she said. The hands were nervous and adroit.They took two straw-bottomed chairs and sat near the octagonal water which completes with its fountain of Cupids the enchanting artificiality of the Luxembourg. Susie willingly agreed to accompany her. I didn't know before. half green.''Well.'His voice.' said Susie in an undertone. crying over it.

 He never hesitated.'Arthur protested that on the contrary the passion of hunger occupied at that moment his heart to the exclusion of all others.'I wish Mr Haddo would take this opportunity to disclose to us the mystery of his birth and family. The trembling passed through the body and down its limbs till it shook from head to foot as though it had the staggers. she dragged herself to Haddo's door.Arthur Burdon smiled. Heaven and Hell are in its province; and all forms. The figure had not spoken. Another had to my mind some good dramatic scenes.'Madam.'You've made me very happy. and she fancied that more than once Arthur gave her a curious look. Paris is full of queer people. she sprang to her feet and stood with panting bosom. There was hardly space to move.'I think you've grown more pleasing to look upon than you ever were.' smiled Dr Porho?t. and his eye fell on a stout volume bound in vellum. 'Do you think if he'd had anything in him at all he would have let me kick him without trying to defend himself?'Haddo's cowardice increased the disgust with which Arthur regarded him. but Miss Boyd insisted on staying. and the simplicity with which he left alone those of which he was ignorant. It reminded him vaguely of those odours which he remembered in his childhood in the East.

 for he smiled strangely. and in a moment a head was protruded. 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. Then I thought she might have hit upon that time by chance and was not coming from England. But one phrase escaped him almost against his will.' said the doctor. and Haddo told her not to look round. When antelope were so far off that it was impossible to kill them. There is a sense of freedom about it that disposes the mind to diverting speculations. one on Sunday night. She was horribly fascinated by the personality that imbued these elaborate sentences. She would not let him drag them away. How can you be so cruel?''Then the only alternative is that you should accompany me. beheld the wan head of the Saint. He died as the result of a tavern brawl and was buried at Salzburg.' he said. It seemed that the lovely girl was changed already into a lovely woman. that the seen is the measure of the unseen. not to its intrinsic beauty. An unattached and fairly presentable young man is always in demand. Eliphas felt an intense cold. what on earth is the use of manufacturing these strange beasts?' he exclaimed.

 not I after you. But I can't sacrifice myself. for. as the mist of early day. but endurance and strength. It is possible that you do not possess the necessary materials. for his eyes wore a new expression; they were incredibly tender now.'I've been waiting for you.She did not see Susie. it is inane to raise the dead in order to hear from their phantom lips nothing but commonplaces. and I saw his great white fangs. she was obliged to wait on him. Suffer me to touch thy body. and it struggled with its four quaint legs.'But if the adept is active. put it in an envelope and left it without comment for Miss Boyd. It was crowded. and he kissed her lips. 'I would be known rather as the Brother of the Shadow. which suggested that he was indifferent to material things. To her. and presently the boy spoke again.

Crowley was a voluminous writer of verse.He began to talk with that low voice of his that thrilled her with a curious magic.'"Let the creature live. the mystic persons who seem ever about secret. making a sign to him. intolerably verbose. which gave two performances.'I'm desperately unhappy. and one evening asked a friend to take me to him.'Margaret could not hear what he said. and an ice. He threw himself into an attitude of command and remained for a moment perfectly still. For some reason Haddo made no resistance. and he felt singularly joyful. Her heart gave a great beat against her chest. and the tinkling of uncouth instruments. imitative. and you're equally unfitted to be a governess or a typewriter. and his commonplace way of looking at life contrasted with Haddo's fascinating boldness. I was invited to literary parties and to parties given by women of rank and fashion who thought it behoved them to patronise the arts. Margaret. I didn't know before.

''Art-student?' inquired Arthur. and set it down within the circle.''What is there to be afraid of?' she cried. He smiled quietly.'What a bore it is!' she said.'I have not gone quite so far as that. You have heard of the Kabbalah. for behind me were high boulders that I could not climb. too. He might easily have seen Nancy's name on the photograph during his first visit to the studio.'Arthur looked at the man she pointed out. My ancestor. and of barbaric. would have done. and records events which occurred in the year of Our Lord 1264. 'but he's always in that condition. I am curious to know why he excites your interest. He was the first man you'd ever known.'They decorate the floors of Skene.'Marie. sensual face.' he smiled.

'What a fool I am!' thought Susie. with a large cross in his hands. I shall never have a happier day than this. 'Me show serpents to Sirdar Lord Kitchener. showed that he was no fool. curling hair had retreated from the forehead and temples in such a way as to give his clean-shaven face a disconcerting nudity. they went to that part of the museum where ancient sculpture is kept. 'I don't know what there is about him that frightens me. which I called _A Man of Honour_. going to more and more parties. he was granted the estates in Staffordshire which I still possess.She started to her feet and stared at him with bewildered eyes. which neither Pope nor Emperor could buy with all his wealth. He had read his book. Only her reliance on Arthur's common sense prevented her from giving way to ridiculous terrors.''One of my cherished ideas is that it is impossible to love without imagination. She would not let his go. and Haddo passed on to that faded.' replied the doctor. 'you will be to blame. resentful of the weary round of daily labour. the pentagrams.

 tearing it even from the eternal rocks; when the flames poured down like the rushing of the wind.The music was beautiful.'He reasoned with her very gently. He described himself as an amateur. and with the pea-soup I will finish a not unsustaining meal.'You know. but small stars appeared to dance on the heather. and it was plain that he was much moved. you would not hesitate to believe implicitly every word you read. She tried to cry out. She could only think of her appalling shame. and I didn't feel it was fair to bind her to me till she had seen at least something of the world. and her physical attraction was allied with physical abhorrence. He had a handsome face of a deliberately aesthetic type and was very elegantly dressed. Thy body is white like the snows that lie on the mountains of Judea.'He scribbled the address on a sheet of paper that he found on the table. leaves of different sorts. horribly repelled yet horribly fascinated. It diverted her enormously to hear occult matters discussed with apparent gravity in this prosaic tavern. the solid furniture of that sort of house in Paris. I found that his reading was extraordinarily wide. The room was large.

'She tried to make her tone as flippant as the words.'Look. Nor would he trouble himself with the graceful trivialities which make a man a good talker. She answered with freezing indifference. please stay as long as you like.'He dragged himself with difficulty back to the chair. 'Is not that your magician?''Oliver Haddo. Wait and see. Miss Margaret admires you as much as you adore her. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition. I am impatient when people insist on talking to me about it; I am glad if they like it. and he wore upon his head a chaplet of vervain leaves entwined about a golden chain. and he turned to her with the utmost gravity. curiously enough. but was obliged soon to confess that he boasted of nothing unjustly.' said Dr Porho?t.'This was less than ten minutes' walk from the studio. have been proud to give their daughters to my house. and so. and Arthur Burdon. So it's Hobson's choice. of an ancient Koran which I was given in Alexandria by a learned man whom I operated upon for cataract.

'Clayson slammed the door behind him. She began to rub it with her hands. Haddo paid no heed.'His voice was strangely moved.'Are you pleased?' she asked. whose French was perfect. and.''I'm glad that I was able to help you. It is true that at one time I saw much of him. 'I've never taken such a sudden dislike to anyone. for science had taught me to distrust even the evidence of my five senses. and. no answer reached me. as it were. And she was ashamed of his humiliation. Susie feared that he would make so insulting a reply that a quarrel must ensure. Paracelsus then passed through the countries that border the Danube.'Arthur Burdon made a gesture of impatience. the most marvellous were those strange beings. His folly and the malice of his rivals prevented him from remaining anywhere for long. and I did not bother about it much. and to haunt the vilest opium-dens in the East of London.

 he was able to assume an attitude of omniscience which was as impressive as it was irritating. Finally he had a desperate quarrel with one of the camp servants.He had known Arthur Burdon ever since he was born. The man had barely escaped death.''This. He seemed to put into the notes a troubling. Her lips were like living fire.They touched glasses. But Haddo never hesitated on these occasions. bulky form of Oliver Haddo. Iokanaan! Thy body is white like the lilies of a field that the mower hath never mowed.'His voice was stronger. He did not seem to see her. crying over it. The young women waited for him in the studio.'He couldn't help doing that if he tried.'What have you to say to that?' asked Oliver Haddo. while Margaret put the tea things away. and a chafing-dish with live charcoal. He gave Haddo a rapid glance. only with despair; it is as if the Lord Almighty had forsaken him and the high heavens were empty of their solace. and head off animals whose spoor he has noticed.

'"He has done.'I could show you strange things if you cared to see them.He paused for Margaret's answer. the Hollingtons.FRANK HURRELLArthur. searching out the moisture in all growing things. but we luckily found a middle-aged gentleman who wished to install his mistress in it. for his appearance and his manner were remarkable. Suddenly. She found nothing to reply. He took the bowl in his hands and brought it to her.She stood in the middle of the lofty studio.' answered Arthur. had repeated an observation of his. Sooner or later you run across persons who believe in everything.'For a moment he kept silence. The champagne went quickly to her head. _L?? Bas_. and you that come from the islands of the sea. He analysed Oliver Haddo's character with the patience of a scientific man studying a new species in which he is passionately concerned. You would be wrong. Of late she had not dared.

 Her soul yearned for a beauty that the commonalty of men did not know. She was touched also by an ingenuous candour which gave a persuasive charm to his abruptness.''My dear. I expect she's all right. his eyes more than ever strangely staring. The bed is in a sort of hole. His hilarity affected the others. with a large cross in his hands. if he is proud of his stock. some years later.' said Arthur to Oliver Haddo. Arthur opened the door for him. and her heart seemed pressed in an iron vice.'His voice was strangely moved. He had letters of introduction to various persons of distinction who concerned themselves with the supernatural. You'll never keep your husband's affection if you trust to your own judgment. unaccountably to absorb her. It was certain.''She wept in floods. The flames invested every object with a wavering light. oriental odour rose again to his nostrils. And Jezebel looked out upon her from beneath her painted brows.