^Somerset Mau

THE MAGICIAN
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
THE MAGICIAN

BY W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM

OF HUMAN BONDAGE
THE MOON AND SIXPENCE
THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF
MRS. CRADDOCK
THE EXPLORER
THE MAGICIAN

NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
THE MAGICIAN
BY
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM
AUTHOR OF
"OF HUMAN BONDAGE," "THE MOON AND SIXPENCE,"
"THE TREMBLING OF A LEAF," ETC.

NEW YORK
GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY
THE MAGICIAN

COPYRIGHT, 1908,
BY DUFPIELD & CO.

LOAN STACK

d^.Tu.

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA

THE MAGICIAN

264
 THE MAGICIAN
Chapter I

BURDON and Dr. Porhoet walked in

ARTHUR
silence. They had lunched at a restaurant in
the Boulevard Saint Michel, and were sauntering
now in the gardens of the Luxembourg. Dr. Porhoet
walked with stooping shoulders, his hands behind
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. The grass was scattered with the fallen
leaves, but their wan decay served not to give a
touch of nature to the artifice of all besides. The
trees were neatly surrounded by bushes, and the
bushes by trim beds of flowers. But the trees grew
without abandonment, as though conscious of the
decorative scheme they helped to form. It was
autumn, and some were red and brown; but others
were leafless already. Many of the flowers were
withered. The garden, half desolate and half pre-
tentious, reminded one of a light woman, no longer
young, who sought, with faded finery, with powder
and paint, to make a brave show of despair. It had
those false, difficult smiles of uneasy gaiety, and the
7
8 THE MAGICIAN
pitiful graceswhich attempt a fascination that the
hurrying years have rendered vain.
Dr. Porhoet drew more closely round his fragile
body the heavy cloak which even in summer he
could not persuade himself to discard. The best
part of his life had been spent in Egypt, in the
practice of medicine, and the frigid summers of
Europe scarcely warmed his blood. His memory
flashed for an instant upon those multi-coloured
streets of Alexandria; and then, like a homing bird,
it flew to the green woods and the storm-beaten

coasts of his native Brittany. His brown eyes were

veiled with sudden melancholy.
"Let us wait here for a moment," he said.
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. The sun shone more kindly now,
and the trees which framed the scene were golden
and lovely. A balustrade of stone gracefully en-
closed the space, and the flowers, freshly bedded,
were very gay. In one corner they could see the
squat, quaint towers of Saint Sulpice, and on the
other side the uneven roofs of the Boulevard Saint
Michel.
The palace was grey and solid. Nurses, some in
the white caps of their native province, others with
the satin streamers of the nounou, marched sedately
two by two, wheeling perambulators and talking.
Brightly dressed children trundled hoops or whipped
a stubborn top. As he watched them, Dr. Porhoet's
lips broke into a smile, and it was so tender that his
 THE MAGICIAN 9

thin face, sallow from long exposure to subtropical

suns, was transfigured. 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. His
sunken eyes glittered with a kindly but ironic good-
humour. Now passed a guard in the romantic
cloak of a brigand in comic opera and a peaked cap
like that of an alguacil. A group of telegraph boys
in blue stood round a painter, who was making
a sketch notwithstanding half-frozen fingers. Here
and there, in baggy corduroys, tight jackets, and
wide-brimmed hats, strolled students who might
have stepped from the pages of Murger's immortal
romance. But the students now are uneasy with
the fear of ridicule, and more often they walk in
bowler hats and the neat coats of the boulevardier.
Dr. Porhoet spoke English fluently, with scarcely
a trace of foreign accent, but with an elaboration
which suggested that he had learned the language
as much from study of the English classics as from
conversation.
"And how is Miss Dauncey?" he asked, turning
to his friend.
Arthur Burdon smiled.
"Oh, I expect she's all right. I've not seen her
to-day, but I'm going to tea at the studio this after-
noon, and we want you to dine with us at the Chien
Noir."
"I shall be much pleased. But do you not wish
to be by yourselves?"
10 THE MAGICIAN N
"She met me at the station yesterday, and we
dined together. We talked steadily from half-past
six till
midnight."
"Or, rather, she talked and you listened with the
delighted attention of a happy lover/'
Arthur Burdon had just arrived in Paris. He
was a surgeon on the staff of St. Luke's, and had
come ostensibly to study the methods of the French
operators; but his real object was certainly to see
Margaret Dauncey. He was furnished with intro-
ductions from London surgeons of repute, and had
already spent a morning at the Hotel Dieu, where
the operator, warned that his visitor was a bold and
skilful surgeon, whose reputation in England was

already considerable, had sought to dazzle him by

feats that savored almost of legerdemain. Surgery
was the only topic upon which Arthur Burdon could
discourse with brilliancy. He was quick to discern
another's merit, and, though the hint of charlatanry
in the Frenchman's methods had not escaped his
shrewd eyes, the audacious sureness of his hand had
excited his enthusiasm. During luncheon he talked
of nothing else, and Dr. Porhoet, drawing upon his
memory, recounted the more extraordinary opera-
tions that he had witnessed in Egypt.
He had known Arthur Burdon ever since he was
born, and indeed had missed being present at his
birth only because the Khedive Ismail had sum-
moned him unexpectedly to Cairo. But the Lev-
antine merchant who was Arthur's father had been
his most intimate friend, and it was with singular

pleasure that Dr. Porhoet saw the young man, on

 THE MAGICIAN 11

his advice, enter his own

profession and achieve
distinctions already which himself had never won.
Though too much interested in the characters of
the persons whom chance threw in his path to have
much ambition on his own behalf, it pleased him to
see it in others. He
observed with satisfaction the
pride which Arthur took in his calling and the de-
termination, backed by confidence and talent, to
become a master of his art. Dr. Porhoet knew that
a diversity of interests, though it adds charm to a
man's personality, tends to weaken him. To excel
one's fellows it is needful to be circumscribed. He
did not regret, therefore, that Arthur in many ways
was narrow. Letters and the arts meant little to
him. Nor would he
trouble himself with the grace-
ful trivialities which make a man a good talker.
In mixed company he was content to listen silently
to others, and only something very definite to say
could tempt him to join in the general conversation.
He worked very hard, operating, dissecting, or lec-
turing at his hospital, and took pains to read every
word, not only in English, but in French and Ger-
man^which was published concerning his profession.
Whenever he could snatch a free day he spent it
on the golf-links of Sunningdale, for he was an eager
and a fine player.
But at the operating-table Arthur was different.
He was no longer the awkward man of social inter-
course, who was sufficiently conscious of his limita-
tions not to talk of what he did not understand, and
sincere enough not to express admiration for what
he did not like. Then, on the other hand, a singular
12 THE MAGICIAN
exhilaration filled him; he was conscious of his
power, and he rejoiced in it. No unforeseen acci-
dent was able to confuse him. He seemed to have a
positive instinct for operating, and his hand and his
brain worked in a manner that appeared almost
automatic. He never hesitated, and he had no fear
of failure. His success had been no less than his
courage, and it was plain that soon his reputation
with the public would equal that which he had al-
ready with the profession.
Dr. Porhoet had been making listless patterns
with his stick upon the gravel, and now, with that
charming smile of his, turned to Arthur.
"
I never cease to be astonished at the unexpected-

ness of human nature," he remarked. "It is really

very surprising that a man like you should fall so

deeply in love with a girl like Margaret Dauncey."

Arthur made no reply, and Dr. Porhoet, fearing
that his words might offend, hastened to explain.
"You know as well as I do that I think her a very
charming young person. She has beauty and grace
and sympathy. But your characters are more dif-
ferent than chalk and cheese. Notwithstanding
your birth in the East and your boyhood spent amid
the very scenes of the Thousand and One Nights,
you are the most matter-of-fact creature I have
ever come across."
"I no harm in your saying insular/' smiled
see
Arthur. "I confess that I have no imagination and
no sense of humour. I am a plain, practical man,
but I can see to the end of my nose with extreme
clearness. Fortunately it is rather a long one."
 THE MAGICIAN 13

"One of my cherished ideas is that it is impossible

to love without imagination."
Again Arthur Burdon made no reply, but a curi-
ous look came into his eyes as he gazed in front of
him. It was the look which might fill the passion-
ate eyes of a mystic when he saw in ecstasy the
Divine Lady of his constant prayers.
"But Miss Dauncey has none of that narrowness
of outlook which, if you will forgive my saying so,
is perhaps the secret of your strength. She has a
delightful enthusiasm for every form of art. Beauty
really means as much to her as bread and butter to
the more soberly-minded. And she takes a passion-
ate interest in the variety of life."
"It is right that Margaret should care for beauty,
since there is beauty in every inch of her," answered
Arthur.
He was too reticent to proceed to any analysis of
his feelings; but he knew that he had cared for her
firston account of that physical perfection which
contrasted so astonishingly with the countless de-
formities in the study of which his life was spent.
But one phrase escaped him almost against his will.
"The first time I saw her I felt as though a new
world had opened to my ken."
The divine music of Keats's lines rang through
Arthur's remark, and to the Frenchman's mind gave
his passion a romantic note that foreboded future

tragedy. He sought to dispel the cloud which his

fancy had cast upon the most satisfactory of love
affairs.

"You are very lucky, my friend. Miss Margaret

14 THE MAGICIAN
admires you as much as you adore her. She is never
tired of listening to my prosy stories of
your child-
hood in Alexandria, and I'm quite sure that she will
make you the most admirable of wives."
"You can't be more sure than I am/' laughed
Arthur.
He looked upon himself as a happy man. He
loved Margaret with all his heart, and he was con-
fident in her great affection for him. It was impos-
sible that anything should arise to disturb the pleas-
ant which they had planned together. His love
life

cast a glamour upon his work, and his work, by con-

trast,made love the more entrancing.
"We're going to fix the date of our marriage now,"
he said. "I'm buying furniture already."
"I think only English people could have behaved
so oddly as you, in postponing your marriage with-
out reason for two mortal years."
"You see, Margaret was ten when I first saw her,

and only seventeen when I asked her to marry me.

She thought she had reason to be grateful to me and
would have married me there and then. But I
knew she hankered after these two years in Paris,
and I didn't feel it was fair to bind her to me till
she had seen at least something of the world. And
she seemed hardly ready for marriage; she was
growing still."

"Did I not say that you were a matter-of-fact

young man?" smiled Dr. Porhoet.
"And it's there had been any doubt about
not as if

our knowing our minds. We

both cared, and we
had a long time before us. We
could afford to wait."
 THE MAGICIAN 15

At that moment a man strolled past them, a big

stout fellow, showily dressed in a check suit; and he
gravely took off his hat to Dr. Porhoet. The doctor
smiled and returned the salute.
"Who is your fat friend?" asked Arthur.
"That is a compatriot of yours. His name is

Oliver Haddo."
"Art-student?" inquired Arthur, with the scorn-
ful tone he used when referring to those whose walk
in life was not so practical as his own.
"Not exactly. I met him a little while ago by
chance. When Iwas getting together the material
for my little book on the old alchemists I read a
great deal at the library of the Arsenal, which, you
may have heard, is singularly rich in all works deal-
ing with the occult sciences."
Burdon's face assumed an expression of amused
disdain. He could not understand why Dr. Porhoet
occupied his leisure with studies so profitless. He
had read his book, recently published, on the more
famous of the alchemists; and, though forced to
admire the profound knowledge upon which it was
based, he could not forgive the waste of time which
his friend might have expended more usefully on

topics of pressing moment.

"Not many people study in that library," pursued
the doctor, "and I soon knew by sight those who
were frequently there. I saw this gentleman every
day. He was immersed in strange old books when
I arrived early in the morning, and he was reading
them still when I left, exhausted. Sometimes it
happened that he had the volumes I asked for, and
16 THE MAGICIAN
I discovered that he was studying the same subjects
as myself. His appearance was extraordinary, but
scarcely sympathetic; so, though I fancied that he
gave me opportunities to address him, I did not avail
myself of them. One day, however, curiously
enough, I was looking up some point upon which it
seemed impossible to find authorities. The librarian
could not help me, and I had given up the search,
when this person brought me the very book I needed.
I surmised that the librarian had told him of my
difficulty. I was very
grateful to the stranger. We
left together that afternoon, and our kindred studies

gave us a common topic of conversation. I found

that his reading was extraordinarily wide, and he was
able to give me information about works which I
had never even heard of. He had the advantage
over me
that he could apparently read Hebrew as
well as Arabic, and he had studied the Kabbalah
in the original."
"And much good it did him, I have no doubt,"
said Arthur. "And what is he by profession?"
Dr. Porhoet gave a deprecating smile.
"My dear fellow, I hardly like to tell you. I
tremble in every limb at the thought of your un-
mitigated scorn."
"Well?"
"You know, Paris is full of queer people. It is

the chosen home

of every kind of eccentricity. It
sounds incredible in this year of grace, but my
friend Oliver Haddo claims to be a magician. I

think he is quite serious."

"Silly ass!" answered Arthur with emphasis.
 Chapter II

shared a flat near the Boulevard du

MARGARET
Montparnasse with Susie Boyd; and it was to
meet her that Arthur Burdon had arranged to come
to tea that afternoon. The young women waited
for him The kettle was boiling on the
in the studio.
stove; cups and petits fours stood in readiness on a
model stand. Susie looked forward to the meeting
with interest. She had heard a good deal of the
young man, and knew that the connection between
him and Margaret was not lacking in romance. For
years Susie had led the monotonous life of a mis-
tress in a school for young ladies, and had resigned
herself to its dreariness for the rest of her days,
when a legacy from a distant relative gave her
sufficient income to live modestly upon her means.
When Margaret, who had been her pupil, came,
soon after announce her intention of spend-
this, to

ing a couple of years in Paris to study art, Susie

accompany her. Since then she
willingly agreed to
had worked industriously at Colarossi's Academy,
by no means under the delusion that she had talent,
but merely to amuse herself. She refused to sur-
render the pleasing notion that her environment
was slightly wicked. After the toil of many years
it relieved her to be earnest in nothing; and she
17
18 THE MAGICIAN
found infinite satisfaction in watching the lives of
those around her.
She had a great affection for Margaret, and

though her own stock of enthusiasms was run low,

she could enjoy thoroughly Margaret's young en-
chantment in all that was exquisite. She was a
plain woman; but there was no envy in her, and she
took the keenest pleasure in Margaret's comeliness.
It was almost with maternal pride that she watched
each year add a new grace to that exceeding beauty.
But her common sense was sound, and she took care
by good-natured banter to temper the praises which
extravagant admirers at the drawing-class lavished
upon the handsome girl both for her looks and for
her talent. She was proud to think that she would
hand over to Arthur Burdon a woman whose char-
acter she had helped to form, and whose loveliness
she had cultivated with a delicate care.
Susie knew, partly from fragments of letters which
Margaret read to her, partly from her conversation,
how passionately he adored his bride; and it pleased
her to see that Margaret loved him in return with a
grateful devotion. The story of this visit to Paris
touched her imagination. Margaret was the daugh-
ter of a country barrister, with whom Arthur had
been in the habit of staying; and when he died,
many years after his wife, Arthur found himself the
girl's guardian and executor. He sent her to school;
saw that she had everything she could possibly want;
and when, at seventeen, she told him of her wish
to go to Paris and learn drawing, he at once con-
sented. But though he never sought to assume
 THE MAGICIAN 19

authority over her, he suggested that she should not

live alone,and it was on this account that she went
to Susie. The preparations for the journey were
scarcely made when Margaret discovered by chance
that her father had died penniless, and she had
lived ever since at Arthur's entire expense. When
she went to see him with tears in her eyes, and told
him what she knew, Arthur was so embarrassed that
itwas quite absurd.
"But why did you do it?" she asked him. "Why
didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't think it fair to put you under any
obligation to me, and I wanted you to feel quite
free."
She could no longer restrain her tears. She was
quite overwhelmed.
"Don't be so silly," he laughed. "You owe me
nothing at all. I've done very little for you, and
what I have done has given me a great deal of
pleasure."
"I don't know how can ever repay you."
I

"Oh, don't say that," he cried. "It makes it so

much harder for me to say what I want to."
She looked at him quickly and reddened. Her
deep blue eyes were veiled with tears.
"Don't you know that I'd do anything in the
world for you?" she cried.
"I don't want you to be grateful to me, because
I was hoping I might ask you to marry me some

day."
Margaret laughed charmingly as she held out her
hands.
20 THE MAGICIAN
"You must know that I've been wanting you to
do that ever since I was ten/'
She was quite willing to give up her idea of Paris
and be married without delay, but Arthur pressed
her not to change her plans. At first Margaret
vowed it was impossible to go, for she knew now
that she had no money, and she could not let her
lover pay.
"But what does matter?" he said. "It'll give
it

me such pleasure to go on with the small allowance

I've been making you. After all, I'm pretty well-
to-do. My father left me a moderate income, and
I'm making a good deal already by operating."
"Yes, but it's different now. I didn't know be-
fore. thought I was spending my own money."
I
"If to-morrow every penny I have would
I died
be yours. We shall be married in two years, and
we've known one another much too long to change
our minds. I think that our lives are quite irrevo-
cably united."
Margaret wished very much to spend this time in
Paris, and Arthur had made up his mind that in
fairness to her they could not marry till she was
nineteen. She consulted Susie Boyd, whose com-
mon-sense prevented her from paying much heed
to romantic notions of false delicacy.
"My dear, you'd take his money without scruple
ifyou'd signed your names in a church vestry, and
as there's not the least doubt that you'll marry, I
don't see why you shouldn't now. Besides, you've
got nothing whatever to live on, and you're equally
unfitted to be a governess or a typewriter. So it's
 THE MAGICIAN 21

Hobson's choice, and you'd better put your exquisite

sentiments in your pocket/*
Miss Boyd, by one accident after another, had
never seen Arthur, but she had heard so much that
she looked upon him already as an old friend. She
admired him for his talent and strength of character
as much as for his loving tenderness to Margaret.
She had seen portraits of him, but Margaret said
he did not photograph well. She had asked if he
was good-looking.
"No, I don't think he is," answered Margaret,
"but he's very paintable."
"That is an answer which has the advantage of
sounding well and meaning nothing," smiled Susie.
She believed privately that Margaret's passion for
the arts was a not unamiable pose which would dis-
appear when she was happily married. To have
half a dozen children was in her mind much more
important than to paint pictures. Margaret's talent
was by no means despicable, but Susie was not con-
vinced that callous masters would have been so
enthusiastic if Margaret had been as plain and as
old as herself.
Miss Boyd was thirty. Her busy life had not
caused the years to pass easily, and she looked
older. But she was one of those plain women whose
plainness does not matter. A gallant Frenchman
had to her face called her a belle laide, and, far
from denying the justness of his observation, she
had been almost flattered. Her mouth was large,
and she had little round bright eyes. Her skin was
colourless and much disfigured by freckles. Her
22 THE MAGICIAN
nose was long and thin. But her face was so kindly,
her vivacity so attractive that no one after ten
minutes thought of her ugliness. You noticed then
that her hair, though sprinkled with white, was
abundant, and that her figure was exceedingly
neat. Her teeth were exquisite. She had wonder-
fulhands, very white and admirably formed, which
she waved continually in the fervour of her ges-
ticulation. Now that her means were adequate she
took great pains with her dress, and her clothes,
though they cost much more than she could afford,
were always beautiful. Her taste was so great, her
tact so sure that she was able to make the most of
herself. She was determined that if people called
her ugly they should be forced in the same breath
to confess that she was perfectly gowned. Susie's
talent for dress was remarkable, and it was due to
her influence that Margaret was arrayed always in
the latest mode. The girl's taste inclined to be ar-
tistic,and her sense of colour was apt to run away
with her discretion. Except for the display of
Susie's firmness, she would scarcely have resisted her
desire to wear nondescript garments of violent hue.
But the older woman expressed herself with decision.
"My dear, you won't draw any the worse for
wearing a well-made corset, and to surround your
body with bands of grey flannel will certainly not
increase your talent."
"But the fashion is so hideous," smiled Margaret.
"Fiddlesticks! The fashion is always beautiful.
Last year it was beautiful to wear a hat like a
pork-pie tipped over your nose; and next year, for
 THE MAGICIAN 23

all I know, it will be beautiful to wear a bonnet like

a sitz-bath at the back of your head. Art has noth-
ing to do with a smart frock, and whether a high-
heeled pointed shoe commends itself or not to the
painters in the quarter, it's the only thing in which
a woman's foot looks really nice."
Susie Boyd vowed that she would not live with
Margaret at all unless she let her see to the buying
of her things.
"And when you're married, for heaven's sake ask
me to stay with you four times a year, so that I

can see after your clothes. You'll never keep your

husband's affection if you trust to your own judg-
ment."
Miss Boyd's reward had come the night before,
when Margaret, coming home from dinner with
Arthur, had repeated an observation of his.
"How beautifully you're dressed!" he had said.
"I was rather afraid you'd be wearing art-serges."
"Of course you didn't tell him that I insisted on
buying every stitch you'd got on," cried Susie.
"Yes, I did," answered Margaret simply. "I
told him I had no taste at all, but that you were
responsible for everything."
"That was the least you could do," answered
Miss Boyd.
But her heart went out to Margaret, for the trivial
incident showed once more how frank the girl was.
She knew quite well that few of her friends, though
many took advantage of her matchless taste, would
have made such an admission to the lover who
gratulated them on the success of their costume.
24 THE MAGICIAN
There was a knock at the studio door, and Arthur
came in.

"This the fairy-prince," said Margaret, bring-

is

ing him to her friend.

"I'm glad to see you in order to thank you for
all you've done for Margaret," he smiled, taking

the proffered hand.

Susie remarked that he looked upon her with
friendliness, but with a certain vacancy, as though
too much engrossed in his beloved really to notice
anyone and she wondered how to make con-
else:
versation with a man who was so manifestly ab-
sorbed. While Margaret busied herself with the
preparations for tea, his eyes followed her move-
ments with a doglike, touching devotion. They
travelled from her smiling mouth to her deft hands.
It seemed that he had never seen anything so

ravishing as the way in which she bent over the

kettle. Margaret felt that he was looking at her,
and turned round. Their eyes met, and they stood
for an appreciable time gazing at one another

silently.
"Don't be a pair of perfect idiots," cried Susie
gaily. "I'm dying for my tea."
The lovers laughed and reddened. It struck
Arthur that he should say something polite.
"I hope you'll show me your sketches afterwards,
Miss Boyd. Margaret says they're awfully good."
"You really needn't think it in the least neces-
sary to show any interest in L me," she replied
bluntly.
"She draws the most delightful caricatures," said
 THE MAGICIAN 25

Margaret. 'Til bring you a horror of yourself,

which she'll do the moment you go out of the
room."
"Don't be so spiteful, Margaret."
Miss Boyd could not help thinking ail the same
that Arthur Burdon would caricature very well.
Margaret was right when she said that he was not
handsome, but his clean-shaven face was full of in-
terest to so passionate an observer of her kind. The
lovers were silent, and Susie had the conversation
to herself. She chatted without pause and had the
satisfaction presently of capturing their attention.
Arthur seemed to become aware of her presence,
and laughed heartily at her burlesque account of
their fellow-students at Meanwhile
Colarossi's.
Susie examined him. He wasvery and very
tall
thin. His frame had a Yorkshireman's solidity, and
his bones were massive. He missed being ungainly
only through the serenity of his self-reliance. He
hatf high cheek-bones and a long, lean face. His
nose and his mouth were large, and his skin was
sallow. But there were two characteristics which
fascinated her, an imposing strength of purpose and
a singular capacity for suffering. This was a man
who knew his mind and was determined to achieve
his desire; it refreshed her vastly after the extreme
weakness of the young painters with whom of late
she had mostly consorted. But those quick dark
eyes were able to express an anguish that was hardly
tolerable, and the mobile mouth had a nervous in-
tensity which suggested that he might easily suffer
the very agonies of woe.
26 THE MAGICIAN
Tea was ready, and Arthur stood up to receive
his cup.
"Sitdown," said Margaret. "I'll bring you
everything you want, and I know exactly how much
sugar to put in. It pleases me to wait on you."
With the exquisite grace that marked all her
movements she walked across the studio, the filled
cup in one hand and the plate of cakes in the other.
To Susie it seemed that he was overwhelmed with
gratitude by Margaret's condescension. His eyes
were with indescribable tenderness as he took
soft
the sweetmeats she gave him. Margaret smiled
with happy pride. For all her good-nature, Susie
could not prevent the pang that wrung her heart;
for she too was capable of love. There was in her
a wealth of passionate affection that none had sought
to find. None had ever whispered in her ears the
*
charming nonsense that she read in books. She
recognized that she had no beauty to help her, but
once she had at least the charm of vivacious youth.
That was gone now, and the freedom to go into the
world had come too late; yet her instinct told her
that she was made to be a decent man's wife and the
mother of children. She stopped in the middle of
her bright chatter, fearing to trust her voice, but
Margaret and Arthur were too much occupied to
notice that she had ceased to speak. They sat side
by side and enjoyed the happiness of one another's
company.
"What a fool I am!" thought Susie.
She had learnt long ago that common-sense, in-
telligence, good-nature, and strength of character
 THE MAGICIAN 27

were unimportant in comparison with a pretty face.

She shrugged her shoulders*
"I don't know if you young things realise that
it's growing late. If you want us to dine at the
Chien Noir, you must leave usjnow, so that we can
make ourselves tidy."
"Very well," said Arthur, getting up. 'Til go
back to my hotel and have a wash. We'll meet at
half-past seven."
When Margaret had closed the door on him, she
turned to her friend.
"Well, what do you think ?" she asked, smiling.
"You can't expect me to form a definite opinion
of a man whom I've seen for so short a time."
"Nonsense!" said Margaret.
Susie hesitated for a moment.
"I think he has an extraordinarily good face,"
she said at last gravely. "I've never seen a man
whose honesty of purpose was so transparent."
Susie Boyd was so lazy that she could never be
induced to occupy herself with household matters,
and, while Margaret put the tea things away, she
began to draw the caricature which every new face
suggested to her. She made a little sketch of
Arthur, abnormally lanky, with a colossal nose, with
the wings and the bow and arrow of the God of
Love, but it was not half done before she thought it

silly. She tore it up with impatience. When Mar-

garet came back into the studio she turned round
and looked at her steadily.
"Well?" said the girl, smiling under the scrutiny.
She stood in the middle of the lofty studio. Half-
28 THE MAGICIAN
finished canvases leaned with their faces against
the wall; pieces of stuff were hung here and there,
and photographs of well-known She had
pictures.
fallen unconsciously into a wonderful pose, and her

beauty gave her, notwithstanding her youth, a rare

dignity. Susie smiled mockingly.
5*
"You look like a Greek goddess in a Paris frock,
she said.
"What have you to say to me?" asked Margaret,
divining from the searching look that something was
in her friend's mind.
Susie stoodup and went to her.
"You know, before I'd seen him I hoped with
all my heart that he'd make you happy. Notwith-
standing all you'd told me of him, I was afraid.
I knew he was much older than you. He was
the first man you'd ever known. I could scarcely
bear to entrust you to him in case you were
miserable."
"I don't think you need have any fear."
"But now I hope with all my heart that you'll
make him happy. It's not you I'm frightened for
now, but him."
Margaret did not answer; she could not under-
stand what Susie meant.
"I've never seen anyone with such a capacity for
wretchedness as that man has. I don't think you
can conceive how desperately he might suffer. Be
very careful, Margaret, and be very good to him, for
you have the power to make him more unhappy
than any human being should be."
"Oh, but I want him to be happy," cried Mar-
 THE MAGICIAN 29

garet vehemently. "You know that I owe every-

thing to him. I'd do all I could to make him happy,
even if I had to sacrifice myself. But I can't sacrifice

myself, because I love him so much that all I do is

pure delight."
Her eyes filled with tears and her voice broke.
Susie, with a little laugh that was half hysterical,
kissed her.
"My dear, for heaven's sake don't cry! You
know I can't bear people who weep, and if he sees

your eyes red, he'll never forgive me."

 Chapter III

Chien Noir y where Susie Boyd and Margaret

THE generally dined, was the most charming res-
taurant in the quarter. Downstairs was a public
room, where all and sundry devoured their food, for
the little place had a reputation for good cooking
combined with cheapness; and the patron, a retired
horse-dealer who had taken to victualling in order
to build up a business for his son, was a cheery soul
whose loud-voiced friendliness attracted custom.
But on the first floor was a narrow room, with three
tables arranged in a horse-shoe, which was reserved
for a small party of English or American painters
and a few Frenchmen with their wives. At least,
they were so nearly wives, and their manner had
such a matrimonial respectability that Susie, when
first she and Margaret were introduced into this

society, judged it would be vulgar to turn up her

nose. She held that it was prudish to insist upon
the conventions of Netting Hill in the Boulevard du
Montparnasse. The young women who had thrown
with these painters were modest in
in their lives
demeanour and quiet in dress. They were model
housewives, who had preserved their self-respect
notwithstanding a difficult position, and did not look
upon their relation with less seriousness because they
had not muttered a few words before Monsieur le

Maire.
so
 THE MAGICIAN 31

The room was full when Arthur Burdon entered,

but Margaret had kept him an empty seat between

herself and Miss Boyd. Everyone was speaking at
once, ir\ French, at the top of his voice, and a furious
argument was proceeding on the merit of the later
impressionists. Arthur sat down, and was hurriedly
introduced to a lanky youth, who sat on the other
side of Margaret. He was very tall, very thin, very
fair. He wore a very high collar and very long hair,
and held himself like an exhausted lily.
"He always reminds me of an Aubrey Beardsley
that's been dreadfully smudged/' said Susie in an
undertone. "He's a nice, kind creature, but his
name is Jagson. He has virtue and industry. I
haven't seen any of his work, but he has absolutely
no talent."
"How do you know, if you've not seen his pic-
tures?" asked Arthur.
"Oh, it's one of our conventions here that nobody
has talent," laughed Susie. "We suffer one another
personally, but we have no illusions about the value
of our neighbor's work."
"Tell me who everyone is."

"Well, look at the little bald man in the corner.

That isWarren."
Arthur looked at the man she pointed out. He
was a small person, with a pate as shining as a
billiard-ball, and a pointed beard. He had protrud-
ing, brilliant eyes.
"Hasn't he had too much to drink?" asked Arthur
frigidly.
"Much," answered Susie promptly; "but he's
32 THE MAGICIAN
always in that condition, and the further he gets
from sobriety the more charming he is. He's the
only man in this room of whom you'll never hear a
word of evil. The strange thing is that he's very
nearly a great painter. He has the most fascinating
sense of colour in the world, and the more intoxicated
he is, the more delicate and beautiful is his painting.
Sometimes, after more than the usual number of
aperitifs, he will sit down in a cafe to do a sketch,
with his hand so shaky that he can hardly hold a
brush; he has to wait for a favourable moment, and
then he makes a jab at the panel. And the immoral
thing is that each of these little jabs is lovely. He's
the most delightful interpreter of Paris I know, and
when you've seen his sketches he's done hundreds
of unimaginable grace and feeling and distinc-
tion you can never see Paris in the same way
again."
The little maid who looked busily after the varied
wants of the customers stood in front of them to
receive Arthur's order. She was a hard-visaged
creature of mature age, but she looked neat in her
black dress and white cap; and she had a motherly
way of attending to these people, with a capacious
smile of her large mouth which was full of charm.
"I don't mind what I eat," said Arthur. "Let
Margaret order my dinner for me."
"It would have been just as good as if I had ordered
it," laughed Susie.
a lively discussion with Marie as to
They began
the merits of the various dishes, and it was only
interrupted by Warren's hilarious expostulations.
 THE MAGICIAN 33

"Marie, I precipitate myself at your feet, and

beg you to bring me a poule au riz"
"Oh, but give me one moment, monsieur" said
the maid.
"Do not pay any attention to that gentleman.
His morals are detestable, and he only seeks to lead
you from the narrow path of virtue."
Arthur protested that on the contrary the passion
of hunger occupied at that moment his heart to the
exclusion of all others.
"Marie, you no longer love me/* cried Warren.
"There was a time when you did not look so coldly
upon me when I ordered a bottle of white wine."
The rest of the party took up his complaint, and
all besought her not to show too hard a heart to the

bald and rubicund painter.

"Mais si, je vous aime, Monsieur Warren" she
cried, laughing,"Je vous aime tous, tons"
She ran downstairs, amid the shouts of men and
women, to give her orders.
"The other day the Chien Noir was the scene of
a tragedy," said Susie. "Marie broke off relations
with her lover, who is a waiter at Lavenue's, and
would have no reconciliation. He waited till he
had a free evening, and then came to the next
room and ordered dinner. Of course, she was
obliged to wait on him, and as she brought him each
dish he expostulated with her, and they mingled
their tears."
"She wept in floods," interrupted a youth, with
neatly brushed hair and a fat nose. "She wept all

over our food, and we ate it salt with tears. We

34 THE MAGICIAN
besought her not to yield; except for our encourage-
ment she would have gone back to him; and he beats
5
her/
Marie appeared again, with no signs now that so
short awhile ago romance had played at game with
her, and brought the dishes that had been ordered.
Susie seized once more upon Arthur Burdon's at-
tention.
"Now please look at the man who is sitting next
to Mr. Warren/'
Arthur saw a tall, dark fellow with strongly-
marked features, untidy hair, and a ragged black
moustache.
"That Mr. O'Brien, who is an example of the
is

fact that strength of will and an earnest purpose

cannot make a painter. He's a failure and he knows
it, and the bitterness has warped his soul. If you
listen to him you'll hear every painter of eminence
come under his lash. He can forgive nobody who's
successful, and he never acknowledges merit in any-
one till he's safely dead and buried."
"He must be a cheerful companion," answered
Arthur. "And who is the stout old lady by his
side,with the flaunting hat?"
"That is the mother of Madame Rouge, the little

pale-faced woman sitting next to her. She is the

mistress of Rouge, who does all the illustrations for
La Semaine. At first it rather tickled me that the
old lady should callhim mon gendre, son-in-law, my
and take the irregular union of her daughter with
such a noble unconcern for propriety; but how it
seems quite natural."
 THE MAGICIAN 35

The mother of Madame Rouge had the remains

of beauty, and she sat bolt upright, picking the leg
of a chicken with a dignified gesture. Arthur looked
away quickly, for, catching his eye, she gave him an
amorous glance. Rouge had more the appearance
of a prosperous tradesman than of an artist; but he
carried on with O'Brien, whose French was perfect,
an argument on the merits of Cezanne. To one he
was a great master and to the other an impudent
charlatan. Each hotly repeated his opinion, as
though the mere fact of saying the same thing
several times made it much more convincing.
"Next to me is Madame Meyer," proceeded
Susie. "She was a governess in Poland, but she
was much too pretty to remain one, and now she
liveswith the landscape painter who is by her side."
Arthur's eyes followed her words and rested on a
clean-shaven man with a large quantity of grey,
curling hair. He had handsome face of a de-
a
liberately aesthetictype and was very elegantly
dressed. His manner and his conversation had the
flamboyance of the romantic thirties. He talked
in flowing periods with an air of finality, and what
he said was no less just than obvious. The gay
littlelady who
shared his fortunes listened to his
wisdom with a profound admiration that plainly
flattered him.
Miss Boyd had described everyone to Arthur
except young Raggles, who painted still life with a
certain amount of skill, and Clayson, the American

sculptor. Raggles stood for rank and fashion at

the Chien Noir. He was very smartly dressed in
36 THE MAGICIAN
a horsey way, and he walked with bow-legs, as
though he spent most of his time in the saddle. He
alone used scented pomade upon his neat smooth
hair. His chief distinction was a greatcoat he wore,
with a scarlet lining; and Warren, whose memory
for names was defective, could only recall him by
that peculiarity. But it was understood that he knew
duchesses in fashionable streets, and occasionally he
dined with them in solemn splendour.
Clayson had a vinous nose and a tedious habit
of saying brilliant things. With his twinkling eyes,
red cheeks, and fair, pointed beard, he looked exactly
like a Franz Hals; but he was dressed like the cari-
cature of a Frenchman in a comic paper.
spokeKe
English with a Parisian accent.
Miss Boyd was beginning to tear him gaily limb
from limb, when the door was flung open, and a
large person entered. He threw off his cloak with a
dramatic gesture.
"Marie, disembarrass me of this coat of frieze.
Hang my sombrero upon a convenient peg."
He spoke execrable French, but there was a gran-
diloquence about his vocabulary which set everyone
t
laughing.
"Here is somebody I don't know," said Susie.
"But I do, at least, by sight," answered Burdon.
He leaned over to Dr. Porhoet, who was sitting
opposite, quietly eating his dinner and enjoying the
nonsense which everyone talked. "Is not that your
magician?"
"Oliver Haddo," said Dr. Porhoet, with a little
nod of amusement.
 THE MAGICIAN 37

The new arrival stood at the end of the room

with eyes upon him. He threw himself into an
all

attitude of command and remained for a moment

perfectly still.

"You look as if you were posing, Haddo," said

Warren huskily.
5*
"He couldn't help doing that if he tried, laughed
Clayson.
Oliver Haddo slowly turned his glance to the
painter.
"I grieve to see, oh most excellent Warren, that
the ripe juice of the aperitif has glazed your sparkling
eye."
"Do you mean to say I'm drunk, sir?"
"In one gross, but expressive, word, drunk."
The painter grotesquely flung himself back in his
chair as though he had been struck a blow, and
Haddo looked steadily at Clayson.
"How often have I explained to you, Clayson, O
that your deplorable lack of education precludes
you from the brilliancy to which you aspire?"
For an instant Oliver Haddo resumed his effec-
tive pose; and Susie, smiling, looked at him. He
was a man of great size, two or three inches more
than six feet high; but the most noticeable thing
about him was a vast obesity. His paunch was of
imposing dimensions. His face was large and fleshy.
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. He advanced and shook
hands with Dr. Porhoet.
38 THE MAGICIAN
"Hail, brother wizard! I greet in you, if not
a master, at least a student not unworthy of my
esteem."
was convulsed with laughter at his pom-
Susie
pousness, and he turned to her with the utmost
gravity.
"Madam, your laughter is more soft in mine
ears than the singing of Bulbul in a Persian garden.'*
Dr. Porhoet interposed with introductions. The
magician bowed solemnly as he was in turn made
known to Susie Boyd, and Margaret, and Arthur
Burdon. He held out his hand to the grim Irish
painter.
"Well, my O'Brien, have you been mixing as
usual the waters of bitterness with the thin claret
of Bordeaux?"
"Why don't you sit down and eat your dinner?"
returned the other, gruffly.
"Ah, my dear fellow, I wish I could drive the
fact into this head of yours that rudeness is not
synonymous with wit. I shall not have lived in
vain if I teach you in time to realise that the rapier
of irony is more effective an instrument than the
bludgeon of insolence."
O'Brien reddened with anger, but could not at
once find a retort, and Haddo passed on to that
faded, harmless youth who sat next to Margaret.
"Do my eyes deceive me, or is this the Jagson
whose name in its inanity is so appropriate to the
bearer? I am eager to know if you still devote

upon the ungrateful arts talents which were more

profitably employed upon haberdashery."
 THE MAGICIAN 39

The unlucky creature, thus brutally attacked,

blushed feebly without answering, and Haddo went
on to the Frenchman, Meyer, as more worthy of
his mocking.
"Fmafraid my
entrance interrupted you in a dis-
course. Wasthe celebrated harangue on the great-
it

ness of Michael Angelo, or was it the searching

analysis of the art of Wagner?"
"We were just going," said Meyer, getting up
with a frown.
"I am desolated to lose the pearls of wisdom that
habitually fall from your cultivated lips," returned
Haddo, as he politely withdrew Madame Meyer's
chair.
He sat down with a smile.
"I saw the place was crowded, and with Napo-
leonic instinct decided that I could only make room

by insulting somebody. It is cause for congratula-

tion that my gibes, which Raggles, a foolish youth,
mistakes for wit, have caused the disappearance of
a person who lives in open sin; thereby vacating
two seats, and allowing me to eat a humble meal
with ample room for my elbows."
Marie brought him the bill of fare, and he looked
at it gravely.
"I
will have a vanilla ioe, oh well-beloyed, and
the wing of a tender chicken, a fried sole, and some
excellent pea-soup."
"Bien, un potage, une sole, one chicken, and an
ice."
"
But why should you serve them in that order
"
rather than in the order I gave you ?
40 THE MAGICIAN
Marie and the two Frenchwomen who were still

in the room, broke into exclamations at this extrava-

gance, but Oliver Haddo waved his fat hand.
"I shall start with the ice, O Marie, to cool the
passion with which your eyes inflame me, and then
without hesitation I will devour the wing of a
chicken in order to sustain myself against your
smile. I shall then proceed to a fresh sole, and with
the pea-soup I will finish a not unsustaining meal."
Having succeeded in capturing the attention of
everyone in the room, Oliver Haddo proceeded to
eat these dishes in the order he had named. Mar-
garet and Burdon watched him with scornful eyes,
but Susie, who was not revolted by the vanity which
sought to attract notice, looked at him curiously.
He was clearly not old, though his corpulence added
to his apparent age. His features were good, his
ears small, and his nose delicately shaped. He had

big teeth, but they were white and even. His mouth
was large, with heavy, moist lips. He had the neck
of a bullock. His dark, curling hair had retreated
from the forehead and temples in such a way as to
give his clean-shaven face a disconcerting nudity.
The baldness of his crown was vaguely like a ton-
sure. He had the look of a very wicked, sensual
priest. Margaret, stealing a glance at him as he ate,
on a sudden violently shuddered; he affected her
with an uncontrollable dislike. He lifted his eyes
slowly, and she looked away, blushing as though
she had been taken in some indiscretion. These eyes
were the most curious thing about him. They were
not large, but of an exceedingly pale blue, and they
 THE MAGICIAN 41

looked at you in a waythat was singularly embar-

rassing. At first Susie could not discover in what
precisely their peculiarity lay, but in a moment she
found out: the eyes of most persons converge when
they look at you, but Oliver Haddo's, naturally or
by a habit he had acquired for effect, remained
parallel. It gave the impression that he looked

straight through you and saw the wall beyond. It

was quite uncanny. But another strange thing about
him was the impossibility of telling whether he was
serious. There was a mockery in that queer glance,
a sardonic smile upon the mouth, which made you
hesitate how to take his outrageous utterances. It
was irritating to be uncertain whether, while you
were laughing at him, he was not really enjoying an
elaborate joke at your expense.
His presence cast an unusual chill upon the party.
The French members got up and left. Warren
reeled out with O'Brien, whose uncouth sarcasms
were no match for Haddo's bitter gibes. Raggles
put on his coat with the scarlet lining and went
out with the tall Jagson, who smarted still under
Haddo's insolence. The American sculptor paid his
bill silently. When he was at the door Haddo
stopped him.
"You have modelled lions at the Jardin des
Plantes, my dear Clayson. Have you ever hunted
them on their native plains?"
"No, I haven't."
Clayson did not know why Haddo asked the ques-
tion, but he bristled with incipient wrath.
"Then you have not seen the jackals, gnawing
42 THE MAGICIAN
at a dead antelope, scamper away in terror when
the King of Beasts stalked down to make his meal."
Clayson slammed the door behind him. Haddo
was with Margaret, and Arthur Burdon, Dr.
left

Porhoet, and Susie. He smiled quietly.

"
"By the way, are you a lion-hunter ? asked
Susie flippantly.
He turned on her his straight
uncanny glance.
"I have no equal with big game. I have shot
more lions than any man alive. I think Jules Ge-
rard, whom the French of the nineteenth century
called Le Tueur de Lions, may have been fit to

compare with me, but I can call to mind no other."

This statement, made with the greatest calm,
caused a moment of silence. Margaret stared at him
with amazement.
"You suffer from no false modesty," said Arthur
Burdon.
"False modesty is a sign of ill-breeding, from
which my birth amply protects me."
Dr. Porhoet looked up with a smile of irony.
"I wish Mr. Haddo would take this opportunity
to disclose to us the mystery of his birth and family.
I have a suspicion that, like the immortal Cagliostro,
he was born of unknown but noble parents, and
educated secretly in Eastern palaces."
"In my origin I am more to be compared with
Denis Zachaire or with Raymond Lully. My an-
cestor,George Haddo, came to Scotland in the suite
of Anne of Denmark, and when James I., her con-
sort, ascended the English throne, he was granted
the estates in Staffordshire which I still possess.
 THE MAGICIAN 43

My family has formed alliances with the most noble

blood of England, and the Merestons, the Parna-
bys, the Hollingtons, have been proud to give their
daughters to my house."
"Those are facts which can be verified in works
of reference," said Arthur dryly.
"They can/' said Oliver.
"And the Eastern palaces in which your youth
was spent, and the black slaves who waited on you,
and the bearded sheikhs who imparted to you secret
knowledge?" cried Dr. Porhoet.
"I was educated at Eton, and I left Oxford in
1896."
"Would you mind telling me at what college you
were?" said Arthur.
"I was at the House."
"Then you must have been there with Frank
"

Hurrell."
"Now assistant physician at St. Luke's Hospital.
He was one of my most intimate friends."
"I'll write and ask him about you."
"I'm dying to know what you did with all the
lions you slaughtered," said Susie Boyd.
The man's effrontery did not exasperate her as
it obviously exasperated Margaret and Arthur. He
amused her, and she was anxious to make him talk.
"They decorate the floors of Skene, which is the
name of my place in Staffordshire." He paused for
a moment to light a cigar. "I am the only man
alive who has killed three lions with three successive
shots."
"I should have thought you could have demol-
44 THE MAGICIAN
ished them by the effects of your oratory," said
Arthur.
Oliver leaned back and placed his two large hands
on the table.
"Burkhardt, a German with whom I was shoot-
ing, was down with fever and could not stir from
his bed. I was awakened one night by the uneasiness
of my oxen, and I heard the roaring of lions close
at hand. I took my carbine and came out of my
tent. There was only the meagre light of the moon.
I walked alone, for I knew natives could be of no
use to me. Presently I came upon the carcass of
an antelope, half-consumed, and I made up my mind
to wait for the return of the lions. I hid myself
among the boulders twenty paces from the prey.
All about me was the immensity of Africa and the
silence. I waited, motionless, hour after hour, till
the dawn was nearly at hand. At last three lions
appeared over a rock. I had noticed, the day before,
spoor of a lion and two females."
"May I ask how you could distinguish the sex?"
asked Arthur, incredulously.
"The prints of a lion's fore feet are dispropor-
tionately larger than those of the hind feet. The
fore feet and hind feet of the lioness are nearly the
same size."

"Pray go on," said Susie.

"They came into full view, and in the dim light,
as they stood chest on, they appeared as huge as
the strange beasts of the Arabian tales. I aimed
at the lioness which stood nearest to me and fired.
Without a sound, like a bullock felled at one blow,
 THE MAGICIAN 45

she dropped. The lion gave vent to a sonorous

roar. Hastily I slipped another cartridge in my
rifle. Then became conscious that he had seen
I

me. He lowered his head, and his crest was erect.

His lifted tail was twitching, his lips were drawn
back from the red gums, and I saw his great white
fangs. Living fire flashed from his eyes, and he
growled incessantly. Then he advanced a few steps,
his head held low; and his eyes were fixed on mine
with a look of rage. Suddenly he jerked up his
tail, and when a lion does this he charges. I got a

quick sight of his chest and fired. He reared up

on his hind legs, roaring loudly and clawing at the

air, fell back dead. One lioness remained, and

through the smoke I saw her spring to her feet
and rush towards me. Escape was impossible, for
behind me were high boulders that I could not
climb. She came on with hoarse, coughing grunts,
and with desperate courage I fired my remaining
barrel. I missed her clean. I took one step back-
wards in the hope of getting a cartridge into my
rifle, and fell, scarcely two lengths in front of the

furious beast. She missed me. I owed my safety

to that fall. And then suddenly I found that she
had collapsed. I had hit her after all. My bullet
went clean through her heart, but the spring had
carried her forwards. When I scrambled to my feet
I found that she was dying. I walked back to my
camp and ate a capital breakfast."
Oliver Haddo's story was received with astonished
silence. No one could assert that it was untrue,
but he told it with a grandiloquence that carried no
46 THE MAGICIAN
conviction. Arthur would have wagered a consider-
able sum that there was no word of truth in it. He
had never met a person of this kind before, and
could not understand what pleasure there might be
in the elaborate invention* of improbable adventures.
"You are evidently very brave," he said.
"To follow a wounded lion into thick cover is

probably the most dangerous proceeding in the

world," said Haddo calmly. "It calls for the ut-
most coolness and for iron nerve."
The answer had an odd effect on Arthur. He
gave Haddo a rapid glance, and was seized suddenly
with uncontrollable laughter. He leaned back in
his chair and roared. His hilarity affected the
others, and they broke into peal upon peal of laugh-
ter. Oliver watched them gravely. He seemed
neither disconcerted nor surprised. When Arthur
recovered himself, he found Haddo's singular eyes
fixed on him.
"Your laughter reminds me of the crackling of
thorns under a pot," he said.
Haddo looked round at the others. Though his
gaze preserved its fixity, his lips broke into a queer,
sardonic smile.
"It must be plain even to the feeblest intelligence
that a man can only command the elementary spirits
if he is without fear. A capricious mind can never
rule the sylphs, nor a fickle disposition the undines."
Arthur stared at him with amazement. He did
not know what on earth the man was talking about.
Haddo paid no heed.
"But if the adept is active, pliant, and strong,
 THE MAGICIAN 47

the whole world will be at his command. He will

pass through the storm and no rain shall fall upon his
head. The wind will not displace a single fold of his
garment. He will go through fire and not be burned."
Dr. Porhoet ventured upon an explanation of
these cryptic utterances.
"These ladies are unacquainted with the mysteri-
ous beings of whom you speak, cher ami. They
should know that during the Middle Ages imagina-
tion peopled the four elements with intelligences,
normally unseen, some of which were friendly to
man and others hostile. They were thought to be
powerful and conscious of their power, though at
the same time they were profoundly aware that they
possessed no soul. Their life depended upon the
continuance of some natural object, and hence for
them there could be no immortality. They must re-
turn eventually to the abyss of unending night, and
the darkness of death afflicted them always. But it
was thought that in the same manner as man by
his union with God had won a spark of divinity, so

might the sylphs, gnomes, undines, and salaman-

ders, by an alliance with man partake of his immor-
tality. And many of their women, whose beauty
was more than human, gained a human soul by lov-
ing one of the race of men. But the reverse oc-
curred also, and often a love-sick youth lost his im-
mortality because he left the haunts of his kind to
dwell with the fair, soulless denizens of the running
streams or of the forest airs."
"I didn't know that you spoke figuratively," said
Arthur to Oliver Haddo.
48 THS MAGICIAN
The other shrugged his shoulders.
"What else is the world than a figure? Life it-

self is but a symbol. You must be a wise man if

you can tell us what is reality."
"When you begin to talk of magic and mysticism
I confess that I am out of my depth."

"Yet magic is no more than the art of employ-

ing consciously invisible means to produce visible
effects. Will, love, and imagination are magic pow-
ers that everyone possesses; and whoever knows how
to develop them to their fullest extent a magician.
is

Magic has but one dogma, namely, that the seen is

the measure of the unseen."
"Will you tell us what the powers are that the
adept possesses?"
"They are enumerated in a Hebrew manuscript
of the sixteenth century, which is in my possession.
The him who holds in liis right hand
privileges of
the Keys of Solomon and in his left the Branch of
the Blossoming Almond, are twenty-one. He be-
holds God face to face without dying, and converses
intimately with the Seven Genii who command the
celestial
army. He is superior to every affliction
and to every fear. He reigns with all heaven
and is served by all hell. He holds the secret
of the resurrection of the dead, and the key of
immortality."
"If you possess even these you have evidently
the most varied attainments," said Arthur ironically.
"Everyone can make game of the unknown," re-
torted Haddo, with a shrug of his massive shoulders.
Arthur did not answer. He looked at Haddo
 THE MAGICIAN 49

curiously. He asked himself whether he believed

seriously these preposterous things, or whether he
was amusing himself in an elephantine way at their
expense. His manner was earnest, but there was an
odd expression about the mouth, a hard twinkle
of the eyes, which seemed to belie it. Susie was
vastly entertained. It diverted her enormously to
hear occult matters discussed with apparent gravity
in this prosaic tavern. Dr. Porhoet broke the silence.
"Arago, after whom has been named a neighbour-
ing boulevard, declared that doubt was a proof of
modesty, which has rarely interfered with the prog-
ress of science. But one cannot say the same of
incredulity, and he that uses the word impossible
outside of pure mathematics is lacking in prudence.
It should be remembered that Lactantius proclaimed
belief in the existence of antipodes inane, and Saint

Augustine of Hippo added that in any case there

could be no question of inhabited lands."
"That sounds as if you were not quite sceptical,
dear doctor," said Miss Boyd.
"In my youth I believed nothing, for science had

taught me to distrust even the evidence of my five

senses," he replied, with a shrug of the shoulders.
"But I have seen many things in the East which
are inexplicable by the known processes of science.
Mr. Haddo has given y6u one definition of magic,
and I will give you another. It may be described
merely as the intelligent utilisation of forces which
are unknown, contemned, or misunderstood of the
vulgar. The young man who settles in the East
sneers at the ideas of magic which surround him*
50 THE MAGICIAN
but I know not what is in the atmosphere that
there
saps his unbelief. When he has sojourned for some
years among Orientals, he comes insensibly to share
the opinion of many sensible men that perhaps there
is something in it after all."

Arthur Burdon made a gesture of impatience.

"I cannot imagine that however much I lived in
Eastern countries, I could believe anything that had
the whole weight of science against it. If there were
a word of truth in anything Haddo says, we should
be unable to form any reasonable theory of the
universe."
"For a scientific man you argue with singular
fatuity," said Haddo icily, and his manner had an
offensiveness which was intensely irritating. "You
should be aware that science, dealing only with the
general, leaves out of consideration the individual
cases that contradict the enormous majority. Oc-
casionally the heart is on the right side of the body,

but you would not on that account ever put your

stethoscope in any other than the usual spot. It is
possible that under certain conditions the law of
gravity does not apply, yet you will conduct your
life under the conviction that it does so invariably.

Now, there are some of us who choose to deal only

with these exceptions to the common run. The dull
man who plays at Monte Carlo puts his money on
the colours, and generally black or red turns up; but
now and then zero appears, and then he loses. But
we, who have backed zero all the time, win many
times our stake. Here and there you will find men
whose imagination raises them above the humdrum
 THE MAGICIAN 51

of mankind. are willing to lose their all if

They
only they have chance of a great prize. Is it nothing
not only to know the future, as did the prophets of
but by making
old, it to force the very gates of the
unknown ?"
Suddenly the bantering gravity with which he
spoke fell away from him. A singular light came
into his eyes, and his voice was hoarse. Now at
last they saw that he was serious.
"What should you know of that lust for great
secrets which consumes me to the bottom of my
soul!"
"Anyhow, I'm perfectly delighted to meet a ma-
gician," cried Susie gaily.
"Ah, call me not that," he said, with a flourish
of his fat hands, regaining immediately his porten-
tous flippancy. "I would be known rather as the
Brother of the Shadow."
"I should have thought you could be only a very
distant relation of anything so unsubstantial," said
Arthur, with a laugh.
Oliver's face turned red with furious anger. His
strange blue eyes grew cold with hatred, and he
thrust out his scarlet lips till he had the ruthless
expression of a Nero. The gibe at his obesity had
caught him on the raw. Susie feared that he would
make so insulting a reply that a quarrel must ensue.
"Well, really, if we want to go to the fair we
must start," she said quickly. "And Marie is dying
to be rid of us."
They got up, and clattered down the stairs into
the street.
 Chapter IV

came down to the busy, narrow street

THEY
which led into the Boulevard du Montparnasse.
Electric trams passed through it with harsh ringing

of bells, and people surged along the pavements.

The fair to which they were going was held at the
Lion de Belfort, not more than a mile away, and
Arthur hailed a cab. Susie told the driver where
they wanted to be set down. She noticed that
Haddo, who was waiting for them to start, put his
hand on the horse's neck. On a sudden, for no
apparent reason, it began violently to tremble. The
trembling passed through the body and down its
limbs till it shook from head to foot as though it
had the staggers. The coachman jumped off his
box and held the wretched creature's head. Mar-
garet and Susie got out of the carriage. It was a
horribly painful sight. The horse seemed not to
suffer from actual pain, but from an extraordinary
fear. Though she knew not why an idea came to Susie.
5
"Take your hand away, Mr. Haddo/ she said
sharply.
He smiled, and did as she bade him. At the
same moment the trembling began to decrease, and
in a moment the poor old cab-horse was in its usual
state. It seemed a little frightened still, but other-
wise recovered.
52
 THE MAGICIAN 53

"I wonder what the deuce was the matter with

it," said Arthur.
OliverHaddo looked at him with the blue eyes
that seemed to see right through people, and then,
lifting his hat, walked away. Susie turned suddenly
to Dr. Porhoet.
"Do youthink he could make the horse do that?
It came immediately he put his hand on its neck
and it stopped as soon as he took it away."
"Nonsense!" said Arthur.
"It occurred to me that he was playing some
trick," said Dr. Porhoet gravely. "An odd thing
happened once when he came to see me. I have
two Persian cats, which are the most properly con-
ducted of all their tribe. They spend their days in
front of my fire, meditating on the problems of
metaphysics. But as soon as he came in they
started up and their fur stood right on end. Then
they began to run madly round and round the room,
as though the victims of uncontrollable terror. I

opened the door, and they bolted out. I have never

been able to understand exactly what took place."
Margaret shuddered.
"I've never met a man who filled me with such
loathing," she said. "I don't know what there is
about him that frightens me. Even now I feel his
eyes fixed strangely upon me. I hope I shall never
see him again." ,

Arthur gave a little laugh and pressed her hand.

She would not let his go, and he felt that she was
trembling. Personally he had no doubt about the
matter. He would have no trifling with credibility.
54 THE MAGICIAN
Either Haddo believed things that none but a luna-
tic could, or else he was a charlatan who sought to
attract attention by his extravagances. In any case
he was contemptible. It was certain, at all events,
that neither he nor anyone else could work miracles.
'Til you what I'll do," said Arthur. "If he
tell

really knows Frank Hurrell I'll find out all about

him. I'll drop a note to Hurrell to-night and ask

him to tell me anything he can."

"I wish you would/* answered Susie, "because
he interests me enormously. There's no place like
Paris for meeting queer folk. Sooner or later
you run across persons who believe in everything.
There's no form of religion, there's no eccentricity
or enormity, that hasn't its votaries. Just think
what a privilege it is to come upon a man in the
twentieth century who honestly believes in the
occult."
"Since I have been occupied with these matters
I have come across strange people," said Dr. Por-
hoet quietly, "but I agree with Miss Boyd that
Oliver Haddo is the most extraordinary. For one
thing it is impossible to know how much he really
believes what he says. Is he an impostor or a mad-
man ? Does he deceive himself, or is he laughing up
his sleeve at the folly of those who take him seri-

ously? I cannot tell. All I know is that he has

travelled widely and is acquainted with many
tongues. He
has a minute knowledge of alchemical
literature, and there is no book I have heard of,
dealing with the black arts, which he does not seem
to know." Dr. Porhoet shook his head slowly. "I
 THE MAGICIAN 55

should not care to dogmatise about this man. I

know I shall outrage the feelings of my friend Arthur,
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/'
Arthur was prevented from answering by their
arrival at the Lion de Belfort.
The was in full swing. The noise was deaf-
fair

ening. Steam bands thundered out the popular

tunes of the moment, and to their din merry-go-
rounds were turning. At the door of booths men
vociferously importuned the passers-by to enter.
From came a continual spatter
the shooting saloons
of toy rifles. Linking up these sounds were the
voices of the serried crowd that surged along the
central avenue, and the shuffle of their myriad feet.
The night was lurid with acetylene torches, which
flamed with a dull unceasing roar. It was a curious
sight, half gay, half sordid. The throng seemed
bent with a kind of savagery upon amusement, as
though, resentful of the weary round of daily labour,
it sought by a desperate effort to be merry.

The English party with Dr. Porhoet, mildly

ironic, had scarcely entered before they were joined
by Oliver Haddo. He was indifferent to the plain
fact that they did not want his company. He at-
tracted attention, for his appearance and his manner
were remarkable, and Susie noticed that he was
pleased to see people point him out to one another.
He wore a Spanish cloak, the capa, and he flung the
red and green velvet of its lining gaudily over his
shoulder. He had a large soft hat. His height was
56 THE MAGICIAN
great, though less noticeable on account of his
obesity, and he towered over the puny multitude.
idly at the various shows, resisting
They looked
the melodramas, the circuses, the exhibitions of ec-
centricity,which loudly clamoured for their custom.
Presently they came to a man who was cutting sil-
houettes in black paper, and Haddo insisted on
posing for him. A little crowd collected and did not
spare their jokes at his singular appearance. He
threw himself into his favourite attitude of proud
command. Margaret wished to take the oppor-
tunity of leaving him, but Miss Boyd insisted on
staying.
"He's the most ridiculous creature Fve ever seen
in my life," she whispered. "I wouldn't let him out
of my sight for worlds."
When the silhouette was done he presented it with
a low bow to Margaret.
"I implore your acceptance of the only portrait
now in existence of Oliver Haddo," he said.
"Thank you," she answered, frigidly.
She was unwilling to take it, but had not the
presence of mind to put him off by a jest, and would
not be frankly rude. As though certain she set
much store on it, he placed it carefully in an envelope.
They walked on and suddenly came to a canvas booth
on which was an Eastern name. Roughly painted
*

on sail-cloth was a picture of an Arab charming

snakes, and above were certain words in Arabic.
At the entrance a native sat cross-legged, listlessly
beating a drum. When he saw them stop, he ad-
dressed them in bad French.
 THE MAGICIAN 57

"Does not this remind you of the turbid Nile,

Dr. Porhoet?" said Haddo. "Let us go in and see
what the fellow has to show/*
Dr. Porhoet stepped forward and addressed the
charmer, who brightened on hearing the language
of his own country.
"He is an Egyptian from Assiut," said the
doctor.
"I will buy tickets for you all," said Haddo.
He held up the flap that gave access to the booth,
and Susie went in. Margaret and Arthur Burdon,
somewhat against were obliged to follow.
their will,
The native closed the opening behind them. They
found themselves in a dirty little tent, ill-lit by two
smoking lamps; a dozen stools were placed in a
circle on the bare ground. In one corner sat a fellah
woman, motionless, in ample robes of dingy black.
Her face was hidden by a long veil, which was held
in place by a queer ornament of brass in the middle
of the forehead, between the eyes. These alone
were visible, large and sombre, and the lashes were
darkened with kohl: her fingers were brightly stained
with henna. She moved slightly as the visitors
entered, and the man gave her his drum. She began
to rub it with her hands, curiously, and made a
droning sound, which was odd and mysterious.
There was a peculiar odour in the place, so that
Dr. Porhoet was for a moment transported to the
evil-smelling streets of Cairo. It was an acrid
mixture of incense, of attar of roses, with every
imaginable putrescence. It choked the two women,
and Susie asked for a cigarette. The native grinned
58 THE MAGICIAN
when he heard the English tongue. He showed a
row of sparkling and beautiful teeth.

"My name Mohammed," he said. "Me show

serpents to Sirdar Lord Kitchener. Wait and see.
Serpents very poisonous."
He was dressed in a long blue gabardine, more
suited to the sunny banks of the Nile than to a fair
in Paris, and its colour could hardly be seen for
dirt. Onhead was the national tarboosh.
his
A rug lay at one side of the tent, and from under
it he took a goatskin sack. He placed it on the
ground in the middle of the circle formed by the
seats, and crouched down on his haunches. Mar-
garet shuddered, for the uneven surface of the sack
moved strangely. He opened the mouth of it. The
woman in the corner listlessly droned away on the
drum, and occasionally uttered a barbaric cry. With
a leer and a flash of his bright teeth, the Arab thrust
his hand into the sack and rummaged as a man
would rummage in a sack of corn. He drew out a
long, writhing snake. He placed it on the ground
and for a moment waited, then he passed his hand
over it: it became immediately as rigid as a bar of
iron. Except that the eyes, the cruel eyes, were
open still there might have been no life in it.
"Look," said Haddo. "That is the miracle which
Moses did before Pharaoh."
Then the Arab took a reed instrument, not unlike
the pipe which Pan in the hills of Greece played to
the dryads, and he piped a weird, monotonous tune.
The stiffness broke away from the snake suddenly,
and it lifted its head and raised its long body till
 THE MAGICIAN 59

itstood almost on the tip of its tail, and it swayed

slowly to and fro.
Oliver Haddo seemed extraordinarily fascinated.
He leaned forward with eager face, and his un-
natural eyes were fixed on the charmer with an in-
describable expression. Margaret drew back in
terror.
"You need not be frightened," said Arthur.
"These people only work with animals whose fangs
have been extracted."
Oliver Haddo looked at him before answering.
He seemed to consider each time what sort of man
this was to whom he spoke.
"A man is only a snake-charmer because, with-
out recourse to medicine, he is proof against the
fangs of the most venomous serpents."
"Do you think so?" said Arthur.
"I saw the most noted charmer of Madras die
two hours after he had been bitten by a cobra," said
Haddo. "I had heard many tales of his prowess,
and one evening asked a friend to take me to him.
He was out when we arrived, but we waited, and
presently, accompanied by some friends, he came.
We told him what we wanted. He had been at a
marriage-feast and was drunk. But he sent for his
snakes, and forthwith showed us marvels which this
man has never heard of. At last he took a great
cobra from his sack and began to handle it. Sud-
denly it darted at his chin and bit him. It made
two marks like pin-points. The juggler started
back.
"'I am a dead man/ he said.
60 THE MAGICIAN
"Those about him would have killed the cobra,
but he prevented them.
"Let the creature live,' he said. 'It may be of
service to others of my trade. To me it can be of
no other use. Nothing can save me.'
"His friends and the jugglers, his fellows, gath-
ered round him and placed him in a chair. In two
hours he was dead. In his drunkenness he had for-
gotten a portion of the spell which protected him,
and so he died."
"You have a marvellous collection of tall stories,"
said Arthur. "I'm afraid I should want better
proof that these particular snakes are poisonous."
Oliver turned to the charmer and spoke to him in
Arabic. Then he answered Arthur.
"The man has a horned viper, cerastes is the
name under which you gentlemen of science know
it, and it is the most deadly of all Egyptian snakes.
It is commonly known as Cleopatra's Asp, for that
isthe 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."
"What are you
going to do?" asked Susie.
He smiled, but He stepped for-
did not answer.
ward to the centre of the tent and fell on his knees.
He uttered Arabic words, which Dr. Porhoet trans-
lated to the others:
"O viper, I adjure you by the great God who is

all powerful, to come forth. You are but a snake,

and God is greater than all snakes. Obey my call
and come."
A tremor went through the goatskin bag, and in
 THE MAGICIAN 61

a moment was protruded. A lithe body

a head
wriggled out. was a snake of a light grey colour,'
It
and over each eye was a horn. It lay slightly curled.
"Do you recognise it?" said Oliver in a low voice
to the doctor.
"I do."
The charmer
sat motionless, and the woman in
the dim background ceased her weird rubbing of
the drum. Haddo seized the snake and opened its
mouth. Immediately it fastened on his hand, and
the reptile teeth went deep into his flesh. Arthur
watched him for signs of pain, but he did not wince.
The writhing snake dangled from his hand. He
repeated a sentence in Arabic, and, with the pecu-
liarsuddenness of a drop of water falling from a
roof, the snake fell to the ground. The blood
flowed freely. Haddo spat upon the bleeding place
three times, muttering words they could not hear,
and three times he rubbed the wound with his fingers.
The bleeding stopped entirely. He stretched out his
hand for Arthur to look at.
"That surely is what a surgeon would call healing

by intention," he said.
first

Burdon was astonished, but he was irritated, too,

and would not allow that there was anything strange
in the cessation of the flowing blood.
"You haven't yet shown that the snake was
poisonous."
"I have not finished yet," smiled Haddo.
He spoke again to the Egyptian, who gave an
order to his wife. Without a word she rose to her
feet and from a box took a white rabbit. She lifted
62 THE MAGICIAN
it up by the ears, and it struggled with its four
quaint legs. Haddo put it in front of the horned

viper. Before anyone could have moved, the snake

darted forward, apd like a flash of lightning struck
the rabbit. The wretched little beast gave a slight
scream, a shudder went through it, and it fell dead.
Margaret sprang up with a cry.
5*
"Oh, how cruel! How hatefully cruel!
"Are you convinced now?" asked Haddo coolly.
The two women hurried to the doorway. They
were frightened and disgusted. Oliver Haddo was
left alone with the snake-charmer.
 Chapter V
PORHOET had asked Arthur to bring
DOCTOR
Margaret and Miss Boyd to see him on Sun-
day at his apartment in the lie Saint Louis; and the
lovers arranged to spend an hour on their way at
the Louvre. Susie, invited to accompany them, pre-
ferred independence and her own reflections.
To avoid the crowd which throngs the picture
galleries on holidays, they went to that part of the
museum where ancient sculpture is kept. It was
comparatively empty, and the long halls had the
singular restfulness of places where works of art
are gathered together. Margaret was filled with a
genuine emotion; and though she could not analyse
it as Susie, who loved to dissect her state of mind,

would have done, it strangely exhilarated her. Her

heart was uplifted from the sordidness of earth, and
she had a sensation of freedom which was as delight-
ful as it was indescribable. Arthur had never
troubled himself with art till Margaret's enthusiasm
taught him that there was a side of life he did not
realise. Though beauty meant little to his practical
nature, he sought, in his great love for Margaret, to
appreciate the works which excited her to such
charming ecstasy. He walked by her side with
docility and listened, not without deference, to her
outbursts. He admired the correctness of Greek
68
64 THE MAGICIAN
anatomy, and there was one statue of an athlete
which attracted his prolonged attention, because the
muscles were indicated with the precision of a plate
in a surgical text-book. When
Margaret talked of
the Greeks' divine repose and of their blitheness, he
thought it very clever because she said it; but in a
man it would have aroused his impatience.

Yet there was one piece, the charming statue

known as La Diane de Gabies, which moved him
differently, and to this presently he insisted on going.
With a laugh Margaret remonstrated, but secretly
she was not displeased. She was aware that his
passion for this figure was due, not to its intrinsic
beauty, but to a likeness he had discovered in it to
herself.
wide gallery where is the
It stood in that fair

mocking faun, with his inhuman savour of fellow-

ship with the earth which is divine, and the sight-
less Homer. The goddess had not the arrogance of
the huntress who loved Endymion, nor the majesty
of the cold mistress of the skies. She was in the
likeness of a young girl, and with collected gesture
fastened her cloak. There was nothing divine in
her save a sweet strange spirit of virginity. Alover
in ancient Greece, who offered sacrifice before this
fair image, might forget easily that it was a goddess
to whom he knelt, and see only an earthly maid
all fresh withyouth and chastity and loveliness. In
Arthur's eyes Margaret had all the exquisite grace
of that statue, and the same unconscious composure;
and in her also breathed the spring odours of ineffable

purity. Her features were chiselled with the clear

 THE MAGICIAN 65

and divine perfection of this Greek girl's; her ears

were as delicate and as finely wrought. The colour
of her skin was so tender that it reminded you
vaguely of all beautiful soft things, the radiancy of
sunset and the darkness of the night, the heart of
roses and the depth of running water. The god-
dess'shand was raised to her right shoulder, and
Margaret's hand was as small, as dainty, and as
white.
"Don't be so foolish," said she, as Arthur looked
silently at the statue.
He turned his eyes slowly,and they rested upon
her. She saw that they were veiled with tears.
"What on earth's the matter?"
"I wish you weren't so beautiful," he answered
awkwardly, as though he could scarcely bring him-
say such foolish things. "I'm so afraid that
self to

something will happen to prevent us from being

happy. It seems too much to expect that I should
enjoy such extraordinary good luck."
She had the imagination to see that it meant
much for the practical man so to express himself.
Love of her drew him out of his character, and,
though he could not resist, he resented the effect it
had on him. She found nothing to reply, but she
took his hand.
"Everything has gone pretty well with me so
far," he said, speaking almost to himself. "When-
ever I've really wanted anything, I've managed to
get it. I don't see why things should go against
me now."
He was trying to reassure himself against an in-
66 THE MAGICIAN
stinctive suspicion of the malice of circumstances.
But he shook himself and straightened his back.
"It's stupid to be so morbid as that," he muttered.
Margaret laughed. They walked out of the gal-
leryand turned to the quay. By crossing the bridge
and following the river, they must come eventually
to Dr. Porhoet's house.

Meanwhile Susie wandered down the Boulevard

Saint Michel, alert with the Sunday crowd, to that
part of Paris which was dearest to her heart. L'tle
Saint Louis to her mind offered a synthesis of the
French spirit, and it pleased her far more than the

garish boulevards in which the English as a rule

seek for the country's fascination. Its position on
an island in the Sfeine gave it a compact charm.
The narrow streets, with their array of dainty com-
estibles, had the look of streets in a provincial town.

They had a quaintness which appealed to the fancy

and they were very restful. The names of the streets
recalled the monarchy that passed away in blood-

shed, and in poudre de riz. The very plane-trees had

a greater sobriety than elsewhere, as though con-
scious they stood in a Paris where progress was not.
In front was the turbid Seine, and below, the twin
lovers of Notre-Dame. Susie could have kissed the
hard paving stones of the quay. Her good-natured,
plain face lit up as she realised the delight of the
scene upon which her eyes rested; and it was with
a little pang, her mind aglow with characters and
events from history, and from fiction, that she turned
away to enter Dr. Porhoet's house.
 THE MAGICIAN 67

She was pleased that the approach did not clash

with her fantasies. She mounted a broad staircase,
dark but roomy, and at the command of the concierge,
rang a tinkling bell at one of the doorways that
faced her. Dr. Porhoet opened in person.
"Arthur and Mademoiselle are already here," he
said, as he led her in.
They went through a prim French dining-room,
with much woodwork and heavy scarlet hangings,
to the library. This was a large room, but the
bookcases that lined the walls, and a large writing-
table heaped up with books, much diminished its
size. There were books everywhere. They were
stacked on the floor and piled on every chair. There
was hardly space to move. Susie gave a cry of
delight.
"Now you mustn't talk to me. I want to look
your books."
at all
"You could not please me more," said Dr. Por-
hoet, "but I am afraid they will disappoint you.
They are of many sorts, but I fear there are few
that will interest an English young lady."
He looked about his writing-table till he found a
packet of cigarettes. He
gravely offered one to each
of his guests. Susie was enchanted with the strange
musty smell of the old books, and she took a first
glance at them in general. For the most part they
were in paper bindings, some of them neat enough,
but more with broken backs and dingy edges; they
were set along the shelves in serried rows, untidily,
without method or plan. There were many older
ones also in bindings of calf and pigskin, treasure
68 THE MAGICIAN
from half the bookshops in Europe; and there were
huge folios like Prussian grenadiers; and tiny Elze-
virs, which had been read by patrician ladies in
Venice. Just as Arthur was a different man in the
operating theatre, Dr. Porhoet was changed among
his books. Though he preserved the amiable
serenity which made him always so attractive, he
had there a diverting brusqueness of demeanour,
which contrasted quaintly with his usual calm.
"I was telling these young people, when you came
in, of an ancient Koran which I was given in Alex-
andria by a learned man whom I operated upon for
cataract." He showed her a beautifully-written
Arabic work, with wonderful capitals and head-
lines in gold. "You know that it is almost impos-
sible for an infidel to acquire the holy book, and this
is a particularly rare copy, for it was written by
Kait Bey, the greatest of the Mameluke Sultans/'
He handled the delicate pages as a lover of flowers
would handle rose-leaves.
"And have you much literature on the occult
sciences?" asked Susie.
Dr. Porhoet smiled.
"I venture to think that no private library con-
tains so complete a collection, but I dare not show
it to you in the presence of our friend Arthur. He
is too polite to accuse me of foolishness, but his
sarcastic smile would betray him."
went to the shelves to which he vaguely
Susie
waved, and looked with a peculiar excitement at
the mysterious array. She ran her eyes along the
names. It seemed to her that she was entering upon
 THE MAGICIAN 69

an unknown region of romance. She felt like an

adventurous princess who rode on her palfrey into
a forest of great bare trees and mystic silences,
where wan, unearthly shapes pressed upon her way.
"I thought once of writing a life of that fantas-
tic and grandiloquent creature, Philippus Aureolus

Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast von Hohenheim,"

said Dr. Porhoet, "and I have collected many of his
books."
He took down a slim volume in duodecimo, printed
in the seventeenth century, with queer plates, on
which were all manner of cabalistic signs. The
pages had a peculiar, mucty odour. They were
stained with iron-mould.
"Here is one of the most interesting works con-
cerning the black art. It :s the Grimoire of Hono-
riujy and is the principal text-book of all those who
ways of the science."
deal in the darkest
Then he pointed out the Hexameron of Torque-
mad a and the Tableau de VInconstance des Demons,
by Delancre; he drew his finger down the leather
back of Delrio's Disquisitiones Magic cz and set up-
right the Pseudomonarchia Dczmonorum of Wierus;
his eyes rested for an instant on Hauber's Ada et

Scripta Magica, and he blew the dust carefully off

the most famous, the most infamous, of them all,
Sprenger's Malleus Maleficorum.
"Here is one of my greatest treasures. 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,
Jacques Casanova. You will see that the owner's
70 THE MAGICIAN
name has been cut out, but enough remains to indi-
cate the bottom of the letters; and these correspond
exactly with the signature of Casanova which I have
found at the Bibliotheque Nationale. 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,
on one of my journeys from Alexandria, that I
picked it up."
He replaced the precious work, and his eye fell

on a stout volume bound in vellum.

"I had almost forgotten the most wonderful, the
most mysterious, of all the books that treat of occult
science. You have heard of the Kabbalah, but I
doubt if it is more than a name to you."
"I know nothing about it at all," laughed Susie,
"except that it's all very romantic and extraor-
dinary and ridiculous."
"This, then, is its history. Moses, who was
learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first initi-

ated into the Kabbalah in the land of his birth; but

became most proficient in it during his wanderings
in the wilderness. Here he not only devoted the
leisure hours of forty years to this mysterious
science, but received lessons in it from an obliging

angel. By aid of it he was able to solve the diffi-

culties which arose during his management of the

Israelites, notwithstanding the pilgrimages, wars,

and miseries of that most unruly nation. He cov-
ertly laid down the principles of the doctrine in the
first four books of the Pentateuch, but withheld

them from Deuteronomy. Moses also initiated the

 THE MAGICIAN 71

seventy Elders into these secrets, and they in turn

transmitted them from hand to hand. Of all who
formed the unbroken line of tradition, David and
Solomon were the most deeply learned in the Kab-
balah. No one, however, dared to write it down
tillSchimeon ben Jochai, who lived in the time of
the destruction of Jerusalem; and after his death
the Rabbi Eleazar, his son, and the Rabbi Abba,
his secretary, collected his manuscripts and from
them composed the celebrated treatise called Zohar."
"And how much do you believe of this marvel-
lous story?" asked Arthur Burdon.
"Not a word," answered Dr. Porhoet, with a
smile. "Criticism has shown that Zohar is of mod-
ern origin.With singular effrontery it cites an
author who is known to have lived during the
eleventh century, mentions the crusades, and records
events which occurred in the year of our Lord, 1264.
It was some time before 1291 that copies of Zohar

began to be circulated by a Spanish Jew named

Moses de Leon, who claimed to possess an auto-
graph manuscript by the reputed author Schimeon
ben Jochai. But when Moses de Leon was gathered
to the bosom of his father Abraham, a wealthy He-
brew, Joseph de Avila, promised the scribe's widow,
who had been left destitute, that his son should
marry her daughter, to whom he would pay a hand-
some dowry, if she would give him the original
manuscript from which these copies were made.
But the widow (one can imagine with what gnash-
ing of teeth) was obliged to confess that she had
no such manuscript, for Moses de Leon had com-
72 THE MAGICIAN
posed Zohar out of his own head, and written it
with his own right hand."
Arthur got up to stretch his legs. He gave a
laugh.
"I never know how much you really believe of
allthese things you tell us. You speak with such
gravity that we are all taken in, and then it turns
out that you've been laughing at us."
"My dear friend, I never know myself how much
I believe," returned Dr. Porhoet.
"I wonder if it is for the same reason that Mr.
Haddo puzzles us so much," said Susie.
"Ah, there you have a case that is really inter-
esting," replied the doctor. "I assure you that,
though I know him fairly intimately, I have never
been able to make up my mind whether he is an
elaborate practical joker, or whether he is really
convinced that he has the wonderful powers to
which he lays claim."
"We certainly saw things last night that were
not quite normal," said Susie. "Why had that
serpent no effect on him though it was able to kill
the rabbit instantaneously? And how are you going
to explain the violent trembling of that horse,
Mr. Burdon?"
"I can't explain it," answered Arthur, irritably,
"but I'm not inclined to attribute to the super-
natural everything that I can't immediately under-
stand."
"I don't know what there about him that ex-
is

cites in me
a sort of horror," said Margaret. "I've
never taken such a sudden dislike to anyone."
 THE MAGICIAN 73

She was too reticent to say all she felt, but she
had been strangely affected last night by the recol-
lection of Haddo's words and of his acts. She had
awaked more than once from a nightmare in which
he assumed fantastic and ghastly shapes. His
mocking voice rang in her ears, and she seemed still
to see that vast bulk and the savage, sensual face.
It was like a spirit of evil in her path, and she was

curiously alarmed. Only her reliance on Arthur's

common-sense prevented her from giving way to
ridiculous terrors.
"I've written to Frank Hurrell and asked him
to tell me all he knows about him," said Arthur.

"I should get an answer very soon."

"I wish we'd never come across him," cried Mar-
garet vehemently. "I feel that he will bring us
misfortune."
"You're all of you absurdly prejudiced," an-
swered Susie gaily. "He interests me enormously,
and I mean to asik him to tea at the studio."
"I'm sure I shall be delighted to come."
Margaret cried out, for she recognised Oliver
Haddo's deep bantering tones; and she turned
round quickly. They were all so taken aback that
for a moment no one spoke. They were gathered
round the window and had not heard him come in.
They wondered guiltily how long he had been there
and how much he had heard.
"How on earth did you get here?" cried Susie
lightly, recovering herself first.
"No well-bred sorcerer is so dead to the finer
feelings as to enter a room by the door," he an-*
74 THE MAGICIAN
swered, with his puzzling smile. "You were stand-
ing round the window, and I thought it would
startle you if I chose that mode of ingress, so I
descended with incredible skill down the chimney."
"I see a little soot on your left elbow," returned
Susie. "I hope you weren't at all burned."
"Not at all, thanks," he answered, gravely brush-
ing his coat.
"In whatever way you came you are very wel-
come," said Dr. Porhoet, genially holding out his
hand.
But Arthur impatiently turned to his host.
"I wish I knew what made you engage upon these
studies," he said. "I should have thought your
medical profession protected you from any tender-
ness towards superstition."
Dr. Porhoet shrugged his shoulders.
"I have always been interested in the oddities of
mankind. At one time I read a good deal of philos-
ophy and a good deal of science, and I learned in
that way that nothing was certain. Some people,
by the pursuit of science, are impressed with the
dignity of man, but I was only made conscious of
his insignificance. The greatest questions of all
have been threshed out since he acquired the begin-
nings of civilisation and he is as far from a solution
as ever. Man can know nothing, for his senses
are his only means of knowledge, and they can give
no certainty. There is only one subject upon which
the individual can speak with authority, and that
is his own mind, but even here he is surrounded

with darkness. I believe that he shall always be

 THE MAGICIAN 75

ignorant of the matters which it most behooves us

to know, and therefore I cannot occupy myself with
them. I prefer to set them all aside, and, since
knowledge is unattainable, to occupy myself only
with folly."
"It is a point of view I do not sympathise with,"
said Arthur.
"Yet I cannot be sure that it is all folly," pur-
sued the Frenchman reflectively. He looked at
Arthur with a certain ironic gravity. "Do you be-
lieve that I should lie to you when I promised to

speak the truth?"

"Certainly not."
"I should like to tell you of an experience that I
once had in Alexandria. So far as I can see, it
can be explained by none of the principles known
to science. I ask you only to believe that I am
not consciously deceiving you."
He spoke with a seriousness which gave authority
to his words. It was plain, even to Arthur, that
he narrated the event exactly as it occurred.
"I had heard frequently of a certain sheikh who
was able by means of a magic mirror to show the
inquirer persons who were absent or dead, and a
native friend of mine had often begged me to see
him. I had never thought it worth while, but at
last a time came when I was greatly troubled in

my mind. My poor mother was an old woman, a

widow, and I had received no news of her for many
weeks. Though I wrote repeatedly, no answer
reached me. I was very anxious and very unhappy.
I thought no harm could come if I sent for the
76 THE MAGICIAN
sorcerer, and perhaps after all he had the power
which was attributed to him. My friend, who was
interpreter to the French Consulate, brought him to
me one evening. He was a fine man, tall and stout,
of a fair complexion, but with a dark brown beard.
He was shabbily dressed, and, being a descendant
of the Prophet, wore a green turban. In his con-
versation he was affable and unaffected. I asked
him what persons could see in the magic mirror,
and he said they were a boy not arrived at puberty,
a virgin, a black and a pregnant
female slave,
woman. In order to make sure that there was no
collusion, I despatched my servant to an intimate
friend and asked him to send me his son. While
we waited I prepared by the magician's direction
frankincense and coriander-seed, and a chafing-dish
with live charcoal. Meanwhile he wrote forms of
invocation on six strips of paper. When the boy
arrived, the sorcerer threw incense and one of the
paper strips into the chafing-dish, then took the boy's
right hand and drew a square and certain mystical
marks on the palm. In the centre of the square
he poured a little ink. This formed the magic mir-
ror. He desired the boy to look steadily into it
without raising his head. The fumes of the incense
filled the room with smoke. The sorcerer muttered
Arabic words, indistinctly, and this he continued to do
all the time except when he asked the boy a question.

"Do you see anything in the ink?' he said.

"No/ the boy answered.
"But began to tremble and
a minute later he
seemed very much frightened.
 THE MAGICIAN 77

"'I see a man sweeping the ground/ he said.

"'When he has done sweeping, tell me/ said the
sheikh.
"'He has done/ said the boy.
"The sorcerer turned to me and asked who it

was that wished the boy should see.

I
"'I desire him to see the widow Jeanne-Marie
Porhoet/
"The magician put the second and third of the
small strips of paper into the chafing-dish, and fresh
frankincense was added. The fumes were painful
to my eyes. The boy began to speak.
"'I see an old woman lying on a bed. She has
a black dress, and on her head is a little white cap.
She has a wrinkled face and her eyes are closed.
There is a band tied round her chin. The bed is in
a sort of hole, in the wall, and there are shutters
to it/
"The boy was describing a Breton bed, and the
white cap was the coiffe that my mother wore. And
if she lay there in her black dress, with a band about

her chin, I knew that it could mean but one thing.

"'What else does he see?' I asked the sorcerer.
"He repeated my question, and presently the boy
spoke again.
"I men come in with a long box. And
see four
there are women crying. They all wear little white
caps and black dresses. And I see a man in a white
surplice,with a large cross in his hands, and a little
boy in a long red gown. And the men take off their
5
hats. And now everyone is kneeling down/
"'I will hear no more/ I said. 'It is enough/
78 THE MAGICIAN
"I knew that my mother was dead.
"In a little while I received a letter from the
priest of the village in which she lived. They had
buried her on the very day upon which the boy had
seen this sight in the mirror of ink."
Dr. Porhoet passed his hand across his eyes, and
for a little while there was silence.
"What have you to say to that?" asked Oliver
Haddo, at last.
"Nothing," answered Arthur.
Haddo looked at him for a minute with those
queer eyes of his which seemed to stare at the wall
behind.
"Have you ever heard of Eliphas Levi?" he in-
quired. "He is the most celebrated occultist of

recent years. Hethought to have known more

is

of the mysteries than any adept since the divine

Paracelsus."
"I met him once," interrupted Dr. Porhoet.
"You never saw a man who looked less like a ma-
gician. His face beamed with good-nature, and he
wore a long grey beard, which covered nearly the
whole of his breast. He was of a short and very
corpulent figure."
"Thepractice of black arts evidently disposes to
obesity," said Arthur, icily.
Susie noticed that this time Oliver Haddo made
no sign that the taunt moved him. His unwink-
ing, straight eyes remained upon Arthur without
expression.
"Levi's real name was Alphonse-Louis Constant,
but he adopted that under which he is generally
 THE MAGICIAN 79

known for reasons that are plain to the

romantic
mind. His father was a boot-maker. He was des-
tined for the priesthood, but fell in love with a
damsel fair and married her. The union was un-
happy. A fate befell him which has been the lot of
greater men than he, and his wife presently aban-
doned the marital roof with her lover. To console
himself he began to make serious researches in the
occult,and in due course published a vast number
of mystical works dealing with magic in all its
branches."
"I'm sure Mr. Haddo was going to tell us some-

thing very interesting about him," said Susie.

"
I wished merely to give you his account of how he

raised the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana in London."

Susie settled herself more comfortably in her
chair and a cigarette.
lit

"He went there in the spring of 1856 to escape

from internal disquietude and to devote himself
without distraction to his studies. He had letters
of introduction to various persons of distinction,
who concerned themselves with the supernatural,
but, finding them trivial and indifferent, he im-
mersed himself in the study of the supreme Kab-
balah. One day, on returning to his hotel, he found
a note in his room. It enclosed half a card, trans-

versely divided, on which he at once recognised the

character of Solomon's Seal; and also a tiny slip
of paper on which was written in pencil: The other
half of this card will be given you at three o'clock to-
morrow in front of Westminster Abbey. Next day,
going to the appointed spot, with his portion of the
80 THE MAGICIAN
card in his hand, he found a baronial equipage
waiting for him. A footman approached, and, mak-
ing a sign to him, opened the carriage door. Within
was a lady in black satin, whose face was concealed
by a thick She motioned him to a seat beside
veil.

her, and same time displayed the other part

at the
of the card he had received. The door was shut, and
the carriage rolled away. When the lady raised her
veil, Eliphas Levi saw that she was of mature age;
and beneath her grey eyebrows were bright black
eyes of preternatural fixity."
Susie Boyd clapped her hands with delight.
"I think it's delicious, and I'm sure every word
of it is "I'm enchanted with the
true," she cried.
mysterious meeting Westminster
at Abbey in the
Middle Victorian era. Can't you see the elderly
lady in a huge crinoline and a black poke bonnet, and
the wizard in a ridiculous tall hat, a bottle-green
frock-coat, and a flowing tie of black silk?"
"Eliphas remarks that the lady spoke French
with a marked English accent," pursued Haddo im-
perturably. "She addressed him as follows: 'Sir,
I am aware that the law of secrecy is rigorous
among adepts; and I know that you have been
asked for phenomena, but have declined to gratify
a frivolous curiosity. It is possible that you do not
possess the necessary materials. I can show you a
complete magical cabinet, but I must require of you
first the most inviolable silence. If you do not

guarantee this on your honour, I will give order for

you to be driven home."
Oliver Haddo told his story not ineffectively, but
 THE MAGICIAN 81

with a comic gravity that prevented one from know-

ing exactly how to take it.
"Having given the required promise, Eliphas
Levi was shown a collection of vestments and of
magical instruments. The lady lent him certain
books of which he was in need; and at last, as a
result of many conversations, determined him to

attempt at her house the experience of a complete

evocation. He prepared himself for twenty-one
days, scrupulously observing the rules laid down
by the Ritual. At length everything was ready. It
was proposed to call forth the phantom of the di-
vine Apollonius, and to question it upon two mat-
ters, one of which concerned Eliphas Levi and the
other the lady of the crinoline. She had at first
counted on assisting at the evocation with a trust-
worthy person, but at the last moment her friend
drew back; and as the triad or unity is rigorously
prescribed in magical rites, Eliphas was left alone.
The cabinet prepared for the experiment was situ-
ated in a turret. Four concave mirrors were hung
within it, and there was an altar of white marble,
f
surrounded by a chain of magnetic iron. On it was
engraved the sign of the Pentagram, and this sym-
bol was drawn on the new, white sheepskin which
was stretched beneath. A copper brazier stood on
the altar with charcoal of alder and of laurel wood,
and in front a second brazier was placed upon a
tripod. ^Eliphas Levi was clothed in a white robe,
longer and more ample than the surplice of a priest,
and he wore upon his head a chaplet of vervain
leaves entwined about a golden chain. In one
82 THE MAGICIAN
hand he held a new sword and in the other the
Ritual."
Susie's passion for caricature at once asserted
itself, and she laughed as she saw in fancy the
portly little Frenchman, with his round, red face,
thus wonderfully attired.
"He set alight the two fires with the prepared
materials, and began, at first in a low voice, but
rising by degrees, the invocations of the Ritual.
The flames invested every object with a wavering
light. Presently they went out. He set more twigs
and perfumes on the brazier, and when the flame
started up once more, he saw distinctly before the
altar a human figure larger than life, which dis-
solved and disappeared. He began the invocations
again and placed himself in a circle, which he had
already traced between the altar and the tripod.
Then the depth of the mirror which was in front
of him grew brighter by degrees, and a pale form
arose, and it seemed gradually to approach. He
closed his eyes, and called three times upon Apol-
lonius. When he opened them a man stood before
him, wholly enveloped in a winding sheet, which
seemed more grey than black. His form was lean,
melancholy, and beardless. Eliphas felt an intense
cold, and when he sought to ask his questions
found it impossible to speak. Thereupon he placed
his hand on the Pentagram, and directed the point
of his sword towards the figure, adjuring it mentally
by that sign not to terrify, but to obey him. The
form suddenly grew indistinct and soon it strangely
vanished. He commanded it to return, and then
 THE MAGICIAN 83

felt, as were, an air pass by him; and, something

it

having touched the hand which held the sword, his

arm was immediately benumbed as far as the shoul-
der. He supposed that the weapon displeased the
spirit, and set it down within the circle. The hu-
man figure at once reappeared, but Eliphas experi-
enced such a sudden exhaustion in all his limbs
that he was obliged to sit down. He fell into a deep
coma, and dreamed strange dreams. But of these,
when he recovered, only a vague memory remained
to him. His arm continued for several days to be
numb and painful. The figure had not spoken, but
it seemed to Eliphas Levi that the questions were

answered in his own mind. For to each an inner

voice replied with one grim word dead/' :

"Your friend seems to have had as little fear of

spooks as you have of lions," said Burdon., "To
my thinking it is plain that all these preparations,
and the perfumes, the mirrors, the 'pentagrams,
must have the greatest effect on .the imagination.
MyC only surprise is that your haagician saw .no
more."
"Eliphas Levi talked to me himself of his^evoca-
tion," said Dr. Porhoet. "He told me that its in-
fluence on him was very" great. He was no longer
the same man, for it seemed to him that some-
thing from the world beyond had passed into his
soul"
"I am astonished that you should never have
tried such an interesting experiment yourself," said
Arthur to Oliver Haddo.
"I have," answered the other calmly. "My
84 THE MAGICIAN
father lost his power of speech shortly before he
died, and it was plain that he sought with all his
might to tell me something. A
year after his death
I called up his phantom from the grave so that I

might learn what I took to be a dying wish. 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. The only difference was
that my father actually spoke."
"What did he say?" asked Susie.
"He said solemnly: 'Buy Ashantis,they are bound
to go up.' I he
did
told me;
s but my father was
always unlucky in speculation, and they went down
steadily. I sold put at considerable loss, and con-
cluded that in the world beyond they are as ignorant
of the tendency of the Stock Exchange as we are
in this vale of sorrow."
Susie not help laughing. But Arthur
could
shrugged shoulders impatiently. It disturbed
his-

his practical mind never to be certain if Haddo was

serious, or if, as now, he was plainly making game
of them.
 Chapter VI

days later Arthur received Frank Hurrell's

TWO answer to his note. It was characteristic of
Frank that he should take such pains to reply at
length to the inquiry, and it was clear that he had
lost none of his old interest in odd personalities. He
analysed Oliver Haddo's character with the patience
of a scientific man studying a new species in which
he is passionately concerned.

DEAR BURDON:
"It is singular that you should write just now to
ask what I know of Oliver Haddo, since by chance
I met the other night at dinner at Queen Anne's
Gate a man who had much to tell me of him. I am
curious to know why he excites your interest, for
I am sure his peculiarities make him repugnant to a

person of your robust common-sense. I can with

difficulty imagine two men less capable of getting on
together. Though Ihave not seen Haddo now for
years, I can tell you, in one way and another, a
good deal about him. He erred when he described
me as his intimate friend. It is true that at one time
I saw much of him, but I never ceased cordially to
dislike him. He came up to Oxford from Eton with
a reputation for athletics and eccentricity. But
you know that there is nothing that arouses the ill-
85
86 THE MAGICIAN
will of boys more than the latter, and he achieved
an unpopularity which was remarkable. It turned
out that he played football admirably, and except
for his rather scornful indolence he might easily
have got his blue. He sneered at the popular en-
thusiasm for games, and was used to say that cricket
was all very well for boys, but not fit for the pas-
time of men. (He was then eighteen!) He talked
grandiloquently of big-game shooting and of moun-
tain climbing as sports which demanded courage
and self-reliance. He seemed, indeed, to like foot-
ball, but he played it with a brutal savagery which
the other persons concerned naturally resented. It
became current opinion in other pursuits that he did
not play the game. He did nothing that was mani-
festly unfair, but was capable of taking advantages
which most people would have thought mean; and
he made defeat more hard to bear because he ex-
ulted over the vanquished with the coarse banter
that youths find so difficult to endure.
"What you would hardly believe is that, when
he came up, he was a person of great physical
first

attractions. He is now grown fat, but in those days

was extremely handsome. He reminded one of
those colossal statues of Apollo in which the god is
represented with a feminine roundness and delicacy.
He was very tall and had a magnificent figure. It
was so well-formed for his age that one might have
foretold his precocious corpulence. He held himself
with a dashing erectness. Many called it an inso-
lent swagger. His features were regular and fine.
He had a great quantity of curling hair, which was
 THE MAGICIAN 87

worn long, with a sort of poetic grace: I am told

that now he isvery bald; and I can imagine that
this must be a great blow to him, for he was always
exceedingly vain. I remember a peculiarity of his
eyes, which could scarcely have been natural, but
how it was acquired I do not know. The eyes of
most people converge upon the object at which
they look, but his remained parallel. It gave them
a singular expression, as though he were scrutinis-
ing the inmost thought of the person with whom
he talked. He was notorious also for the extrava-
gance of his costume, but, unlike the aesthetes of
that day, who clothed themselves with artistic care-
lessness, he had a taste for outrageous colours.
Sometimes, by a queer freak, he dressed himself at
unseasonable moments with excessive formality.
He is the only undergraduate I have ever seen walk
down the High in a tall hat and a closely-buttoned
frock-coat.
"I have told you that he was very unpopular, but
it was not an unpopularity of the sort which ignores

a man and leaves him chiefly to his own society.

Haddo knew everybody and was to be found in the
most unlikely places. Though people disliked him,
they showed a curious pleasure in his company, and
he was probably entertained more than any man in
Oxford. I never saw him but he was surrounded
by a little crowd, who abused him behind his back,
but could not resist his fascination.
"I often tried to analyse this, for I felt it as much
as anyone, and though I honestly could not bear
him, I could never resist going to see him whenever
88 THE MAGICIAN
opportunity arose. I suppose he offered the charm
of the unexpected to that mass of undergraduates
who, for all their matter-of-fact breeziness, are
curiously alive to the romantic. It was impossible
to tell what he would do or say next, and you were
kept perpetually on the alert. He was certainly not
witty, but he had a coarse humour which excited
the rather gross sense of the ludicrous possessed
by the young. He had a gift for caricature which
was really diverting, and an imperturbable assur-
ance. He had also an ingenious talent for profanity,
and his inventiveness in this particular was a power
among youths whose imaginations stopped at the
commoner sorts of bad language. I have heard him
preach a sermon of the most blasphemous sort in
the very accents of the late Dean of Christ Church,
which outraged and at the same time irresistibly
amused everyone who heard it. He had a more
varied knowledge than the greater part of under-
graduates, and, having at the same time a retentive
memory and considerable quickness, he was able to
assume an attitude of omniscience which was as
impressive as it was irritating. I have never heard
him confess that he had not read a book. Often,
when I tried to catch him, he confounded me by quot-
ing the identical words of a passage in some work
which I could have sworn he had never set eyes on.
I daresay it was due only to some juggling, like the

conjuror's sleight of hand that apparently lets you

choose a card, 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 defi-
 THE MAGICIAN 89

nite book. He talked very well, with an entertain-

ing flow of rather pompous language, which made
the amusing things he said particularly funny. His
passion for euphuism contrasted strikingly with the
simple speech of those with whom he consorted. It
certainly added authority to what he said. He was
proud of his family and never hesitated to tell the
curious of his distinguished descent. Unless he
has much altered, you will already have heard of
his relationship with various noble houses. He is,
in fact, nearly connected with persons of importance,
and his ancestry is no
distinguished than he as-
less
serts. His father dead, and he owns a place in
is

Staffordshire which is almost historic. I have seen

photographs of it, and it is certainly very fine. His
forebears have betfn noted in the history of England
since the days of the courtier who accompanied
Anne of Denmark to Scotland, and, ifhe is proud
of his stock, it is not without cause. So he passed
his time at Oxford, cordially disliked, at the same
time respected and mistrusted; he had the reputa-
tion of a liar and a rogue, but it could not be denied
that he had considerable influence over others. He
amused, angered, irritated, and interested everyone
with whom he came in contact. There was always
something mysterious about him, and he loved to
wrap himself in a romantic impenetrability. Though
he knew so many people, no one knew him, and to
the end he remained a stranger in our midst. A
legend grew up around him, which he fostered
sedulously, and it was reported that he had secret
vices, which could only be whispered with bated
90 THE MAGICIAN
breath. He was said to intoxicate himself with
Oriental drugs, and to haunt the vilest opium-dens
in the East of London. He kept the greatest sur-
prise for the last, since, though he was never seen
to work, he managed, to the universal surprise, to
get a first. He went down, and to the best of my
belief was never seen in Oxford again.
"I heard vaguely that he was travelling over the
world, and, when I met in town now and then some
of the fellows who had known him at the 'Varsity,
weird rumours reached me. One told me that he
was tramping across America, earning his living as
he went; another asserted that he had been seen in
a monastery in India; a third assured me that he
had married a ballet-girl in Milan; and someone
else was positive that he had taken to drink. One
opinion, however, was common to all my inform-
ants, and thiswas that he did something out of
the common. It was clear that he was not the man
to settle down to the tame life of a country gentle-
man which his position and fortune indicated. At
last I met him one day in Piccadilly, and we dined

together at the Savoy. I hardly recognised him, for

he was become enormously stout, and his hair had
already grown thin. Though he could not have
been more than twenty-five, he looked considerably
older. I tried to find out what he had been up to,

but, with the air of mystery he affects, he would

go into no details. He gave me to understand that
he had sojourned in lands where the white man had
never been before, and had learnt esoteric secrets
which overthrew the foundations of modern science.
 THE MAGICIAN 91

It seemed to me that he had coarsened in mind as

well as in appearance. I do not know was due
if it

to my own development since the old days at Ox-

ford, and to my greater knowledge of the world,
but he did not seem to me so brilliant as I remem-
bered. His facile banter was rather stupid. In fact
he bored me. The pose which had seemed amusing
in a lad fresh from Eton now was intolerable, and
I was glad to leave him. It was characteristic that,
after asking me to dinner, he left me in a lordly

way pay the bill.

to
"Then I heard nothing of him till the other day,
when our friend Miss Ley asked me to meet at din-
ner the German explorer Burkhardt. I daresay

you remember that Burkhardt brought out a book

a little while ago on his adventures in Central Asia.
I knew that Oliver Haddo was his companion in
that journey and had meant to read it on this ac-
count, but, having been excessively busy, had
omitted to do so. I took the opportunity to ask the
German about our common acquaintance, and we
had a long talk. Burkhardt had met him by chance
at Mombasa in East Africa, where he was arrang-

ing an expedition after big game, and they agreed

to go together. He told me that Haddo was a mar-
vellous shot and a hunter of exceptional ability.
Burkhardt had been rather suspicious of a man who
boasted so much of his attainments, but was obliged
soon to confess that he boasted of nothing unjustly.
Haddo has had an extraordinary experience, the
truth of which Burkhardt can vouch for. He went
out alone one night on the trail of three lions and
92 THE MAGICIAN
killed them all before morning with one shot each.
I know nothing of these things, but from the way
in which Burkhardt spoke, I judge it must be a
unique occurrence. But characteristically enough
no one was more conscious than Haddo of the sin-
gularity of his feat, and he made life almost insuf-
ferable for his fellow-traveller in consequence.
Burkhardt assures me that Haddo is really remark-
able in pursuit of big game. He has a sort of in-
stinctwhich leads him to the most likely places, and
a wonderful feeling for country, whereby he can
cut across, and head off animals whose spoor he has
noticed. His courage is very great. To follow a
wounded lion into thick cover is the most danger-
ous proceeding in the world, and demands the ut-
most coolness. The animal invariably sees the
sportsman before he sees it, and in most cases
charges. But Haddo never hesitated on these oc-
casions, and Burkhardt could only express entire ad-
miration for his pluck. It appears that he is not
what is called a good sportsman. He kills wantonly,
when there can be no possible excuse, for the mere
pleasure of it; and to Burkhardt's indignation fre-
quently shot beasts whose skins and horjis they did
not even trouble to take. When antelope were so far
off that it was impossible to kill them, and the ap-

proach of night made it useless to follow, he would

often shoot, and leave a wretched wounded beast to
die by inches. His. selfishness was extreme, and he
never shared any information with his friend that
might rob him of an uninterrupted pursuit of game.
But notwithstanding all this Burkhardt had so high
 THE MAGICIAN 93

an opinion of Haddo's general capacity and of his re-

sourcefulness that, when he was arranging his jour-
ney in Asia, he asked him to come also. Haddo
consented, and it appears that Burkhardt's book
gives further proof, if it is needed, of the man's ex-
traordinary qualities. The German confessed that
on more than one occasion he owed his life to Haddo's
rare power of seizing opportunities. But they quar-
relled at lastthrough Haddo's overbearing treatment
of the natives. Burkhardt had vaguely suspected
him of cruelty, but at length it was clear that he
used them in a manner which could not be defended.
Finally he had a desperate quarrel with one of the
camp servants, as a result of which the man was shot
dead. Haddo swore that he fired in self-defence, but
his action caused a general desertion, and the travel-
lers found themselves in a very dangerous predica-
ment. Burkhardt thought that Haddo was clearly
to blame and refused to have anything more to do
with him. They separated. Burkhardt returned to
England; and Haddo, pursued by the relations of
the murdered man, had great difficulty in escaping
with his life. Nothing has been heard of him since
till I got your letter.

"Altogether an extraordinary man. I confess

that I can make nothing of him. I shall never be
surprised to hear anything in connection with him.
I recommend you to avoid him like the plague. He
can be no one's friend. As an acquaintance he is
treacherous and insincere; as an enemy, I can well
imagine that he would be as merciless as he is un-
scrupulous.
94 THE MAGICIAN
"An immensely long letter!
"Good-bye, my son. I hope that your studies in
French methods of surgery will have added to your
wisdom. Your industry edifies me, and I am sure
that you will eventually be a baronet and the presi-
dent of the Royal College of Surgeons; and you
shall relieve royal persons of their vermiform ap-

pendix.
"Yours ever,
"FRANK HURRELL."

Arthur, having read this letter twice, put it in an

envelope, and left it without comment for Miss Boyd.
Her answer came within a couple of hours :

"Fveasked him to tea on Wednesday, and I can't

put him You must come and help us; but please
off.

be as polite to him as if, like most of us, he had only

taken mental liberties with the Ten Command-
ments/'
 Chapter VII

the morning of the day upon which they had

ON asked him to tea Oliver Haddo left at Mar-
garet's door vast masses of chrysanthemums. There
were so many that the austere studio was changed in
aspect. gained an ephemeral brightness that
It

Margaret, notwithstanding pieces of silk hung here

and there on the walls, had never been able to give
it. When
Arthur arrived he was dismayed that the
thought had not occurred to him.
"I'm so sorry," he said. "You must think me
very inconsiderate."
Margaret smiled and held his hand.
"I think I like you because you don't trouble
about the common little attentions of lovers."
"Margaret's a wise girl," smiled Susie. "She
knows that when a man sends flowers it is a sign
that he has admired more women than one."
"I don't suppose that these were sent particu-
larly to me."
Arthur Burdon sat down and observed with
pleasure the cheerful fire. The drawn curtains and
the lamps gave the place a nice cosiness, and there
was the peculiar air of romance which is always in a
studio. There is a sense of freedom about it that
disposes the mind to diverting speculations. In
95
96 THE MAGICIAN
such an atmosphere it is possible to be serious with-
out pompousness and flippant without inanity.
In the few days of their acquaintance Arthur and
Susie had arrived at terms of pleasant familiarity.
Susie, from her superior standpoint of an unmarried
woman no longer young, used him with the good-
natured banter>which she affected. To her he was
a foolish young thing in love, and she marvelled
that even the cleverest man in that condition could
behave like a perfect idiot. But Margaret knew
that, if her friend chaffed him, it was because she
completely approved of him. As their intimacy
increased Susie learnt to appreciate his solid char-
acter. She admired his capacity in dealing with
matters that were in his province, and the sim-
plicity with which he left alone those of wh'?h
he was ignorant. There was no pose in him. Sue
was touched also by an ingenuous candour which

gave a persuasive charm to his abruptness. And,

though she set a plain woman's value on good looks,
his appearance, rough hewn like a statue in por-

phyry, pleased her singularly. It was ah index of

his character. The look of him gave you the whole
man, strong yet gentle, honest and simple, neither
very imaginative nor very brilliant, but immensely
reliable and trustworthy to the bottom of his soul.
He was seated now with Margaret's terrier on his
knees, stroking its ears, and Susie, looking at him,
wondered with a little pang why no man like that
had ever cared for her. It was evident that he
would make a perfect companion, and his love, once
won, was of the sort that did not alter.
 THE MAGICIAN 97

Dr. Porhoet came in and sat down with the modest

quietness which was one of his charms. He was
not a great talker and loved most to listen in silence
to the chatter of young people. The dog jumped
down from Arthur's knee, went up to the doctor,
and rubbed fashion against his legs.
itself in friendly

They began to talk in the and had forgotten

soft light
almost that another guest was expected. Margaret
hoped fervently that he would not come. She
had never looked more lovely than on this afternoon,
and she busied herself with the preparations for
tea with a housewifely grace that added a peculiar
delicacy to her comeliness. The dignity which
encompassed the perfection of her beauty was de-
lightfully softened, so that you were reminded of
those sweet domestic saints who lighten here and
there the passionate records of the Golden Book.
"C'est tellement intime ici," smiled Dr. Porhoet,
breaking into French in the impossibility of express-
ing in English the exact feeling which that scene
gave him.
It might have been a picture by some master of

genre. It seemed hardly by chance that the colours

arranged themselves in such agreeable tones, or that

the lines of the wall and the seated persons achieved
such a graceful decoration. The atmosphere was
extraordinarily peaceful.
There was a knock at the door, and Arthur got up
to open. The terrier followed at his heels. Oliver
Haddo entered. Susie watched to see what the dog
would do and was by this time not surprised to see a
change come over it. With its tail between its legs
98 THE MAGICIAN
the friendly little beast slunk along the wall to the
furthermost corner. It turned a suspicious, fright-
ened eye upon Haddo and then hid its head. The
visitor, intent upon his greetings, had not noticed
even that there was an animal in the room. He ac-
cepted with a simple courtesy they hardly expected
from him the young woman's thanks for his flowers.
His behaviour surprised them. He put aside his
poses. He seemed genuinely to admire the cosy
little studio. He asked Margaret to show him her
sketches and looked at them with unassumed in-
terest. His observations were pointed and showed
a certain knowledge of what he spoke about. He
described himself as an amateur, that object of
a painter's derision: the man "who knows what he
likes," but his criticism, though generous, showed
that he was no fool. The two women were im-
pressed. Putting the sketches aside, he began to
talk, for once not of himself, but gaily and quite
naturally, of the many places he had seen. It was
evident that he sought to please. Susie began to
understand how it was that, notwithstanding his
affectations, he had acquired so great an influence
over the undergraduates of Oxford. There was
romance and laughter in his conversation; and
though, as Frank Hurrell had said, lacking in wit,
he made up for it with a diverting pleasantry that
might very well have passed for humour. But
Susie, though amused, felt that this was not the
purpose for which she had asked him to come. Dr.
Porhoet had lent her his entertaining work on the old
alchemists, and this gave her a chance to bring their
 THE MAGICIAN 99

conversation to matters on which Haddo was ex-

pert. She had read the book with delight; and, her
mind all aflame with those strange histories wherein
fact and fancy were so wonderfully mingled, she
was eager to know more. The long toil in which
so many had engaged, always to lose their fortunes,
often to suffer persecution and torture, interested
her no less than the accounts, almost authenticated,
of those who had succeeded in their extraordinary
quest.
She turned to Dr. Porhoet.
"You are a bold man now and then
to assert that
the old alchemists actually did make gold," she
said.
"I have not gone quite so far as that," he smiled.
"1 assert merely that, if evidence as conclusive
were offered of any other historical event, it would
be credited beyond doubt. We can disbelieve these
circumstantial details only by coming to the con-
clusion beforehand that it is impossible they should
be true."
"I wish you would write that life of Paracelsus
which you suggest in your preface."
Dr. Porhoet, smiling, shook his head.
"I don't think I shall ever do that now," he said,
thoughtfully. "Yet he is the most interesting of all
the alchemists, for he offers the fascinating problem
of an immensely complex character. It is impossible
to know to what extent he was a charlatan and to
what a man of serious science."
Susie glanced at Oliver Haddo, who sat in si-
lence, his heavy face in shadow, his eyes fixed-
100 THE MAGICIAN
steadily on the speaker. The immobility of that
vast bulk was peculiar.
"His name is not so ridiculous as later associa-
tions have made it seem/' proceeded the doctor,
"for he belonged to the celebrated family of Bom-
bast, and they were called Hohenheim after their
ancient residence, which was a castle near Stuttgart
in Wiirtemberg. The most interesting part of his
life is that which the absence of documents makes

it impossible accurately to describe. He travelled

in Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, in Den-
mark, Sweden, and Russia. He went even to India.
He was taken prisoner by the Tartars and brought
to the Great Khan, whose son he afterwards ac-
companied to Constantinople. The mind must be
not thrilled by the thought of
dull, indeed, that is
this wandering genius traversing the lands of the
earth at the most eventful date of the world's his-
tory. It was at Constantinople that, according to a
certain aureum vellus printed at Rorschach in the
sixteenth century, he received the philosopher's
stone from Solomon Trismosinus.This person
possessed also the Universal Panacea, and it is as-
serted that he was seen still alive by a French trav-
eller at the end of the seventeenth century. Para-
celsus then passed through the countries that border
the Danube, and so reached Italy, where he served
as a surgeon in the imperial army. I see no reason

why he should not have been present at the battle

of Pavia. He collected information from physicians,
surgeons, and alchemists; from executioners, bar-
bers, shepherds, Jews, gipsies, midwives, and fortune-
 THE MAGICIAN 101

from high and low; from learned and vulgar.

tellers;
In the sketch I have given of his career in that
volume you hold, I have copied out a few words
of his upon the acquirement of knowledge which
affect me with a singular emotion."
Dr. Porhoet took his book from Miss Boyd and
opened it thoughtfully. He read out the fine pas-
sage from the preface of the Paragranum:

"I went in search of my art, often incurring

danger of life. I have not been ashamed to learn
that which seemed useful to me even from vaga-
bonds, hangmen, and barbers. We know that a
lover will go far to meet the woman he adores; how
much more will the lover of Wisdom be tempted
to go in search of his divine mistress."

He turned the page to find a few more lines

further on :

"We should look for knowledge where we may

expect to find it, 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."

"By Jove, those are fine words," said Arthur,

rising to his feet.
Their brave simplicity moved him as no rhetoric
could have done, and they made him more eager
still to devote his own life to the difficult
acquisition
10 THE MAGICIAN
of knowledge. Dr. Porhoet gave him his ironic
smile.
"Yet the man who could write that was in many
ways a mere buffoon, who praised his wares with
the vulgar glibness of a quack. He was vain and
ostentatious, intemperate and boastful. Listen:

"'
After me, O
Avicenna, Galen, Rhases, and Mon-
tagnana! After me, not I after you, ye men of
Paris, Montpellier, Meissen, and Cologne; all you
that countries along the Danube and
come from the
the Rhine, and you that come from the islands of
the sea. It is not for me to follow you because
mine is the lordship. The time will come when
none of you shall remain in his dark corner who
will not be an object of contempt to the world,
because I shall be the King, and the Monarchy will
be mine.'"

Dr. Porhoet closed the book.

"Did you ever hear such gibberish in your life?
Yet he did a bold thing. He wrote in German in-
stead of in Latin, and so, by weakening the old be-
lief in authority, brought about the beginning of
free thought in science. He continued to travel
from place to place, followed by a crowd of disci-
ples, sometimes attracted to a wealthy city by hope
of gain, sometimes journeying to a petty court at
the invitation of a prince. His folly and the malice
of his rivals prevented him from remaining any-
where for long. He wrought many wonderful
cures. The physicians of Nuremberg denounced
 THE MAGICIAN 103

him as a quack, a charlatan,and an impostor. To

refute them he asked the city council to put under
his care patients that had been pronounced incur-
able. They sent him several cases of elephantiasis,
and he cured them entirely: testimonials to that
effect may still be found in the archives of Nurem-

berg. He died as the result of a tavern brawl and

was buried at Salzburg. Tradition says that, his
astral body having already during physical exist-
ence become self-conscious, he is now a living
adept, residing with others of his sort in a certain
place in Asia. From here he still influences the
minds of his followers and at times even appears to
them in visible and tangible substance."
"But look here," said Arthur, "didn't Paracel-
sus, like most of these old fellows, in the course of
his researches make any practical discoveries?"
"I prefer those which were not practical," con-
fessed the doctor, with a smile. "Consider for
example the Tinctura Physicorum, which neither
Pope nor Emperor could buy with all his wealth.
It was one of the greatest alchemical mysteries,

and, though mentioned under the name of The Red

Lion in many occult works, was actually known to
few before Paracelsus, except Hermes Trismegistus
and Albertus Magnus. Its preparation was ex-

tremely difficult, for the presence was needed of

two perfectly harmonious persons, whose skill was
equal. It was said to be a red ethereal fluid. The
least wonderful of its many properties was its

power to transmute all inferior metals into gold.

There is an old church in the south of Bavaria
104 THE MAGICIAN
where the tincture is said to be still buried in the

ground. In the year 1698 some of it penetrated

through the soil, and the phenomenon was witnessed
by many people, who believed it to be a miracle.
The church which was thereupon erected is still a
well-known place of pilgrimage. Paracelsus con-
cludes his directions for its manufacture with the
words: But if this be incomprehensible to you, re-
member that only he who desires with his whole
heart will find, and to him only who knocks ve-
hemently shall the door be opened.'*
"I shall never try to make it," smiled Arthur.
"Then there was the Electrum Magicum, of
which the wise made mirrors wherein they were
able to see not only the events of the past and of the
present, but the doings of men in daytime and at
night. They might see anything that had been
written or spoken, and the person who said it, and
the causes that made him. But I like best the
Primum Ens Melisscz. An elaborate prescription
is given for its manufacture. It was a remedy to

prolong life, and not only Paracelsus, but his prede-

cessors Galen, Arnold of Villanova, and Raymond
Lulli, had laboured studiously to discover it."
"Will it make me eighteen again?" cried Susie.
"It is guaranteed to do so," answered Dr. Por-
hoet gravely. "Lesebren, a physician to Louis XIV.,
gives an account of certain experiments witnessed
by himself.It appears that one of his friends pre-

pared the remedy, and his curiosity would not let

him rest until he had seen with his own eyes the
effect of it."
 THE MAGICIAN 105

"That is the true scientific attitude," laughed

Arthur.
"He took every morning at sunrise a glass of white
wine tinctured with this preparation; and after using
it for fourteen days his nails began to fall out, with-
out, however, causing him any pain- His courage
failed him at this point, and he gave the same dose
to an old female servant. She regained at least one
of the characteristics of youth, much to her aston-
ishment, for she did not know that she had been
taking a medicine; and, becoming frightened, re-
fused to continue. The experimenter then took some
grain, soaked it in the tincture, and gave it to an
aged hen. On the sixth day that bird began to lose
its feathers, and kept on losing them till it was naked
as a new-born babe; but before two weeks had
passed other feathers grew, and these were more
beautifully coloured than any that fortunate hen
had possessed in her first youth. Her comb stood
up, and she began again to lay eggs."
Arthur laughed heartily.
"I confess I like that story much better than the
others. The Primum Ens Melissa at least offers a
less puerile benefit than most magical secrets."
"Do you call the search for gold puerile?" asked
Haddo, who had been sitting for a long time in
complete silence.
"I venture to call it sordid."
"You are very superior."
"Because I think the aims of mystical persons
invariably gross or trivial? To my plain mind it is
inane to raise the dead in order to hear from their
106 THE MAGICIAN
phantom nothing but commonplaces. And I
lips
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 civilisation."
"But ifhe sought for gold it was for the power
it gave him, and it was power he aimed at when

he brooded night and day over dim secrets. Power

was the subject of all his dreams, but not a paltry,
limited dominion over this or that; power over the
whole world, power over all created things, power
over the very elements, power over God Himself.
His lust was so vast that he could not rest till the
stars in their courses were obedient to his will."
For once Haddo lost his enigmatic manner. It
was plain now that his words intoxicated him, and
his face assumed a new and singular expression. A

peculiar arrogance flashed in his shining eyes.

"And what else is it that men seek in life but
power! If they want money it is but for the power
that attends it, and it is power again that they
strive for in all the
knowledge they acquire. Fools
and sots aim at happiness, but men aim only at
power. The magus, the sorcerer, the alchemist, are
seized with the fascination of the unknown; and

they desire a greatness that is inaccessible to man-

kind. They think by the science they study so
patiently, by endurance and strength, by force of
will and by imagination, for these are the great

weapons of the magician, they may achieve at last

a power with which they can face the God of
Heaven Himself."
 THE MAGICIAN 107

Oliver Haddo huge bulk from the low

lifted his
chair in which he had been sitting. He began to
walk up and down the studio. It was quite strange
to see this heavy man, whose seriousness was always
problematical, caught upby a curious excitement.
"You've been talking of Paracelsus," he said.
"There is one of his experiments which the doctor
has withheld from you. You will find it neither
mean nor mercenary, but it is very terrible. I do
not know whether the account of it is true, but it

would be of extraordinary interest to test it for

oneself/'
He looked round at the four personswho watched
him intently. There was a singular agitation in his
manner, as though the thing of which he spoke was
very near his heart.
"The old alchemists believed in the possibility of
spontaneous generation. By the combination of
psychical powers and of strange essences they claim
to have created forms in which life became mani-
fest. Of these the most marvellous were those
strange beings, male and female, which were called
homunculi. The old philosophers doubted the pos-
sibility of this operation, but Paracelsus asserts posi-
tively that it can be done. I picked up once for a

song on a barrow at London Bridge a little book in

German. It was dirty and thumbed, many of the
pages were torn, and the binding scarcely held the
leaves together. It was called Die Sphinx and was
edited by a certain Dr. EmiJ Besetzny. It con-
tained the most extraordinary accounts I have ever
read of certain spirits generated by Johann-Ferdi-
108 THE MAGICIAN
nand, Count von Kiiffstein, in the Tyrol, in 1775.
The sources from which these accounts are taken
consist of masonic manuscripts, but more especially
of a diary kept by a certain James Kammerer, who
acted in the capacity of butler and famulus to the
Count. The evidence is ten times better than any
upon which men believe the ^articles of their re-
ligion. Ifrelated to less wonderful subjects you
it

would not hesitate to believe implicitly every word

you read. There were ten homunculi James Kam-
merer them prophesying spirits kept in strong
calls

bottles,such as are used to preserve fruit, and these

were filled with water. They were made in five
weeks, by the Count von Kiiffstein and an Italian
mystic and rosicrucian, the Abbe Geloni. The
bottles were closed with ox-bladders and with a

magic seal. The spirits were about a span long,

and the Count was anxious that they should grow.
They were therefore buried under two cartloads
of manure, and the pile daily sprinkled with a cer-
tain liquor prepared with great trouble by the
adepts. The pile after such sprinklings began to
ferment and steam, as if heated by a subterranean
fire. When the bottles were removed, it was found
that the spirits had grown to about a span and a
half each; the male homunculi were come into pos-
session of heavy beards, and the nails of the fingers
had grown. In two of the bottles there was noth-
ing to be seen save clear water, but when the Abbe
knocked thrice at the seal upon the mouth, utter-
ing at the same time certain Hebrew words, the
water turned a mysterious colour, and the spirits
 THE MAGICIAN 109

showed first, but growing

their faces, very small at
in size they attained that of a human counte-
till

nance. And this countenance was horrible and

fiendish."
Haddo spoke in a low voice that was hardly

steady, and was plain that he was much moved.

it

It appeared as if his story affected him so that he

could scarcely preserve his composure. He went on.
"These beings were fed every three days by the
Count with a rose-coloured substance which was
kept in a silver box. Once a week the bottles were
emptied and filled again with pure rain-water. The
change had to be made rapidly because, while the
homunculi were exposed to the air, they closed their
eyes and seemed to grow weak and unconscious,
as though they were about to die. But with the
spirits that were invisible, at certain intervals blood
was poured into the water; and it disappeared at
once, inexplicably, without colouring or troubling
it. By some accident one of the bottles fell one
day and was broken. The homunculus within died
after a few painful respirations in spite of all efforts
to save him, and the body was buried in the garden.
An attempt to generate another, made by the Count
without the assistance of the Abbe, who had left,
failed; produced only a small thing like a leech,
it

which had little vitality and soon died."

Haddo ceased speaking, and Arthur looked at

him with amazement.
"But, taking for granted that the thing is pos-
sible, what on earth is the use of manufacturing
these strange beasts?" he exclaimed.
110 THE MAGICIAN
"Use!" cried Haddo
passionately. "What do
you think would be a man's sensations when he had
solved the great mystery of existence, when he saw
living before him the substance which was dead?
These homunculi were seen by historical persons,
by Count Max Lemberg, by Count Franz-Josef von
Thun, and by many others. I have no doubt that
they were actually generated. But with our modern
appliances, with our greater skill, what might it not
be possible to do now if we had the courage? There
are chemists toiling away in their laboratories to
create the primitive protoplasm from matter which
is dead, the organic from the inorganic. I have
studied their experiments. I know all that they
know. Why shouldn't one work on a larger scale,
joining to the knowledge of the old adepts the scien-
tific discovery of the moderns? I don't know what
would be the result. Itmight be very strange and
very wonderful. Sometimes my mind is verily
haunted by the desire to see a lifeless substance
move under my spells, by the desire to be as God."
He gave a low weird laugh, half cruel, half volup-
tuous. It made Margaret shudder with sudden

fright. He had thrown himself down in the chair,

and he sat in complete shadow. By a singular effect
his eyes appeared blood-red, and they stared into

space, strangely parallel, with an intensity that was

terrifying. Arthur started a little and gave him a
searching glance. The laugh and that uncanny
glance, the unaccountable emotion, were extraor-
dinarily significant. The whole thing was explained
if Oliver Haddo was mad.
 THE MAGICIAN 111

There was an uncomfortable silence. Haddo's

words were out of tune with the rest of the con-
versation. Dr. Porhoet had spoken of magical
things with a sceptical irony that gave a certain
humour to the subject, and Susie was resolutely
flippant. But Haddo's vehemence put these in-
credulous people out of countenance. Dr. Porhoet
got up to go. He shook hands with Susie and with
Margaret. Arthur opened the door for him. The
kindly scholar looked round for Margaret's terrier.
"I must bid my farewells to your little dog."
He had been so quiet that they had forgotten
his presence.
"Come here, Copper," said Margaret.
The dog slowly slunk up to them, and with a
terrified expression crouched at Margaret's feet.
"What on earth's the matter with you?" she
asked.
"He's frightened of me," said Haddo, with that
harsh laugh of his, which gave such an unpleasant
impression.
"Nonsense!"
Dr. Porhoet bent down, stroked the dog's back,
and shook its paw. Margaret lifted it up and set
iton a table.
"Now, be good," she said, with lifted finger.
Dr. Porhoet with a smile went out, and Arthur
shut the door behind him. Suddenly, as though
had entered into it, the
evil terriersprang at Oliver
Haddo and fixed its teeth in his hand. Haddo
uttered a cry, and, shaking gave it a savage
it off,

kick. The dog rolled over with a loud bark that

 THE MAGICIAN
was almost and lay still for a
a scream of pain,
moment as were desperately hurt. Margaret
if it

cried out with horror and indignation. A fierce

rage on a sudden seized Arthur so that he scarcely
knew what he was about. The wretched brute's
suffering, Margaret's terror, his own instinctive
hatred of the man, were joined together in frenzied
passion.
"You brute," he muttered.
He hit Haddo in the face with his clenched fist.
The man collapsed bulkily to the floor, and Arthur,
furiously seizing his collar, began to kick him with
all his might. He shook him as a dog would shake
a rat and then violently flung him down. For some
reason Haddo made no resistance. He remained
where he fell Arthur turned
in utter helplessness.
to Margaret. She was holding the poor hurt dog
in her hands, crying over it, and trying to comfort
it in its pain. Very gently he examined it to see if
Haddo's brutal kick had broken a bone. They sat
down beside the fire. Susie, to steady her nerves,
lita cigarette. She was horribly, acutely conscious
of that man who lay in a mass on the floor behind
them. She wondered what he would do. She
wondered why he did not go. And she was ashamed
of his humiliation. Then her heart stood still; for
she realised that he was raising himself to his feet,
slowly, with the difficulty of a very fat person. He
leaned against the wall and stared at them. He
remained there quite motionless. His stillness got
on her nerves, and she could have screamed as she
felt him look at them, look with those unnatural
 THE MAGICIAN US
eyes, whose expression now she dared not even
imagine.
At length she could no longer resist the tempta-
tion to turn round just Haddo's
enough to see him.
eyes were fixed upon Margaret so intently that he
did not see he was himself observed. His face,
distorted by passion, was horrible to look upon.
That vast mass of flesh had a malignancy that was
inhuman, and it was terrible to see the satanic hatred
which hideously deformed it. But it changed. The
redness gave way to a ghastly pallor. The revenge-
ful scowl disappeared; and a torpid smile spread
over the features, a smile that was even more terrify-
ing than the frown of malice. What did it mean?
Susie could have cried out, but her tongue cleaved to
her throat The smile passed away, and the face
became once more utterly impassive. It seemed that
Margaret and Arthur realised at last the power of
those inhuman eyes, and they became quite still.
The dog ceased its sobbing. The silence was so great
that each one heard the beating of his heart. It was
intolerable.
Then Oliver Haddo moved. He came forward
slowly.
"I want to ask you to forgive me for what I did,"
he said. "The pain of the dog's bite was so keen
that I lost my temper. I deeply regret that I kicked
it. Mr. Burdon was very right to thrash me. I
feel that I deserved no less."
He spoke in a low voice, but with great distinct-
ness. Susie was astounded. An abject apology was
the last thing she expected.
114 THE MAGICIAN
He
paused for Margaret's answer. But she could
not bear to look at him. When she spoke, her
words were scarcely audible. She did not know
why his request to be forgiven made him seem more
detestable.
"I think, if you don't mind, you had better go
away."
Haddo bowed slightly. He looked at Burdon.
"I wish to tellyou that I bear no malice for
what you did. I recognise the justice of your

anger."
Arthur did not answer at all. Haddo hesitated
a moment, while his eyes rested on them quietly.
To Susie it seemed that they flickered with the
shadow of a smile. She watched him with bewil-
dered astonishment.
He reached for his hat, bowed again, and went.
 Chapter VIII

could not persuade herself that Haddo's

SUSIE regret was sincere. The humility of it aroused
her suspicion. She could not get out of her mind
the ugly slyness of that smile which succeeded on
his face the first passionate look of deadly hatred.
Her fancy suggested various dark means whereby
OliverHaddo might take vengeance on his enemy,
and she was at pains to warn Arthur. But he only
laughed.
"The man's a funk," he said. "Do you think
if he'd had anything in him at all he would have
let me kick him without trying to defend himself?"

Jladdo's cowardice increased the disgust with

which Arthur regarded him. He was amused by
Susie's trepidation.
"What on earth do you suppose he can do? He
can't drop a brickbat on my head. If he shoots me
he'll get his head cut off, and he won't be such an
ass as to risk that!"

Margaret was glad that the incident had relieved

them of Oliver's society. She met him in the street
a couple of days later, and, since he took off his hat
in the French fashion without waiting for her to

acknowledge him, she was able to make her cut

more pointed.
She ^ began to discuss with Arthur the date of
115
116 THE MAGICIAN
their marriage. It seemed to her that she had got
out of Paris all it could give her, and she wished
to begin a new life. Her love for Arthur appeared
on a sudden more urgent, and she was filled with
delight at the thought of the happiness she would
give him.
A day or two later Susie received a telegram. It
ran as follows:

"Please meet me at the Gare du Nord, 2:40.

"NANCY CLERK."
It was from an old friend who was apparently
arriving in Paris that afternoon. A
photograph of
her, with a bold signature, stood on the chimney-
piece, and Susie gave it an inquisitive glance. She
had not seen Nancy for so long that it surprised
her to receive this urgent message.
"What a bore it is!" she said. "I suppose I
must go/'
They meant to have tea on the other side of the
river, but the journey to the station was so long
that it would not be worth Susie's while to come
back in the interval; and they arranged therefore
to meet at the house to which they were invited.
Susie started a little before two.
Margaret had a class that afternoon and set out
two or three minutes later. As she walked through
the courtyard she started nervously, for Oliver
Haddo passed slowly by. He did not seem to see
her. Suddenly he stopped, put his hand to his
heart, and fell heavily to the ground. The con-
cierge, the only person at hand, ran forward with
 THE MAGICIAN 117

a cry. She knelt down and, looking round with

terror, caught sight of Margaret.
"Oh, mademoiselle, venez vite" she cried.
Margaret was obliged to go. Her heart beat
horribly. She looked down at Oliver, and he seemed
to be dead. She forgot that she loathed him. In-
stinctively she knelt down by his side and loosened
his collar. He opened his eyes. An expression of
terrible anguish came into his face.
"For the love of God, take me in for one moment,"
he sobbed. "I shall die in the street."
Her heart was moved towards him. He could
not go into the poky den, evil-smelling and airless,
of the concierge. But with her help Margaret
raised him to his feet, and together they brought
him to the studio. He sank painfully into a chair.
"Shall I fetch you some water?" asked Margaret.
"Can you get a pastille out of my pocket?"
He swallowed a white tabloid, which she took
out of a case attached to his watch-chain.
"I'm very sorry to cause you this trouble," he
gasped. "I suffer from a disease of the heart and
sometimes I am very near death."
"I'm glad that I was able to help you," she said.
He seemed able to breathe more easily. She left
him to himself for a while, so that he might regain
his strength. She took up a book and began to read.
Presently, without moving from his chair, he spoke.
"You must hate me for intruding on you."
His voice was stronger, and her pity waned as
he seemed to recover. She answered with freezing
indifference.
118 THE MAGICIAN
"I couldn't do any less for you than I did. I
would have brought a dog into my room if it seemed
hurt."
"I see that you wish me to go."
He got up and moved towards the door, but he
staggered and with a groan tumbled to his knees.
Margaret sprang forward to help him. She re-
proached herself bitterly for those scornful words.
The man had barely escaped death, and she was
merciless.
"Oh, please stay as long as you like," she cried.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you."
He dragged himself with difficulty back to the
chair, and she, conscience-stricken, stood over him
helplessly. She poured out a glass of water, but
he motioned it away as though he would not be
beholden to her even for that.
"Is there nothing I can do for you at all?" she
exclaimed, painfully.
"Nothing, except allow me to sit in this chair,"
he gasped.
"I hope you'll remain as long as you choose."
He did not reply. She sat down again and pre-
tended to read. In a little while he began to speak.
His voice reached her as if from a long way off.
"Will you never forgive me for what I did the
other day?"
She answered without looking at him, her back
still turned.
"Can it matter to you if I forgive or not?"
"You have no pity. I told you then how sorry I
was that a sudden uncontrollable pain drove me to
 THE MAGICIAN 119

do a thing which immediately I bitterly regretted.

Don't you think it must have been hard for me,
under the actual circumstances, to confess my
fault?"
"I wish you not to speak of it. I don't want to
think of that horrible scene."
"If you knew how lonely I was and how un-
happy, you would have a little mercy."
His voice was strangely moved. She could not
doubt now that he was sincere.
"You think me a charlatan because I aim at
things that are unknown to you. You won't try
to understand. You won't give me any credit for
striving with all my soul to a very great end."
She made no reply, and for a time there was
silence. His voice was different now and curiously
seductive.
"You look upon me with disgust and scorn. You
almost persuaded yourself to let me die in the
street rather than stretch out to me a helping hand.
And if you hadn't been merciful then, almost against
your will, I should have died."
"It can make no difference to you how I regard
you," she whispered.
She did not know why his soft, low tones mys-
teriously wrung her heartstrings. Her pulse began
to beat more quickly.
"It makes all the difference in the world. It is
horrible to think of your contempt. I feel your
goodness and your purity. I can hardly bear my
own unworthiness. You turn your eyes away from
me as though I were unclean."
120 THE MAGICIAN
She turned her chair a little and looked at him.
She was astonished at the change in his appearance.
His hideous obesity seemed no longer repellant, for
his eyes wore a new expression; they were incred-

ibly tender now, and they were moist with tears.

His mouth was tortured by a passionate distress.
Margaret had never seen so much unhappiness on
a man's face, and an overwhelming remorse seized
her.
"I don't want to be unkind to you," she said.
"I will go. That is how I can best repay you for
what you have done."
The words were so bitter, so humiliated, that the
colour rose to her cheeks.
"I ask you to stay. But let us talk of other
things."
For a moment he kept silence. He seemed no
longer to see
Margaret, andwatched him
she
thoughtfully. His eyes rested on a print of La
Gioconda which hung on the wall. Suddenly he
began to speak. He recited the honeyed words
with which Walter Pater expressed his admiration
for that consummate picture.

"Hers is the head upon which all the ends of

the world are come, and the eyelids are a little
weary. It is a beauty wrought out from within
upon the flesh, the deposit, little cell by cell, of
strange thoughts and fantastic reveries and exquisite
passions. Set it for a moment beside one of those
white Greek goddesses or beautiful women of an-
tiquity, and how would they be troubled by this
 THE MAGICIAN 121

beauty, into which the soul with all its maladies

has passed. All the thoughts and experience of
the world have etched and moulded there, in that
which they have of power to refine and make v ex-
pressive the outward form, the animalism of Greece,
the lust of Rome, the mysticism of the Middle Ages,
with its spiritual ambition and imaginative loves, the
return of the Pagan world, the sins of the Borgias."

His voice, poignant and musical, blended with

the suave music of the words so that Margaret felt
she had never before known their divine signifi-
cance. She was intoxicated with their beauty. She
wished him to continue, but had not the strength
to speak. As if he guessed her thought, he went on,
and now his voice had a richness in it as of an organ
heard afar off. It was like an overwhelming fra-
grance, and she could hardly bear it.

"She is older than the rocks among which she

sits; like the vampire, she has been dead many
times, and learned the secrets of the grave; and has
been a diver in deep seas, and keeps their fallen
day about her; and trafficked for strange evils with
Eastern merchants; and, as Leda, was the mother
of Helen of Troy, and, as Saint Anne, the mother
of Mary; and all this has been to her but as the
sound of lyres and flutes, and lives only in the deli-
cacy with which it has moulded the changing linea-
ments, and tinged the eyelids and the hands."

Oliver Haddo began then to speak of Leonardo

122 THE MAGICIAN
da Vinci, mingling with his own fantasies the per-
fect words of that essay which, so wonderful was
his memory, he seemed almost to know by heart.
He found exotic fancies in the likeness between
Saint John the Baptist, with his soft flesh and
waving hair, and Bacchus, with his ambiguous
smile. Seen through his eyes, the seashore in the
Saint Anne had the airless lethargy of some dam-
asked chapel in a Spanish nunnery, and over the
landscapes brooded a wan spirit of evil that was
very troubling. He loved the mysterious pictures
in which the painter has sought to express some-

thing beyond the limits of painting, something of

unsatisfied desire and of longing for unhuman pas-
sions. Oliver Haddo found this quality in unlikely

places, and words gave a new meaning to paint-

his

ings that Margaret had passed thoughtlessly by.

There was the portrait of a statuary by Bronziho
in the Long Gallery of the Louvre. The features
were rather large, the face rather broad. The ex-
pression was sombre, almost surly in the repose of
the painted canvas, and the eyes were brown,
almond-shaped like those of an Oriental; the red
lips were exquisitely modelled, and the sensuality
was curiously disturbing; the dark, chestnut hair,
cut short, curled over the head with an infinite
grace. The skin was like ivory softened with a
delicate carmine. There was in that beautiful
countenance more than beauty, for what most fas-
cinated the observer was a supreme and disdainful
indifference to the passion of others. It was a
vicious face, except that beauty could never be
 THE MAGICIAN 123

quite vicious; it was a cruel face, except that indo-

lence could never be quite cruel. It was a face
that haunted you, and yet your admiration was
alloyed with an unreasoning terror. The hands
were nervous and adroit, with long, fashioning fin-
gers; and you felt that at their touch the clay al-
most moulded itself into gracious forms. With
Haddo's subtle words the character of that man
rose before her, cruel yet indifferent, indolent and
passionate, cold yet sensual; unnatural secrets dwelt
in his mind, and mysterious crimes, and a lust for
the knowledge that was arcane. Oliver Haddo was
attracted by all that was unusual, deformed, and
monstrous, by the pictures that represented the hide-
man or that reminded you of his mortality.
ousness of
He summoned before Margaret the whole array of
Ribera's ghoulish dwarfs, with their cunning smile,
the insane light of their eyes, and their malice: he
dwelt with a horrible fascination upon their mal-
formations, the humped backs, the club feet, the
hydrocephalic heads. He described the picture by
Valdes Leal in a certain place at Seville, which repre-
sents a priest at the altar; and the altar is sumptu-

ous with gilt and florid carving. He wears a mag-

nificent cope and a surplice of exquisite lace, but he
wears them as though their weight was more than
he could bear; and in the meagre trembling hands,
and in the white, ashen face, in the dark hollowness
of the eyes, there is a bodily corruption that is terri-

fying. He seems to hold together with difficulty

the bonds of the flesh, but with no eager yearning of
the soul to burst its prison, only with despair; it is
124 THE MAGICIAN
as if the Lord Almighty had forsaken him and the
high heavens were empty of their solace. All the
beauty of life appears forgotten, and there is nothing
in the world but decay. A ghastly putrefaction has
attacked already the living man; the worms of the
grave, the piteous horror of mortality, and the dark-
ness before him, offer naught but fear. Beyond,
dark night is seen and a turbulent sea, the dark night
of the soul of which the mystics write, and the
troublous sea of life whereon there is no refuge for
the weary and the sick at heart.
Then, pursuance of a definite plan, he
as if in

analysed with a searching, vehement intensity the

curious talent of the modern Frenchman, Gustave
Moreau. Margaret had lately visited the Luxem-
bourg, and his pictures were fresh in her memory.
She had found in them little save a decorative ar-
rangement marred by faulty drawing; but Oliver
Haddo gave them at once a new, esoteric import.
Those effects as of a Florentine jewel, the clus-
tered colours like emeralds and rubies, like sap-
phires deeper than the sea, the atmosphere of scented
chambers, the mystic persons who seem ever about
secret, religious rites, combined in his cunning
phrases to create, as it were, a pattern on her soul
of morbid and mysterious intricacy. Those pic-
tures were filled with a strange sense of sin, and the
mind that contemplated them was burdened with
the decadence of Rome, and with the passionate vice
of the Renaissance; and it was tortured, too, by all
the introspections of this later day.
Margaret listened, rather breathlessly, with the
 THE MAGICIAN 125

excitement of an explorer before whom is spread

out the plain of an undiscovered continent. The
painters she knew spoke of their art technically,
and this imaginative appreciation was new to her.
She was horribly fascinated by the personality that
imbued these elaborate sentences. Haddo's eyes
were fixed upon hers, and she responded to his
words like a delicate instrumerit made for recording
the beatings of the heart. She felt an extraordi-
nary languor. At last he stopped. Margaret neither
moved nor spoke. She might have been under some
spell. It seemed to her that she had no power in
her limbs.
"I want to do something for you in return for
what you have done for me," he said.
He stood up and went to the piano.
"Sit in this chair," he said.
She did not dream of disobeying. He began to
play. Margaret was hardly surprised that he played
marvellously. Yet it was almost incredible that
those fat, large hands should have such a tenderness
of touch. His fingers caressed the notes with a
peculiar suavity, and he drew out of the piano effects
which she had scarcely thought possible. He seemed
to put into the notes a troubling, ambiguous passion,
and the instrument had the tremulous emotion of a
human being. It was very strange and rather terri-
fying. She was vaguely familiar with the music to
which she listened; but there was in it, under his
fingers, an exotic savour that made it harmonious
with all that he had said that afternoon. His mem-
ory was indeed astonishing. He had an infinite tact
126 THE MAGICIAN
to know the feeling that occupied Margaret's heart,
and what he chose seemed to be exactly that which
at the moment she imperatively needed. Then he
began to play things she did not know. It was
music the like of which she had never heard, bar-
baric, with a plaintive weirdness that brought to her
fancy the moonlit nights of desert places, with
palm-trees mute in the windless air, and tawny dis-
tances. She seemed to know tortuous narrow
streets, white houses of silence with strange moon-
shadows, and the glow of yellow light within, and
the tinkling of uncouth instruments, and the acrid
scents of Eastern perfumes. It was like a proces-
sion passing through her mind of persons who were
not human, yet existed mysteriously, with a life of
vampires. Monna Lisa and Saint John the Bap-
tist,Bacchus and the mother of Mary, went with
enigmatic motions. But the daughter of Herodias
raised her hands as though, engaged for ever in a

mystic to invoke outlandish gods.

rite, Her face
was very pale, 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. The smile, in which was all the sorrow of
the world and wickedness, beheld the wan
all its

head of the Saint, and with a voice that was cold

with the coldness of death she murmured the words
of the poet:

"I am amorous of thy body, lokanaam! Thy

body white like the
is lilies of a field that the mower

hath never mowed. Thy body is white like the

 THE MAGICIAN 127

snows that on the mountains of Judaea, and come

lie

down into the valleys. The roses in the garden of

the Queen of Arabia are not so white as thy body.
Neither the roses in the garden of the Queen of
Arabia, the garden of spices of the Queen of Arabia,
nor the feet of the dawn when they light on the
leaves, nor the breast of the moon when she lies on
the breast of the sea .There is nothing in the
. .

world so white as thy body. Suffer me to touch

thy body."

Oliver Haddo ceased to play. Neither of them

stirred. At last Margaret sought by an effort to

regain her self-control.

"I shall begin to think that you really are a
magician," she said, lightly.
"I could show you strange things if you cared
to see them," he answered, again raising his eyes
to hers.
"I don't think you will ever get me to believe in
occult philosophy," she laughed.
"Yet it reigned in Persia with the magi, it en-
dowed India with wonderful traditions, it civilised
Greece to the sounds of Orpheus' lyre."
He stood before Margaret, towering over her in
his huge bulk; and there was a singular fascination
in his gaze. It seemed that he spoke only to conceal
from her that he was putting forth now all the power
that was in him.
"It concealed the first principles of science in the
calculations of Pythagoras. It established empires
by its oracles, and at its voice tyrants grew pale
128 THE MAGICIAN
upon their thrones. It governed the minds of some
by curiosity, and others it ruled by fear."
His voice grew very low, and it was so seductive
that Margaret's brain reeled. The sound of it was
overpowering like too sweet a fragrance.
"I tell you that
for this art nothing is impossible.
It commands the elements, and knows the language
of the stars, and directs the planets in their courses.
The moon at its bidding falls blood red from the
sky. The dead rise up and form into ominous words
the night wind that moans through their skulls.
Heaven and Hell are in its province; and all forms,
lovely and hideous; and love and hate. With Circe's
wand it can change men into beasts of the field, and
to them it can give a monstrous humanity. Life and
death are in the right hand and in the left of him
who knows its secrets. It confers wealth by the
transmutation of metals and immortality by its
quintessence."
Margaret could not hear what he said. A grad-
ual lethargy seized her under his baleful glance,
and she had not even the strength to wish to free
herself. She seemed bound to him already by hid-
den chains.
"If you have powers show them," she whispered,
hardly conscious that she spoke.
Suddenly he released the enormous tension with
which he held her. Like a man who had exerted
all his strength to some end, the victory won, he

loosened his muscles, with a faint sigh of exhaustion.

Margaret did not speak, but she knew that some-
thing horrible was about to happen. Her heart beat
 THE MAGICIAN 129

like a prisoned. bird, with helpless flutterings, but it

seemed too late now to draw back* Her words by
a mystic influence had settled something beyond
possibility of recall.
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. Oliver Haddo put his hand in
his pocket and drew out a little silver box. He
tapped it, with a smile, as a man taps a snuff-box,
and opened it. He took an infinitesimal quantity
of a blue powder that it contained and threw it on
the water in the brass bowl. Immediately a bright
flame sprang up, and Margaret gave a cry of alarm.
Oliver looked at her quickly and motioned her to
remain still. She saw that the water was on fire.
It was burning as brilliantly, as hotly as if it were
common gas; and it burned with the same dry
hoarse roar. Suddenly it was extinguished. She
leaned forward and saw that the bowl was empty.
The water had been utterly consumed, as though
it were straw, and not a drop remained. She passed
her hand absently across her forehead.
"But water cannot burn," she muttered to
herself.
It seemed that Haddo knew what she thought,
for he smiled strangely.
"Do you know that nothing more destructive
can be invented than this blue powder, and I have
enough to burn up all the water in Paris? Who
dreamt that water might be burnt like chaff ?"
He
paused, seeming to forget her presence. He
looked thoughtfully at the little silver box.
130 THE MAGICIAN
"But it can be made only in trivial quantities, at
enormous expense and with exceeding labour; it is
so volatile that you cannot keep it for three days.
I have sometimes thought that with a little
ingenu-
ity I might make it more stable, I might so modify
it that, like radium, it lost no strength as it burned;

and then I should possess the greatest secret that

had ever been in the mind of man. For there would
be no end of it. It would continue to burn while
there was a drop of water on the earth, and the
whole world would be consumed. But it would be
a frightful thing to have in one's hands; for once it
were cast upon the waters, the doom of all that
existed would be sealed beyond repeal."
He took a long breath, and his eyes glittered with
a devilish ardour. His voice was hoarse with over-
whelming emotion.
"Sometimes I am haunted by the wild desire to
have seen that great and final scene when the irrev-
ocable flames poured down the river, hurrying
along the streams of the earth, searching out the
moisture in all growing things, tearing it even from
the eternal rocks; when the flames poured down like
the rushing of the wind, and all that lived fled
from before them till they came to the sea; and the
sea itself was consumedvehement fire."
in

Margaret shuddered, but she did not think the

man was mad. She had ceased to judge him. He
took one more particle of that atrocious powder
and put it in the bowl. Again he thrust his hand
in his pocket and brought out a handful of some
crumbling substance that might have been dried
 THE MAGICIAN 131

leaves, leaves of different sorts, broken and pow-

dery. There was a trace of moisture in them still,
for a low flame sprang up immediately at the bot-
tom of the dish, and a thick vapour filled the room.
It had a singular and pungent odour that Margaret
did not know. It was difficult to breathe, and she
coughed. She wanted to beg Oliver to stop, but
could not. He took the bowl in his hands and
brought it to her.
"Look," he commanded.
She bent forward, and at the bottom saw a blue
fire, of a peculiar solidity, as though it consisted
of molten metal. It was not still, but writhed
strangely, serpents of
like fire tortured by their
own unearthly ardour.
"Breathe very deeply."
She did as he told her. A sudden trembling
came over her, and darkness fell across her eyes.
She tried to cry out, but could utter no sound. Her
brain reeled. It seemed to her that Haddo bade
her cover her face. She gasped for breath, and it
was as if the earth spun under her feet. She ap-
peared to travel at an immeasurable speed. She
made a slight movement, and Haddo told her not
to look round. An immense terror seized her. She
did not know whither she was borne, and still
they went quickly, quickly; and the hurricane it-
self would have lagged behind them. At last their
motion ceased, and Oliver was holding her arm.
"Don't be afraid," he said. "Open your eyes and
stand up."
The night had fallen; but it was not the comfort-
132 THE MAGICIAN
able night that soothes the troubled minds of mortal
men; it was a night that agitated the soul mys-

teriously so that each nerve in the body tingled.

There was a lurid darkness which displayed and

yet distorted the objects that surrounded them.

No moon shone in the sky, but small stars appeared
to dance on the heather, vague night-fires like spirits
of the damned. They stood in a vast and troubled
waste, with huge stony boulders and leafless trees,
rugged and gnarled like tortured souls in pain. It
was as if there had been a devastating storm, and
the country reposed after the flood of rain and the
tempestuous wind and the lightning. All things
about them appeared dumbly to suffer, like a man
racked by torments who has not the strength even
to realise that his agony has ceased. Margaret
heard the flight of monstrous birds, and they seemed
to whisper strange things on their passage. Oliver
took her hand. He led her steadily to a cross-
road, and she did not know if they walked amid
rocks or tombs.
She heard the sound of a trumpet, and from all
parts, strangely appearing where before was noth-
ing, a turbulent assembly surged about her. That
vast empty space was suddenly filled by shadowy

forms, and they swept along like the waves of the

sea, crowding upon one another's heels. And it
seemed that all the mighty dead appeared before
her; and she saw grim tyrants, and painted cour-
tesans, and Roman emperors in their purple, and
sultans of the East. All those fierce evil women of
olden time passed by her side, and now it was Monna
 THE MAGICIAN 133

Lisa and now the subtle daughter of Herodias. And

Jezebel looked out upon her from beneath her
painted brows, and Cleopatra turned away a wan,
lewd face; and she saw the insatiable mouth and
the wanton eyes of Messalina, and Faustine was
haggard with the eternal fires of lust. She saw
cardinals in their scarlet, and warriors in their steel,
gay gentlemen in periwigs, and ladies in powder
and patch. And on a sudden, like leaves by the
wind, all these were driven before the silent throngs
of the oppressed; and they were innumerable as the
sands of the sea. Their thin faces were earthy with
want and cavernous from disease, and their eyes
were dull with despair. They passed in their tat-
tered motley, some in the fantastic rags of the
beggars of Albrecht Diirer and some in the grey
cerecloths of Le Nain; many wore the blouses and
the caps of the rabble in France, and many the
dingy, smoke-grimed weeds of English poor. And'
they surged onward like a riotous crowd in narrow
streets flying in terror before the mounted troops.
It seemed as though all the world were gathered
there in strange confusion.
Then all again was void; and Margaret's gaze
was riveted upon a great, ruined tree that stood in
that waste place, alone, in ghastly desolation; and
though a dead thing it seemed to suffer a more
than human pain. The lightning had torn it asunder,
but the wind of centuries had sought in vain to drag
up its roots. The tortured branches, bare of any
twig, were like a Titan's arms, convulsed with intoler-
able anguish. And in a moment she grew sick with
134 THE MAGICIAN
change came into the tree, and the tremu-
fear, for a
lousness oflife was in it; the rough bark was changed

into brutish flesh and the twisted branches into

human arms. It became a monstrous, goat-legged
thing, more vast than the creatures of nightmare.
She saw the horns and the long beard, the great hairy
legs with their hoofs, and the man's rapacious hands.
The face was horrible with lust and cruelty, and yet
it was divine. It was Pan, playing on his pipes, and
the lecherous eyes caressed her with a hideous ten-
derness. But even while she looked, as the mist of

early day, rising, discloses a fair country, the ani-

mal part of that ghoulish creature seemed to fall
away, and she saw a lovely youth, titanic but
sublime, leaning against a massive rock. He was
more beautiful than the Adam of Michael Angelo
who wakes into life at the call of the Almighty;
and, like him freshly created, he had the adorable
languor of one who feels still in his limbs the soft
rain on the loose brown earth. Naked and full of

majesty he lay, the outcast son of the morning; and

she dared not look upon his face, for she knew it
was impossible to bear the undying pain that dark-
ened it with ruthless shadows. Impelled by a great
curiosity, shesought to come nearer, but the vast
figure seemed strangely to dissolve into a cloud;
and immediately she felt herself again surrounded
by a hurrying throng. Then came all legendary
monsters and foul beasts of a madman's fancy; in the
darkness she saw enormous toads, with paws pressed
to their flanks, and huge limping scarabs, shelled
creatures the like of which she had never seen,
 THE MAGICIAN 135

and noisome brutes with horny scales and round

crabs' eyes, uncouth primeval things, and winged
serpents, and creeping animals begotten of the
slime. She heard shrill cries and peals of laughter
and the terrifying rattle of men at the point of
death. Haggard women, dishevelled and lewd,
carried wine; and when they spilt it there were
stains like the stains of blood. And it seemed to
Margaret that a fire burned in her veins, and her
soul fled from her body; but a new soul came in its

place, and suddenly she knew all that was obscene.

She took part in some festival of hideous lust, and
the wickedness of the world was patent to her eyes.
She saw things so vile that she screamed in terror,
and she heard Oliver laugh in derision by her side.
It was a scene of indescribable horror, and she put
her hands to her eyes so that she might not see.
She felt Oliver Haddo take her hands. She
would not let him drag them away. Then she
heard him speak.
"You need not be afraid."
His voice was quite natural once more, and she
realised with a start that she was sitting quietly in
the studio. She looked around her with frightened
eyes. Everything was exactly as it had been. The
early night of autumn was fallen, and the only light
in the room came from the fire. There was still
that vague, acrid scent of the substance which
Haddo had burned.
"Shall I light the candles? "he said.
He struck a match and lit those which were on
the piano. They threw a singular light. Then
138 THE MAGICIAN
"I suppose no one has been here?" asked Susie.
"No one."
The lie slipped from Margaret's lips before she
had made up her mind to tell it. Her heart gave a
great beat against her chest. She felt herself redden.
Susie got up to light a cigarette. She wished to
rest her nerves. The box was on the table, and, as
she helped herself, her eyes fell carelessly on the
address that Haddo had left. She picked it up and
read it aloud.
"Who on earth there?" she asked.
lives
"I don't know at all," answered Margaret.
She braced herself for further questions, but Susie,
without interest, put down the sheet of paper and
struck a match.
Margaret was ashamed. Her nature was singu-
larly truthful, and it troubled her extraordinarily
that she had lied to her greatest friend. Something
stronger than herself seemed to impel her. She
would have given much to confess her two false-
hoods, but had not the courage. 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 ac-
knowledgment of the nameless horrors she had wit-
nessed. Susie would think her mad.
There was a knock at the door; and Margaret,
her nerves shattered by all that she had endured,
could hardly restrain a cry of terror. She feared
that Haddo had returned. But it was Arthur Bur-
don. She greeted him with a passionate relief that
was unusual, for she was by nature a woman of great
 THE MAGICIAN 137

"I had a dreadful headache," answered Margaret,

trying to control herself.
Susie flung herself down wearily in a chair. Mar-
garet forced herself to speak.
"Had Nancy anything particular to say to you?"
she asked.
"She never turned up," answered Susie irritably.
"I can't understand it. I waited till the train came
in, but there was no sign of her. Then I thought
she might have hit upon that time by chance and
was not coming from England, so I walked about
the station for half an hour."
She went to the chimneypiece, on which had been
left the telegram that summoned her to the Gare

du Nord, and read it again. She gave a little cry

of surprise.
"How stupid of me! I never noticed the post-
mark. It was sent from the RueJLittre."
This was less than ten minutes' walk from the
studio. Susie looked at the message with perplexity.
"I wonder if someone has been playing a silly
practical joke on me." She shrugged her shoulders.
"
But it's too foolish. If I were a suspicious woman,"
she smiled, "I should think you had sent it yourself
to get me out of the way."
The idea flashed through Margaret that Oliver
Haddo was the author of it. He might easily have
seen Nancy's name on the photograph during his
first visit to the studio. She had no time to think
before she answered lightly.
"If I wanted to get rid of you I should have no
hesitation in saying so."
138 THE MAGICIAN
"I suppose no one has been here?" asked Susie.
"No one."
The lie slipped from Margaret's lips before she
had made up her mind to tell it. Her heart gave a
great beat against her chest. She felt herself redden.
Susie got up to light a cigarette. She wished to
rest her nerves. The box was on the table, and, as
she helped herself, her eyes fell carelessly on the
address that Haddo had left. She picked it up and
read it aloud.
"Who on earth lives there?" she asked.
"I don't know at all," answered Margaret.
She braced herself for further questions, but Susie,
without interest, put down the sheet of paper and
struck a match.
Margaret was ashamed. Her nature was singu-
larly truthful, and it troubled her extraordinarily
that she had lied to her greatest friend. Something
stronger than herself seemed to impel her. She
would have given much to confess her two false-
hoods, but had not the courage. 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 ac-
knowledgment of the nameless horrors she had wit-
nessed. Susie would think her mad.
There was a knock at the door; and Margaret,
her nerves shattered by all that she had endured,
could hardly restrain a cry of terror. She feared
that Haddo had returned. But it was Arthur Bur-
don. She greeted him with a passionate relief that
was unusual, for she was by nature a woman of great
 THE MAGICIAN 139

self-possession. She felt excessively weak, physically

exhausted as though she had gone a long journey,
and her mind was highly wrought. Margaret re-
membered that her state had been the same on her
first arrival in Paris when, in her eagerness to get a

preliminary glimpse of its marvels, she had hurried

tillher bones ached from one celebrated monument
to another. They began to speak of trivial things.
Margaret tried to join calmly in the conversation,
but her voice sounded unnatural, and she fancied
that more than once Arthur gave her a curious look.
At length she could control herself no longer and
burst into a sudden flood of tears. In a moment,
uncomprehending but affectionate, he caught her
in his arms. He asked tenderly what was the matter.
He sought to comfort her. She wept ungovernably,
clinging tohim for protection.
"Oh, it's nothing," she gasped. "I don't know
what is the matter with me. I'm only nervous and
frightened."
Arthur had an idea that women were often afflicted
with what he described by the old-fashioned name
of vapours, and was not disposed to pay much
attention to this vehement distress. He soothed
her as he would have done a child.
"Oh, take care of me, Arthur. I'm so afraid
that some dreadful thing will happen to me, I
want all your strength. Promise that you'll never
forsake me."
He laughed, as he kissed away her tears, and
she tried to smile.
"Why can't we be married at once?" she asked.
140 THE MAGICIAN
"I don't want to wait any longer. I shan't feel
safe till I'm actually your wife."
He reasoned with her very gently. After all they
were to be married in a few weeks. They could not
easily hasten matters, for their house was not yet
ready, and she needed time to get her clothes. The
date had been fixed by her. She listened sullenly to
his words. Their wisdom was plain, and she did
not see how she could possibly insist. Even if she
told him all that had passed he would not believe
her; he would think she was suffering from some
trick of her morbid fancy.
"If anything happens to me," she answered, with
the dark, anguished eyes of a hunted beast, "you
will be to blame."
"I promise you that nothing will happen."
 Chapter IX

night was disturbed, and next

MARGARETS
day she could not go about her work with her
usual tranquillity. She tried to reason herself into
a natural explanation of the events that had hap-
pened. The telegram which Susie had received
pointed to a definite scheme on Haddo's part, and
suggested that his sudden illness was but a device
to get into the studio. Once there he had used her
natural sympathy as a means whereby to exercise
his great hypnotic power, and all she had seen was

merely the creation of his own libidinous fancy. But

though she sought to persuade herself that, in play-
ing a vile trick on her, he had taken a shameful
advantage of her pity, she could not look upon
him with anger. Her contempt for him, her utter

loathing, had vanished before a feeling that aroused

in her horror and dismay. She could not get the
man out of her thoughts. All that he had said, all
that she had seen, seemed, as though it possessed a
power of material growth, unaccountably to increase
in her. It was as if a rank weed were planted in her
heart and slid long poisonous tentacles down every
artery, so that each part of her body was enmeshed.
Work could not distract her, conversation, exercise,
art, left her still absorbed; and between her and all
the actions of life stood the flamboyant, burly form
141
142 THE MAGICIAN
of Oliver Haddo. She was terrified of him now as
never before, but curiously had no longer the physi-
cal repulsion which hitherto had mastered all other

feelings. Although she repeated to herself that she

wanted never to see him again, Margaret could
scarcely resist an overwhelming desire to go to him.
Her will had been taken from her, and she was an
automaton. She struggled, 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. If he had given her that
address it was because he knew she would use it.
She did not know why she wanted to go to him; she
had nothing to say to him; she knew only that it was
necessary to go. But a few days before she had
seen the Phedre of Racine, and she felt on a sudden
all the torments that wrung the heart of that un-

happy queen; she, too, struggled aimlessly to escape

from the poison that the immortal gods poured in
her veins. She asked herself frantically whether a
spell had been cast over her, for now she was willing
to believe that Haddo's power was all-embracing.
Margaret knew that if she yielded to the horrible

temptation nothing could save her from destruction.

She would have cried for help to Arthur or to Susie,
but something, she knew not what, utterly prevented
her. At length, driven almost to distraction, she
thought that Dr. Porhoet might do something for
her. He, at least, would understand her misery.
There seemed not a moment to lose, and she has-
tened to his house. They told her he was out. Her
heart sank, for it seemed that her last hope was
 THE MAGICIAN 143

gone. She was like a person drowning, who clings

to a rock; and the waves dash against him, and beat
upon his bleeding hands with human malice as if to
tear them from their refuge.
Instead of going to the sketch-class, which was
held at six in the evening, she hurried to the ad-
dress that Oliver Haddo had given. She went
along the crowded street stealthily, as though afraid
that someone would see her, and her heart was in
a turmoil. She desired with all her might not to
go, and sought vehemently to prevent herself, and
yet withal she went. She ran up the stairs and
knocked at the door. She remembered his direc-
tions distinctly. In a moment Oliver Haddo stood
before her. He did not seem astonished that she
was there. As she stood on the landing it occurred
to her suddenly that she had no reason to offer for
her visit, but his words saved her from any need
for explanation.
"I've been waiting for you," he said.
Haddo led her into a sitting-room. He had an
apartment in a maison meublee, and the heavy
hangings, the solid vulgar furniture of that sort of
house in Paris, was unexpected in connection with
him. The surroundings were so commonplace that
they seemed to emphasize his singularity. There
was a peculiar lack of comfort, which showed that
he was indifferent to material things. The room
was large, but so cumbered that it gave a cramped
impression. Haddo dwelt there as if he were apart
from any habitation that might be his. He moved
cautiously among the heavy furniture, and his
144 THE MAGICIAN
great obesity was somehow more remarkable.
There was the acrid perfume which Margaret re-
membered a few days before in her vision of an
Eastern city.
Asking her to sit down, he began to talk as if
they were old acquaintance between whom nothing
of moment had occurred. At last she took her
courage in both hands.
"Why did you make me come here?" she asked
suddenly.
"You give me criedit now for very marvellous
powers," he smiled.
"You knew I should come."
"I knew."
"What have done to you that you should
I
make me so unhappy? I want you to leave me
alone."
"I shall not prevent you from going out if you
choose to go. No harm has come to you. The
door is open."
Her heart beat quickly, painfully almost, and she
remained"' silent. She knew that she did not want
to go. There was something that drew her strangely
to him, and she was ceasing to resist. A
strange
feeling began to take hold of her, creeping stealthily
through her limbs; and she was terrified, but
unaccountably elated.
He began to talk with that low voice of his that
thrilled her with a curious magic. He spoke not of
pictures now, nor of books, but of life. He told her
of strange Eastern places where no infidel had been,
and her sensitive fancy was aflame with the honeyed
 THE MAGICIAN
fervour of his phrase. He spoke of the dawn upon
sleeping desolate cities, and the moonlit nights of
the desert, of the sunsets with their splendour, and
of the crowded streets at noon. The beauty of the
East rose up before her. He told her of many-
coloured webs and of silken carpets, the glittering
steel of armour damascened, and of barbaric price-
less gems. The splendour of the East blinded her
eyes. He spoke of frankincense and myrrh and
aloes, of heavy perfumes of the scent-merchants,
and drowsy odours of the Syrian gardens. The
fragrance of the East filled her nostrils. And all
these things were transformed by the power of his
words till life itself seemed offered to her, a life
of infinite vivacity, a lifeof freedom, a life of su-
pernatural knowledge. 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 full existence. She shuddered
to think of the dull house in Harley Street and the
insignificance of its humdrum duties. But it was
possible for her also to enjoy the wonder of the
world. Her soul yearned for a beauty that the
commonalty of men did not know. And what devil
suggested, a warp as it were in the woof of Oliver's
speech, 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.
As though fire passed through her, she sprang to

her feet and stood with panting bosojn, her flash-

ing eyes bright with the multi-coloured pictures that
his magic presented.
146 THE MAGICIAN
Oliver Haddostood too, and they faced one
another. Then, on a sudden, she knew what the
passion was that consumed her. With a quick
movement, his eyes more than ever strangely star-
ing, he took her in his arms, and he kissed her
lips. She surrendered herself to him voluptuously.
Her whole body burned with the ecstasy of his
embrace.
"I think\I love you," she said, hoarsely.
She looked at him. She did not feel ashamed.
"Now you must go,'* he said.
He opened the door, and, without another word,
she went. She walked through the streets as if
nothing at all had* happened. She felt neither re-
morse nor revulsion.
Then Margaret every day that uncontrollable
felt

desire to go to him; and, though she tried to per-

suade herself not to yield, she knew that her effort
was only a pretence; she did not want anything to
prevent her. When it seemed that some accident
would do so, she could scarcely control her irrita-
tion. There was always that violent hunger of the
soul which called her to him, and the only happy
hours she had were those spent in his company.
Day after day she felt that complete ecstasy when
he took her in his huge arms, and kissed her with
his heavy, sensual lips. But the ecstasy was ex-
traordinarily mingled with loathing, and her physi-
cal attraction was joined with physical abhorrence.
Yet when he looked at her with those pale blue
eyes, and threw into his voice those troubling ac-
cents, she forgot everything. He spoke of unhal-
 THE MAGICIAN 147

lowed things. Sometimes, as it were, he lifted a

corner of the veil and she caught a glimpse of terrible
secrets. She understood how men had bartered their
souls for infinite knowledge. She seemed to stand
upon a pinnacle of the temple, and spiritual king-
doms of darkness, principalities of the unknown, were
spread before her eyes to lure her to destruction.
But of Haddo himself she learned nothing. She did
not know if he loved her. She did not know if he had
ever loved. He appeared to stand apart from human
kind. Margaret discovered by chance that his
mother lived, but he would not speak of her.
"Some day you shall see her," he said.
"When?"
"Very soon."
Meanwhile her life proceeded with all outward
regularity. She found it easy to deceive her friends
because occurred to neither that her frequent ab-
it

sence was not due to the plausible reasons she gave.

The lies which at seemed intolerable now
first

tripped glibly But though they

off her tongue.
were so natural, she was seized often with a panic
of fear lest they should be discovered; and some-
times, suffering agonies of remorse, she would lie
in bed at night and think with utter shame of the

way she was using Arthur. But things had gone

too far now, and she must let them take their
course. She scarcely knew why her feelings towards
him had so completely changed. Oliver Haddo had
scarcely mentioned his name and yet had poisoned
her mind. The comparison between the two was to
Arthur's disadvantage. She thought him a little
148 THE MAGICIAN
dull now, and his commonplace way of looking at
lifecontrasted with Haddo's fascinating boldness.
She reproached Arthur in her heart because he had
never understood what was in her. He narrowed
her mind. And gradually she began to hate him
because her debt of gratitude was so great. It
seemed unfair that he should have done so much for
her. He forced her to marry him by his beneficence.
Yet Margaret continued to discuss with him the
arrangement of their house in Harley Street. 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 where-
with to cover them. Everything should be perfect
in its kind. The dateof their marriage was fixed,
and all the details were settled. Arthur was ridicu-
lously happy. Margaret made no sign. She did not
think of the future, and she spoke of it only to ward
off suspicion. She was inwardly convinced now
that the marriage would never take place, but what
was to prevent it she did not know. She watched
Susie and Arthur cunningly. But though she
watched in order to conceal her own secret, it was
another's that she discovered. Suddenly Margaret
became aware that Susie was deeply in love with
Arthur Burdon. The discovery was so astounding
that at first it seemed absurd.
"
You've never done that caricature of Arthur for
me that you promised," she said, suddenly.
"I've tried, but he doesn't lend himself to it,"
laughed Susie.
"With that long nose and the gaunt figure I
 THE MAGICIAN 149

should have thought you could make something

screamingly funny."
"How oddly you talk of him! Somehow I can
only see his beautiful, kind eyes and his tender
mouth. I would as soon do a caricature of him as
a parody on a poem I loved."

Margaret took the portfolio in which Susie kept

her sketches. She caught the look of alarm that
crossed her friend's face, but Susie had not the
courage to prevent her from looking. She turned
the drawings carelessly and presently came to a
sheet upon which, in a more or less finished state,

were half a dozen heads of Arthur. Pretending

not to see it, she went on to the end. When she
closed the portfolio Susie gave a sigh of relief.
"I wish you worked harder," said Margaret, as
she put the sketches down. "I wonder you don't
do a head of Arthur as you can't do a caricature."
"My dear, you mustn't expect everyone to take
such an overpowering interest in that young man
as you do."
The answer added a last certainty to Margaret's
suspicion. She told herself bitterly that Susie was
no less a liar than she. Next day, when the other
was out, Margaret looked through the portfolio
once more, but the sketches of Arthur had disap-
peared. She was seized on a sudden with furious
anger because Susie dared to love the man who
loved her.
The web in which Oliver Haddo enmeshed her
was woven with skilful intricacy. He took each
part of her character separately and fortified with
150 THE MAGICIAN
consummate art his influence over her. There was
something satanic in his deliberation, yet in actual
time it was almost incredible that he could have
changed the old abhorrence with which she re-
garded him into that hungry passion. Margaret
could not now realise her life apart from his. At
length he thought the time was ripe for the final step.
"It may interest you to know that I'm leaving
Paris on Thursday," he said casually, one afternoon.
She started to her feet and stared at him with
bewildered eyes.
"But what is to become of me?"
"You will marry the excellent Mr. Burdon."
"You know I cannot live without you. How can
you be so cruel?"
"Then the only alternative is that you should
accompany me."
Her blood ran cold, and her heart seemed pressed
in an iron vice.
"What do you mean?"
"There is no need to be agitated. I am making
you an eminently desirable offer of marriage."
She sank helplessly into her chair. Because she
had refused to think of the future it had never
struck her that the time must come when it would
be necessary to leave Haddo or to throw in her lot
with his definitely. She was seized with a com-
plete revulsion. Margaret realised that, though an
odious attraction bound her to the man, she loathed
and feared him. The scales fell from her eyes.
She remembered on a sudden Arthur's great love
and all that he had done for her sake. She utterly
 THE MAGICIAN 151
B

hated herself. Like a bird at its last gasp, beating

frantically against the bars of a cage, Margaret made a
desperate effort to regain her freedom. She sprang up.
"Let me go from here. I wish I'd never seen you.
I don't know what you've done with me/'
"Go by all means if you choose," he answered.
He opened the door, so that she might see he
used no compulsion, and stood lazily at the threshold
with a hateful smile. There was something terrible
in his excessive bulk. Rolls of fat descended from
his chin and concealed his neck entirely. His cheeks
were huge, and the lack of beard added to the
hideous nakedness of his face. Margaret stopped
as she passed him, horribly repelled yet horribly
fascinated. She had an immense desire that he
should take her again in his arms and press her
lips with that red voluptuous mouth. It was as

though fiends of hell were taking revenge upon her

loveliness inspiring in her a passion for this mon-
by
strous creature. She trembled with the intensity
of her desire. His eyes were hard and cruel.
"Go," he said.
She bent her head and fled from before him. To
get home
she passed through the gardens of the
Luxembourg, but her legs failed her, and in ex-
haustion she sank upon a bench. The day was sul-
try. She tried to collect herself. Margaret knew
well the part in which she sat, for in the enthusiastic
days that seemed so long gone by she was accus-
tomed to come there an exquisite
for the sake of
tree upon which her eyes now rested. It had all
the slim delicacy of a Japanese print. The leaves
152 THE MAGICIAN
were slender and fragile, half gold with autumn,
half green, but so tenuous that the dark branches
made a pattern of subtle beauty against the sky.
The hand of a draughtsman could not have fashioned
it with a more excellent skill. But now Margaret
could take no pleasure in its grace. She felt a
heartrending pang to think that henceforward the
consummate things of art would have no meaning
for her. She had seen Arthur the evening before,
and remembered with an agony of shame the
lies to which she had been forced in order to ex-

plain why she could not see him till late that day.
He had proposed that they should go to Versailles,
and was bitterly disappointed when she told him
they could not, as usual on Sundays, spend the
whole day together. He accepted her excuse that
she had to visit a sick friend. It would not have
been so intolerable if he had suspected her of de-
ceit, and his reproaches would have hardened her
heart. It was his entire confidence which was so
difficult to bear.
"Oh, if I could only make a clean breast of it all,"

she cried.
The bell of Saint Sulpice was ringing for vespers.

Margaret walked slowly to the church and sat down

in the seats reserved in the transept for the needy.
She hoped that the good music she must hear there
would rest her soul, and perhaps she might be able
to pray. Of late she had not dared. There was a
pleasant darkness in the place, and its large sim-
plicity was very soothing. In her exhaustion she
watched listlessly the people go to and fro. Behind
 THE MAGICIAN 153

her was a priest in the confessional. A little peasant

girl, in a Breton coiffe, perhaps
a maid-servant lately
come from her native village to the great capital,
passed in and knelt down. Margaret could hear her
muttered words and at intervals the deep voice of
the priest. In three minutes she tripped neatly
away. She looked so fresh in her plain black dress,
so healthy and innocent, that Margaret could not
restrain a sob of envy. The child had so little to
confess, a few puny errors which must excite a smile
on the lips of the gentle priest, and her candid spirit
was like snow. Margaret would have given any-
thing to kneel down and whisper in those passionless
ears all that she suffered, but the priest's faith and
hers were not the same. They spoke a different
tongue, not of the lips only, but of the soul, and he
would not listen to the words of a heretic.
A long procession of seminarists came in from the
college, which is under the shadow of that great
church, two by two, in black cassocks and short
white surplices. Many were tonsured already. Some
were quite young. Margaret watched their faces,
wondering if they were tormented by such agony as
she. But they had a living faith to sustain them,
and if some plainly were narrow and obtuse, they
had at least a fixed rule which prevented them from
swerving into treacherous byways. One or two had
a wan ascetic look, such as the saints may have had
when the terror of life was known to them only in
the imaginings of the cloister. The canons of the
church followed in their more gorgeous vestments
and finally the officiating clergy.
154 THE MAGICIAN
The music was beautiful. There was about it a
staid sad dignity; and seemed to Margaret fit
it

thus to adore the God of the Church. But it did

not move her. She could not understand the words
that these priests chanted; their gestures, their move-
ments to and fro, were strange to her. For her that
stately service had no meaning. And with a great
cry in her heart she said that God had forsaken her.
She was alone in a strange land. Evil was all about
her, and in those ceremonies she could find no com-
fort. What could she expect when the God of her
fathers left her to her fate? So that she might not
weep in front of all those people, Margaret with
down-turned face, walked to the door. She felt now
utterly lost. As she walked along the interminable
street that led to her own house she was shaken with
sobs.
"God has forsaken me," she repeated. "God has
forsaken me."
Next day, her eyes red with weeping, she dragged
herself toHaddo's door. When he opened it she
went in without a word. She sat down, and he
watched her in silence.
"I am willing to marry you whenever you
choose," she said, at last.
"I have made all the necessary arrangements."
"You have spoken to me of your mother. Will
you take me to her at once."
The shadow of a smile crossed his lips.
"If you wish it."
Haddo told her that they could be married before
the Consul early enough on the Thursday morning
 THE MAGICIAN 155

to catch a train for England. She left everything in

his hands.
"I'm desperately unhappy," she said, dully.
Oliver laid his hands upon her shoulders and looked
into her eyes.
"Go home, and you will forget your tears. I com-
mand you to be happy."
Then it seemed that the bitter struggle between
the good and the evil in her was done, and the evil
had conquered. She felt on a sudden curiously
elated. It seemed no longer to matter that she de-
ceived her faithful friends. She gave a bitter laugh,
as she thought how easy it was to hoodwink them.

Wednesday happened to be Arthur's birthday,

and he asked her to dine with him alone.
"We'll do ourselves proud, and hang the expense,"
he said.
They had arranged to eat at a fashionable res-
taurant on the other side of the river, and soon
after seven he fetched her. Margaret was dressed
with exceeding care. She stood in the middle of
the room, waiting for Arthur's arrival, and surveyed
herself in the glass. Susie thought she had never
been more beautiful.
"I think you've grown more pleasing to look
upon than you ever were," she said. "I don't
know what it is that has come over you of late,
but there's a depth in your eyes that is quite new.
It gives you an odd mysteriousness which is very
attractive."
Knowing Susie's love for Arthur, she wondered
156 THE MAGICIAN
whether her friend was not heartbroken as she
compared her own plainness with the radiant beauty
that was before her. Arthur came in, and Mar-
garet did not move. He stopped at the door to
look at her. Their eyes met. His heart beat quickly,
and yet he was seized with awe. His good fortune
was too great to bear, when he thought that this
priceless treasure was his. He could have knelt
down and worshipped, as though a goddess of old
Greece stood before him. And to him also her eyes
had changed. They had acquired a burning passion
which disturbed and yet enchanted him. It seemed
that the lovely girl was changed already into a lovely
woman. An enigmatic smile came to her lips.
"Are you pleased?" she asked.
Arthur came forward, and Margaret put her
hands on his shoulders.
"You have scent on," he said.
He was surprised, for she had never used it be-
fore. It was a
faint, almost acrid perfume that he
did not know. It reminded him vaguely of those
odours which he remembered in his childhood in
the East. It was remote and strange. It gave
Margaret a new. and troubling charm. There had
ever been something cold in her statuesque beauty,
but this touch somehow curiously emphasised her
sex. Arthur's lips twitched, and his gaunt face
grew pale with passion. His emotion was so great
that it was nearly pain. He was
puzzled, for her
eyes expressed things that he had never seen in
them before.

"Why don't you kiss me?" she said.

 THE MAGICIAN 157

She did not see but knew that a quick

Susie,
look of anguish crossed her face. Margaret drew
Arthur towards her. His hands began to tremble.
He had never ventured to express the passion that
consumed him, and when he kissed her it was with
a restraint that was almost brotherly. Now their
lips met. Forgetting that anyone else was in the
room, he flung his arms around Margaret. She
had never kissed him in that way before, and the
rapture was intolerable. Her lips were like living
fire. He could not take his own away. He forgot
everything. All his strength, all his self-control,
deserted him. It crossed his mind that at this mo-
ment he would willingly die. But the delight of it
was so great that he could scarcely withhold a cry of
utter agony. At length Susie's voice reminded him
of the world.
"You'd go out to dinner instead of
far better

behaving like a pair of

complete idiots."
She tried to make her tone as flippant as the
words, but her voice was cut by a pang of agony.
With a little laugh Margaret withdrew from Arthur's
embrace and lightly looked at her friend. Susie's
brave smile died away as she caught this glance,
for there was in it a malicious hatred that startled
her. The pain she suffered made all her senses very
alert, and she could not mistake the meaning of
those scornful eyes. But it was so unexpected that
she was terrified. What had she done? She was
afraid, dreadfully afraid, that Margaret had divined
her secret. Arthur stood as if his senses had left him,
quivering still with the extremity of passion.
158 THE MAGICIAN
"Susie says we must go," smiled Margaret.
Hecould not speak. He could not regain the
conventional manner of polite society. Very pale,
like a man suddenly awaked from deep sleep, he
w ent out at Margaret's side. They walked along
T

the passage. Though the door was closed behind

them and they were out of earshot, Margaret
seemed notwithstanding to hear Susie's passionate
sobbing. It gave her a horrible delight.

The tavern to which they went was on the Boule-

vard des Italiens, and at this date the most fre-
quented in Paris. It was crowded, but Arthur
had reserved a table in the middle of the room.
Her radiant loveliness made people stare at Mar-
garet as she passed through, and her consciousness
of the admiration she excited increased her beauty.
She was satisfied that amid this throng of the best-
dressed women in the world she had cause to envy
no one. The gaiety was charming. Shaded lights
gave an opulent cosiness to the scene, and there
were flowers everywhere. Innumerable mirrors
reflected women of the world, admirably gowned,
actresses of renown, and fashionable courtesans.
The noise was very great. A
Hungarian band
played in a distant corner, but the music was
drowned by the loud talking of excited men and
the boisterous laughter of women. It was plain that

people had come to spend their money with a lavish

hand. The vivacious crowd was given over with all
its heart to the pleasure of the fleeting moment.

Everyone had put aside grave thoughts and sorrow.

 THE MAGICIAN 159

Margaret had never been in better spirits. The

champagne went quickly to her head, and she talked
all manner of charming nonsense. Arthur was en-
chanted. He was very proud, very pleased, and
very happy. They talked of the things they
all

would do when they were married. They talked

of the places they must go to, of their home and
of the beautiful things with which they would fill
it. Margaret's animation was extraordinary. Ar-
thur was amused at her delight with the bright-
ness of the place, with the good things they ate,
and with the wine. Her laughter was like a rip-
pling brook. Everything tended to take him out of
his usual reserve. Life was very pleasing, at that
moment, and he felt singularly joyful.
"Let us drink to the happiness of our life," he said.
They touched glasses. He could not take his
eyes away from her.
"You're simply wonderful to-night," he said.
5
"I'm almost afraid of my good fortune/
"What is there to be afraid of?" she cried.
"I should like to lose something I valued in
order to propitiate the fates. I am too happy now.
v

Everything goes too well with me/

She gave a soft low laugh and stretched out her
hand on the table. No sculptor could have mod-
elled its exquisite delicacy. She wore only one ring,
a large emerald of beautiful colour, which Arthur
had given her on their engagement. He could not
resist taking her hand.
"Would you like to go on anywhere ? " he said, when
they had finished dinner and were drinking their coffee.
160 THE MAGICIAN
"No, us stay here. I must go to bed early, as
let
I have a tiring day before me to-morrow."
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
"Nothing of any importance," she laughed.
Presently the diners began to go in little groups,
and Margaret suggested that they should saunter
towards the Madeleine. The night was fine, but
rather cold, and the broad avenue was crowded.
Margaret watched the people. It was no less
amusing than a play. In a little while they took a
cab and drove through the streets, silent already,
that led to the quarter of the Montparnasse. They
sat in silence, and Margaret nestled close to Arthur.
He put his arm around her waist. In the shut cab
that faint, Oriental odour rose again to his nostrils,
and his head reeled as it had before dinner.
"You've made me very happy, Margaret," he
whispered. "I feel that however long I live I shall
never have a happier day than this."
"Do you love me very much?" she asked lightly.
He did not answer, but took her head in his
hands and kissed her passionately. They arrived
at Margaret's house, and she tripped up to the door.
She held out her hand to him, smiling.
"Good-night."
"It's dreadful to think that I must spend a dozen
"
hours without seeing you. When may I come ?
"Not in the morning, because I shall be too busy.
Come at twelve."
She remembered that her train started exactly at
that hour. The door was opened, and with a little
wave of the hand she disappeared.
 Chapter X
stared without comprehension at the note
SUSIE that announced Margaret's marriage. It was a
petit bleu sent off from the Gare du Nord, and ran
as follows:

"When you receive this I shall be on my way to

London. I was married to Oliver Haddo this

morning. I love him as I never loved Arthur. I

have acted in this manner because I thought I had
gone too far with Arthur to make an explanation
possible. Please tell him.
"MARGARET."

Susie was filled with dismay. She did not* know

what to do nor what to think. There was a knock
at the door, and she knew that it must be Arthur,
for he was expected at midday. She decided quickly
that it was impossible to break the news to him
then and there. It was needful first to find out all
manner of things, and besides it was incredible.
Making up her mind, she opened the door.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Margaret isn't here," she said.
"
A friend of hers is ill and sent for her suddenly."
"What a bore!" answered Arthur. "Mrs. Bloom-
field as usual, I suppose?"
"Oh, you know she's been ill?"
161
162 THE MAGICIAN
"Margaret has spent nearly every afternoon with
her for some days."
Susie did not answer. This was the first she had
heard of Mrs. Bloomfield's illness, and it was news
that Margaret was in the habit of visiting her. But
her chief object at this moment was to get rid of
Arthur.
"Won't you come back at five o'clock?" she
said.
"
But, look here, why shouldn't we lunch together,
you and I?"
"I'm very sorry, but I'm expecting somebody in."
"Oh, all right. Then I'll come back at five."
He nodded and went out. Susie read the brief
note once more, and asked herself if it could pos-
sibly be true. The callousness of it was appalling.
She went to Margaret's room and saw that every-
thing was in its place. It did not look as if the
owner had gone on a journey. But then she noticed
that a number of letters had been destroyed. She
opened a drawer and found that Margaret's trinkets
were gone. Then an idea struck her. Margaret had
bought lately a number of clothes, and these she
had insisted should be sent to her dressmaker, say-
ing that it was needless to cumber their little apart-
ment with them. They could stay there till she
returned to England a few weeks later for her mar-
riage, and it would be simpler to despatch them all
from one place. Susie went out. At the door it
occurred to her to ask the concierge if she knew where
Margaret had gone that morning.
"
Parfaitement, Mademoiselle" answered the old
 THE MAGICIAN 163

woman. "I heard her tell the coachman to go to

the British Consulate/'
The doubt was leaving Susie. She went to
last
the dressmaker and there discovered that by Mar-
garet's order the boxes containing her things had
gone on the previous day to the luggage office of
the Gare du Nord.
"I hope you didn't let them go till your bill was
paid," said Susie lightly, as though in jest.
The dressmaker laughed.
"Mademoiselle paid for everything two or three
days ago."
With indignation Susie realised that Margaret had
not only taken away the trousseau bought for her
marriage with Arthur; but, since she was herself
penniless,had paid for it with the money which he
had generously given her. Susie drove then to Mrs.
Bloomfield, who at once reproached her for not com-
ing to see her.
"I'm sorry, but Pve been exceedingly busy, and
I knew that Margaret was looking after you."
"I've not seen Margaret for three weeks/' said the
invalid.
"Haven't you? I thought she dropped in quite
often."
Susie spoke as though the matter were of no im-
portance. She asked herself now where Margaret
could have spent those afternoons. By a great effort
she forced herself to speak of casual things with the
garrulous old lady long enough to make her visit
quite natural. At last it seemed reasonable to go.
She went to the Consulate, and her last doubt was
164 THE MAGICIAN
dissipated. Then nothing remained but to go home
and wait for Arthur. Her first impulse had been to
see Dr. Porhoet and ask for his advice; but, even if
he offered to come back with her to the studio, his
presence would be useless. She must see Arthur by
himself. Her heart was wrung as she thought of
the man's agony when he knew the truth. She had
confessed to herself long before that she loved him
passionately, and it seemed intolerable that she of

all persons must bear him this great blow.

She sat in the studio counting the minutes, and
thought with a bitter smile that his eagerness to see
Margaret would make him punctual. She had eaten
nothing since the petit dejeuner of the morning, and
she was faint with hunger. But she had not the
heart to make herself tea. At last he came. He
entered joyfully and looked around.
"Is Margaret not here yet?" he asked, with sur-
prise.
"Won't you sit down?"
He did not notice that her voice was strange, nor
that she kept her eyes averted.
"How lazy you are," he cried. "You haven't got
the tea."
"Mr. Burdon, I have something to say to you.
It will cause you very great pain."
He observed now the hoarseness of her tone. He
sprang to his feet, and a thousand fancies flashed
across his brain. Something horrible had happened
to Margaret. She was ill. His terror was so great
that he could not speak. He put out his hands as
does a blind man. Susie had to make an effort to
 THE MAGICIAN 16S

go on. But she could not. Her voice was choked,

and she began to cry. Arthur trembled as though he
were seized with ague. She gave him the letter.
"What does it mean?"
He looked at her vacantly. Then she told him
all that she had done that day and the places to

which she had been.

"When you thought she was spending every after-
noon with Mrs. Bloomfield she was with that man.
She made all the arrangements with the utmost
care. It was quite premeditated."
Arthur sat down and leaned his head on his hand.
He turned his back to her, so that she should not
see him. They remained in perfect silence. And it
was so terrible that Susie began to cry quietly. She
knew that the man she loved was suffering an agony
greater than the agony of death, and she could not
help him. Rage flared up in her heart and hatred
for Margaret.
"Oh, infamous!" she cried suddenly. "She's
it's

lied to you, she's been odiously deceitful. She must

be vile and heartless. She must be rotten to the
very soul."
He turned round sharply, and his voice was hard.
"I forbid you to say anything against her."
Susie gave a little gasp. He had never spoken to
her before in anger. She flashed out bitterly.
"Can you love her still, when she's shown her-
self capable of such vile treachery? For nearly a
month this man must have been making love to her,
and she's listened to all we said of him. She's
pretended to hate the sight of him, I've seen her cut
166 THE MAGICIAN
him in the street. She's gone on with all the prep-
arations for your marriage. She must have lived
in a world of lies, and you never suspected anything
because you had an unalterable belief in her love
and truthfulness. She owes everything to you. For
four years she's lived on your charity. She was only
able to be here because you gave her money to carry
out a foolish whim, and the very clothes on her back
were paid for by you."
"I can't help it if she didn't love me," he cried
desperately.
"You know just do that she pretended
as well as I
to love you. Oh, she's behaved shamefully. There
can be no excuse for her."
He looked at Susie with haggard, miserable eyes.
"How can you be so cruel? For God's sake don't
make it harder."
There was an indescribable agony in his voice.
And as if his own words of pain overthrew the last
barrier of his self-control, he broke down utterly.
He hid his face in his hands and sobbed. Susie was
horribly conscience-stricken.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to
say such hateful things. I didn't mean to be unkind.
I ought to have remembered how passionately you

love her."
It was very painful to see the effort he made to
regain his self-command. Susie suffered as much
as he did. Her impulse was to throw herself on
her knees, and kiss his hands, arid comfort him; but
she knew that he was interested in her only because
she was Margaret's friend. At last he got up, and
 THE MAGICIAN 167

taking his pipe from his pocket, filled it silently.

She was terrified at the look on his face. The first
time she had ever seen him, Susie wondered at the
possibility of self-torture which was in that rough-
hewn countenance; but she had never dreamed that it
could express such unutterable agony. Its lines were
suddenly changed, and it was terrible to look upon.
"I can't believe it's true," he muttered. "I can't
believe it."
There was a knock at the door, and Artnur gave
a startled cry.
"Perhaps she's come back."
He opened hurriedly, his face suddenly lit up by
it

expectation; but it was Dr. Porhoet.

"How do you do?" said the Frenchman. "What

ishappening?"
He looked round and caught the dismay that was
on the faces of Arthur and Susie.
"Where is Miss Margaret? I thought you must
be giving a party."
There was something in his manner that made
Susie ask why.
"I received a telegram from Mr. Haddo this

morning."
He took it from his pocket and handed it to Susie.
She read it and passed it to Arthur. It said:

"Come to the studio at five. High jinks.

"OLIVER HADDO."

"Margaret was married to Mr. Haddo this morn-

ing," said Arthur, quietly. "I understand they
have gone to England."
168 THE MAGICIAN
Susie quickly told the doctor the few facts they
knew. He was as surprised, almost as distressed,
as they.
"But what is the explanation of it all?" he asked.
Arthur shrugged his shoulders wearily.
"She cared for Haddo more than she cared for
me, I suppose. It is natural enough that she should
go away in this fashion rather than offer explana-
tions. I suppose she wanted to save herself a scene
which she thought might be rather painful."
"When did you see her last?"
"We
spent yesterday evening together."
"And did she not show in any way that she con-
templated such a step?"
Arthur shook his head.
"You had no quarrel?"
"We've never quarrelled. She was in the best
of spirits. I'venever seen her more gay. She
talked the whole time of our house in London, and
of the places we must visit when we were married."
Another contraction of pain passed over his face
as he remembered that she had been more affection-
ate than she had ever been before. The fire of her
kisses still burnt upon his lips. He had spent a
night of almost sleepless ecstasy because he had
been certain for the first time that the passion which
consumed him burnt in her heart too. Words were
dragged out of him against his will.
"Oh, I'm sure she loved me."
Meanwhile Susie's eyes were fixed on Haddo's cruel
telegram. She seemed to hear his mocking laughter.
"Margaret loathed Oliver Haddo with a hatred
 THE MAGICIAN 169

that was almost unnatural. It was a physical re-

pulsion like that which people sometimes have for

certain animals. What can have happened to change
it into so great a love that it has made her capable
of such villainous acts?"
5
"Wemustn't be unfair to him/ said Arthur.
"He put our backs up, and we were probably un-
just. He has done some very remarkable things in
his day, and he's no fool. It's possible that some

people wouldn't mind the eccentricities which irri-

tated us. He's certainly of very good family and
he's rich. In many ways it's an excellent match
for Margaret."
He was trying with all his might to find excuses

for her. It would not make her treachery so in-

tolerable he could persuade himself that Haddo
if

had qualities which might explain her infatuation.

But as his enemy stood before his fancy, mon-
strously obese, vulgar, and overbearing, a shudder
passed through him. The thought of Margaret in
that man's arms tortured him as though his flesh
were torn with iron hooks.
"Perhaps it's not true. Perhaps she'll return,"
he cried.
"Would you take her back if she came to you?"
asked Susie.
"Do you think anything she can do has the
power to make me love her less? There must be
reasons of which we know nothing that caused her
to do all she has done. I dare say it was inevitable
from the beginning."
Dr. Porhoet got up and walked across the room.
170 THE MAGICIAN
"If a woman had done me such an injury that I
wanted to take some horrible vengeance, I think I
could devise nothing more subtly cruel than to let
her be married to Oliver Haddo."
"Ah, poor thing, poor thing!" said Arthur. "If
I could only suppose she would be happy! The fu-
ture terrifies me/*
"I wonder if she knew that Haddo had sent that
telegram," said Susie.
"What can it matter?"
She turned to Arthur gravely.
"Do you remember that day, in this studio, when
he kicked Margaret's dog, and you thrashed him?
Well, afterwards, when he thought no one saw
him, I happened to catch sight of his face. I never
saw in my life such malignant hatred. It was the
face of a fiend of wickedness. And when he tried
to excuse himself there was a cruel gleam in his
eyes which terrified me. I warned you; I told you
that he had made up his mind to revenge himself,
but you laughed at me. And then he seemed to
go out of our lives, thought no more about
and I
it. I wonder why he sent Dr. Porhoet here to-day.

He must have known that the doctor would hear of

his humiliation, and he may have wished that he
should be present at his triumph. I think that very
moment he made up his mind to be even with you,
and he devised this odious scheme."
"Howcould he know that it was possible to
carry out such a horrible thing?" said Arthur.
"I wonder if Miss Boyd is right," murmured
the doctor. "After all, if you come to think of it,
 THE MAGICIAN 171

he must have thought that he couldn't hurt you

more. The whole thing is fiendish. He took away
from you all your happiness. He must have known
that you wanted nothing in the world more than to
make Margaret your wife, and he has not only pre-
vented that, but he has married her himself. And
he can only have done it by poisoning her mind,
by warping her very character. Her soul must be
horribly besmirched; he must have absolutely
changed her personality."
"Ah, I feel that," cried Arthur."If Margaret
has broken her word to me, if she's gone to him so
callously, it's because it's not the Margaret I know.
Some devil must have taken possession of her body."
"You use a figure of speech. I wonder if it can
possibly be a reality."
Arthur and Dr. Porhoet looked at Susie with
astonishment.
"I can't believe that Margaret could have done
such a thing," she went on. "The more I think
of it the more incredible it seems. I've known
Margaret for years, and she was incapable of de-
ceit. She was very kind-hearted. She was honest
and truthful. In the first moment of horror I was
only indignant, but I don't want to think too badly
of her. There is only one way to excuse her and
that is by supposing she acted under some strange
compulsion."
Arthur clenched his hands.
"I'm not sure if that doesn't make it more awful
than before. If he's married her, not because he
cares, but in order to hurt me, what life will she
172 THE MAGICIAN
lead with him! We know how heartless he is,
and how vindictive, how horribly cruel."
"Dr. Porhoet knows more about these things
than we do/' said Susie. "Is it possible that Haddo
should have cast some spell upon her that would
make her unable to resist his will? Is it possible
that he should have got such an influence over her
that her whole character was changed?"
"How can I tell?" cried the doctor helplessly.
"I have heard that such things may happen. I
have read of them, but I have no proof. In these
matters all is
obscurity. The adepts in magic make
strange claims. Arthur is a man of science, and
he knows what the limits of hypnotism are."
"We know that Haddo had powers that other
men have not," answered Susie. "Perhaps there
was enough truth in his extravagant pretensions to
enable him to do something that we can hardly
imagine."
Arthur passed his hands wearily over his face.
"I'm so broken, so confused, that I cannot think
sanely. At this moment everything seems possible.
My faith in all the truths that have supported me
is tottering."
For a while they remained silent. Arthur's eyes
rested on the chair in which Margaret had so often
sat. An unfinished canvas still stood upon the
easel. It was Dr. Porhoet who spoke at last.
"But even if there were some truth in Miss

Boyd's suppositions, I don't see how it can help

you. You cannot do anything. You have no
remedy, legal or otherwise. Margaret is appar-
 THE MAGICIAN 173

ently a free agent, and she has married this man.

It is plain that many people will think she has
done much better in marrying a country gentleman
than marrying a young surgeon. Her letter is
in

perfectly lucid. There is no trace of compulsion.

To all intents and purposes she has married him
of her own free-will, and there is nothing to show
that she desires to be released from him or from
the passion which we suppose enslaves her."
What he said was obviously true, and no reply
was possible.
"The only thing is to grin and bear it," said
Arthur, rising.
"Where you going?" said Susie.
are
"I think want to get away from Paris. Here
I

everything will remind me of what I have lost. I

must get back to my work."
He had regained command over himself, and ex-
cept for the hopeless woe
of his face, which he could
not prevent from being visible, he was as calm as
ever. He held out his hand to Susie.
"I can only hope that you'll forget," she said.
"I don't wish to forget," he answered, shaking
his head. "It's possible that you will hear from
Margaret. She'll want the things that she has left

here, anddaresay will write to you. I should like

I

you to tell her that I bear her no ill-will for any-

thing she has done, and I will never venture to
reproach her. I don't know if I shall be able to do
anything for her, but I wish her to know that in
any case and always I will do everything that she
wants."
174 THE MAGICIAN
"If she writes to me I will see that she is told,"
answered Susie gravely.
"And now good-bye."
"You can't go to London till to-morrow. Shan't
I see you in the morning?"
"I think, if you don't mind, I won't come here
again. Thesight of all this rather disturbs me."
Again a contraction of pain passed across his eyes,
and Susie saw that he was using a superhuman effort
to preserve the appearance of composure. She
hesitated a moment.
"Shall I never see you again?" she said. "I
should be sorry to lose sight of you entirely."
"I should be sorry too," he answered. "I have
learned how good and kind you are, and I shall
never forget that you are Margaret's friend. When
you come to London I hope that you will me
let
know."
He went out. Dr. Porhoet, his hands behind his
back, began to walk up and down the room. At
last he turned to Susie.
"There one thing that puzzles me," he said.
is

"Why did he marry her?"

"You heard what Arthur said," answered Susie
bitterly. "Whatever happened he would have taken
her back. The other man knew that he could only
bind her to him securely by going through the
ceremonies of marriage."
Dr. Porhoet shrugged his shoulders, and presently
he left her. When Susie was alone she began to weep
broken-heartedly, not for herself, but because Arthur
suffered an agony that was hardly endurable.
 Chapter XI

RTHUR went back to London next day.

Susie felt was impossible any longer to
it

stay in that deserted studio, and accepted a friend's

invitation to spend the winter in Italy. The good
Dr. Porhoet remained in Paris with his books and
his occult studies.
Susie travelled through Tuscany and
slowly
Umbria. Margaret had not written to her, and
Susie, on leaving Paris, had sent her friend's be-
longings to an address from which she knew they
would eventually be forwarded. She could not
bring herself to write. In answer to a note an-
nouncing her change of plans, Arthur wrote briefly
that he had much work to do and was delivering a
new course of lectures at St. Luke's; he had lately
been appointed visiting surgeon to another hos-
pital, and his private practice was increasing. He
did not mention Margaret. His letter was abrupt,
formal, and constrained. Susie, reading it for the
tenth time, could make little of it. She saw that
he wrote only from civility, without interest; and
there was nothing to indicate his state of mind.
Susie and her companion had made up their minds
to pass some weeks in Rome; and here, to her great
astonishment, Susie had news of Haddo and his
wife. It appeared that they had spent some time
176 THE MAGICIAN
there, and the little English circle was talking still

of their eccentricities. They travelled in some

state, with a courier and a suite of servants; they
had taken a carriage and were in the habit of driv-
ing every afternoon on the Pincio. Haddo had
excited attention by the extravagance of his cos-
tume, and Margaret by her beauty; she was to be
seen in her box at the opera every night, and her
diamonds were the envy of all beholders. Though
people had laughed a good deal at Haddo's preten-
tiousness, and been exasperated by his arrogance,

they could not fail to be impressed by his obvious

wealth. But finally the pair had disappeared sud-
denly without saying a word to anybody. A good
many bills remained unpaid, but these, Susie learnt,
had been settled later. It was reported that they
were now in Monte Carlo.
"Did they seem happy?" Susie asked the gos-
siping friend who gave her this scanty information.
"I think so. After all, Mrs. Haddo has almost

everything that a woman can want, riches, beauty,

nice clothes, jewels. She would be very unreasonable
not to be happy."
Susie had meant to pass the later spring on the
Riviera, but when she heard that the Haddos were
there, she hesitated. She did not want to run any
risk of seeing them, and yet she had a keen de-
sire to find out exactly how things were going.
Curiosity and distaste struggled in her mind, but
curiosity won; and she persuaded her friend to go
actually to Monte Carlo instead of to Beaulieu.
At first Susie did not see the Haddos; but rumour
 THE MAGICIAN 177

was already much occupied with them, and she had

only to keep her ears open. In that strange place
where all that is extravagant and evil, all that is

morbid, insane, and fantastic, is gathered together,

the Haddos were in fit company. They were no-
torious for their assiduity at the tables and for
their luck, for the dinners and suppers they gave
at places frequented by the very opulent, and for
their eccentric appearance. It was a complex pic-
ture that Susie put together from the scraps of in-
formation she collected. After two or three days
she saw them they were so ab-
at the tables, but
sorbed in their game that she quite safe from
felt

discovery. Margaret was playing, but Haddo

stood behind her and directed her movements.
Their faces were extraordinarily intent. Susie
fixed her attention on Margaret, for in what she
had heard of her, she had been quite unable to
recognise the girl who had been her friend. And
what struck her most now was that there was in
Margaret's expression a singular likeness to Haddo.
Notwithstanding her exquisite beauty, she had a
curiously vicious look, which suggested that some-
how she saw literally with Oliver's eyes. They had
won great sums that evening and many persons
watched them. appeared that they played always
It
in this fashion, Margaret putting on the stakes and
Haddo telling her what to do and when to stop.
Susie heard two Frenchmen talking of them. She
listened with all her ears. She flushed as she heard
one of them make an observation about Margaret
which was more than coarse. The other laughed.
178 THE MAGICIAN
"It is incredible," he said.
"I assure you it's true. They have been mar-
ried six months, a;id she is still only his wife in
name. The superstitious through allthe ages have
believed in the power of virginity, and the church
has made use of the idea for its own ends. The
man uses her simply as a mascot."
The men laughed, and their conversation pro-
ceeded so grossly that Susie's cheeks burned. But
what she had heard made her look at Margaret
more closely still. She was radiant. Susie could
not deny that something had come to her that gave
4

a new, enigmatic savour to her beauty. She was

dressed more gorgeously than Susie's fastidious
taste would have permitted; and her diamonds,
splendid in themselves, were too magnificent for
the occasion. At last, sweeping up the money,
Haddo touched her on the shoulder, and she rose.
Behind was standing a painted woman of
her
notorious disreputability. Susie was astonished
to see Margaret smile and nod as she passed
her.
Susie that the Haddos had a suite of
learnt
rooms at themost expensive of the hotels. They
lived in a whirl of gaiety. They knew few Eng-
lish except those whose reputations were damaged,
but seemed to prefer the society of those foreigners
whose wealth and eccentricities made them the
cynosure of that little world. Afterwards she often
saw them, in company of Russian Grand-dukes and
their mistresses, of South American women with

prodigious diamonds, of noble gamblers and great

 THE MAGICIAN 179

ladies of doubtful fame, of strange men over-

dressed and scented. Rumour was increasingly
busy with them. Margaret moved among all
these queer people with a cold mysteriousness that
excited the curiosity of those sated idlers. The
suggestion which Susie had overheard was repeated
more circumstantially. But to this was joined
presently the report of orgies that were enacted in
the darkened sitting-room of the hotel, when all
that was noble and vicious in Monte Carlo was
present. Oliver's eccentric imagination invented
whimsical festivities. He had a passion for dis-
guise, and he gave a fancy dress party of which
fabulous storie;s were told. He sought to revive the
mystical ceremonies of old religions, and it was re-
ported that horrible rites had been performed in
the garden of a villa, under the shining moon, in
imitation of those he had seen in Eastern places. It
was said that Haddo had magical powers of ex-
traordinary character, and the tired imagination of
those pleasure-seekers was tickled by his talk of
black art. Some even asserted that the blasphe-
mous ceremonies of the Black Mass had been cele-
brated in the house of a Polish prince. People
babbled of satanism and of necromancy. Haddo
was thought to be immersed in occult studies for
the performance of a magical operation; and some
said that he was occupied with the Magnum Opus,
the greatest and most fantastic of alchemical ex-
periments. Gradually these stories were narrowed
down to the monstrous assertion that he was at-
tempting to create human beings. He had ex-
180 THE MAGICIAN
plained at length to somebody that magical receipts
existed for the manufacture of homunculi.
Haddo was known generally by the name he was
pleased to give himself, The Brother of the Shadow;
but most people used it in derision, for it contrasted
absurdly with his astonishing bulk. They were
amused or outraged by his vanity, but they could
not help talking about him, and Susie knew well
enough by now that nothing pleased him more. His
exploits as a lion-hunter were well known, and it
was reported that human blood was on his hands.
It was soon discovered that he had a queer power
over animals, so that in his presence they were
seized with unaccountable terror. He succeeded in
surrounding himself with an atmosphere of the fabu-
lous, and nothing that was told of him was too
extravagant for But unpleasant stories were
belief.
circulated also,and someone related that he had
been turned out of a club in Vienna for cheating at
cards. He played many games, but here, as at
Oxford, was found that he was an unscrupulous
it

opponent. And those old rumours followed him

that he took strange drugs. He was supposed to
have odious vices, and people whispered to one
another of scandals that had been with difficulty
suppressed. No one quite understood on what terms
he was with his wife, and it was vaguely asserted
that he was at times brutally cruel to her. Susie's
heart sank when she heard this; but on the few
occasions upon which she caught sight of Margaret,
she seemed in the highest spirits. One story inex-
pressibly shocked her. After lunching at some
 THE MAGICIAN 181

restaurant, Haddo gave a bad louis among the

money with which he paid the bill, and there was a
disgraceful altercation with the waiter. He refused
to change the coin a policeman was brought in.
till

His guests were furious, and several took the first

opportunity to cut him dead. One of those present
narrated the scene to Susie, and she was told that
Margaret laughed unconcernedly with her neighbour
while the sordid quarrel was proceeding. The man's
blood was as good as his fortune was substantial,
but it seemed to please him to behave like an adven-
turer. Theincident was soon common property, and
gradually the Haddos found themselves cold-shoul-
dered. The persons with whom they mostly con-
sorted had reputations too delicate to stand the
glare of publicity which shone upon all who were
connected with him, and the suggestion of police
had thrown a shudder down many a spine. What
had happened in Rome happened here again: they
suddenly disappeared.
Susie had not been in London for some time, and
as the spring advanced she remembered that her
friends would be glad to see her. It would be

charming to spend a few weeks there with an ade-

quate income; for its pleasures had hitherto been
closed to her, and she looked forward to her visit
as if it were to a foreign city. But though she
would not confess it to herself, her desire to see
Arthur was the strongest of her motives. Time and
absence had deadened a little the intensity of her
feelings, and she could afford to acknowledge that
she regarded him with very great affection. She
182 THE MAGICIAN
knew that he would never care for her, but she was
content to be his friend. She could think of him
without pain.
Susie stayed in Paris for three weeks to buy some
of the clothes which she asserted were now her
only pleasure in life, and then went to London.
She wrote to Arthur, and he invited her at once to
lunch with him at a restaurant. She was vexed,
for she felt they could have spoken more freely in
his own house; but as soon as she saw him, she
realised that he had chosen their meeting-place

deliberately. The crowd of people that surrounded

them, the gaiety, the playing of the band, prevented
any intimacy of conversation. They were forced
to talk of commonplaces. Susie was positively ter-
rified at the change that had taken place in him.
He looked ten years older; he had lost flesh, and
his hair was sprinkled with white. His face was
extraordinarily drawn, and his eyes were weary
from lack of sleep. But what most struck her was
the change in his expression. The look of pain
which she had seen on his face that last evening in
the studio was now become settled, so that it al-
tered the lines of his countenance. It was painful
to look at him. He was more silent than ever,
and when he spoke it was in a strange low voice
that seemed to come from a long way off. To be
with him made Susie curiously uneasy, for there
was a strenuousness in him which deprived his
manner of all repose. One of the things that had
pleased her in him formerly was the tranquillity
which gave one the impression that here was a man
 THE MAGICIAN 183

who could be relied on in difficulties. At first she

could not understand exactly what had happened,
but in a moment saw that he was making an un-
ceasing effort at self-control.He was never free
from suffering and he was constantly on the alert
to prevent anyone from seeing it. The strain gave
him a peculiar restlessness.
But he was gentler than he had ever been before.
He seemed genuinely glad to see her and asked
about her travels with interest. Susie led him to
talk of himself, and he spoke willingly enough of
his daily round. He was earning a good deal of
money, and his professional reputation was mak-
ing steady progress. He worked hard., Besides
his duties at the two hospitals with which he was
now connected, his teaching, and his private practice,
he had read of late one or two papers before scientific
bodies, and was editing a large work on surgery.
"How on earth can you find time to do so much?"
asked Susie.
"I can do with less sleep than I used," he an-
swered. "It almost doubles my working-day."
He stopped abruptly and looked down. His re-
mark had given accidentally some hint at the inner
lifewhich he was striving to conceal. Susie knew
that her suspicion was well-founded. She thought
of the long hours he lay awake, trying in vain to
drive from his mind the agony that tortured him,
and the short intervals of troubled sleep. She
knew that he delayed as long as possible the fatal
moment of going to bed and welcomed the first
light of day, which gave him an excuse for getting
184 THE MAGICIAN
up. And because he knew that he had let out the
truth he was embarrassed. They sat in awkward
silence. To Susie the tragic figure in front of her
was singularly impressive amid that lighthearted
throng: all about them happy persons were enjoy-
ing the good things of life, talking, laughing, and
making merry. She wondered what refinement of
self-torture had driven him to choose that place to
come to. He must hate it.

When they luncheon, Susie took her

finished

courage in both hands.

"Won't you come back to my rooms for half an
hour? We can't talk here."
He made an instinctive motion of withdrawal,
as though he sought to escape. He did not answer
immediately, and she insisted.
"You have nothing to do for an hour, and there
aremany things I want to speak to you about."
"The only way to be strong is never to sur-
render to one's weakness," he said, almost in a
whisper, as though ashamed to talk so intimately.
"Then you won't come?"
"No."
It was not necessary to specify the matter which
it was proposed to discuss. Arthur knew perfectly
that Susie wished to talk of Margaret, and he was
too straightforward to pretend otherwise. Susie
paused for one moment.
"I was never able to give Margaret your message.
She did not write to me."
A certain wildness came into his eyes, as if the
effort he made was almost too much for him.
 THE MAGICIAN 185

"I saw her in Monte Carlo," said Susie. "I

thought you might like to hear about her."
"I don't see that it can do any good," he an-
swered.
Susie made a little hopeless gesture. She was
beaten.
"Shall we go?" she said.
"You are not angry with me?" he asked. "I
know you mean to be kind. I'm very grateful to
you."
"I shall never be angry with you," she smiled.
Arthur paid the bill, and they threaded their way
among the tables. At the door she held out her
hand.
"I think you do wrong in shutting yourself away
from all human comradeship," she said, with that
good-humoured smile of hers. "You must know
that you will only grow absurdly morbid."
"I go out a great deal," he answered patiently,
as though he reasoned with a child. "I make a
point of offering myself distractions from my work.
I go to the opera two or three times a week."
"I thought you didn't care for music."
"I don't think I did," he answered. "But I find
it rests me."

He spoke with a weariness that was appalling.

Susie had never beheld so plainly the torment of a
soul in pain.
"Won't you let me come to the opera with you
one night?" she asked. "Or does it bore you to
see me?"
"I should like it above all things," he smiled,
186 THE MAGICIAN
quite brightly. "You're like a wonderful tonic.
They're giving Tristan on Thursday. Shall we go
together?"
"I should enjoy it enormously/'
She shook hands with him and jumped into a cab.
"Oh, poor thing!" she murmured. "Poor thing!
What can I do for him?"
She clenched her hands when she thought of
Margaret. It was monstrous that she should have
caused such havoc in that good, strong man.
"Oh, I hope she'll suffer for it," she whispered
vindictively. "I hope she'll suffer all the agony that
he has suffered."
Susie dressed herself for Covent Garden as only
she could do. Her gown pleased her exceedingly,
not only because it was admirably made, but be-
cause it had cost far more than she could afford.
To dress well was her only extravagance. It was
of taffeta silk, in that exquisite green which the
learned in such matters call Eau de Nil; and its
beauty was enhanced by the old lace which had
formed not the least treasured part of her inherit-
ance. In her hair she wore an ornament of old
Spanish paste, of exquisite workmanship, and round
her neck a chain which had once adorned that of a
madonna in an Andalusian church. Her individu-
ality made even her plainness attractive. She
smiled at herself in the glass ruefully because Arthur
would never notice that she was perfectly dressed.
When she tripped down the stairs and across the
pavement to the cab with which he fetched her,
Susie held up her skirt with a grace she flattered
 THE MAGICIAN 187

herself was quite Parisian. As they drove along

she flirted a with her Spanish fan and stole a
little

glance at herself in the glass. Her gloves were so

long and so new and so expensive that she was
really indifferent to Arthur's inattention.
Her joyous temperament expanded like a spring
flower when she found herself in the Opera House.
She put up her glasses and examined the women as
they came into the boxes of the Grand Tier. Arthur
pointed out a number of persons whose names were
familiar to her, but she felt the effort he was making
to be amiable. The weariness of his mouth that
evening was more noticeable because of the careless
throng. But when the music began he seemed to
forget that any eye was upon him; he relaxed the
constant tension in which he held himself; and
Susie, watching him surreptitiously, saw the emo-
tions chase one another across his face. It was now
very mobile. The passionate sounds ate into his
soul,mingling with his own love and his own sorrow,
tillhe was taken out of himself; and sometimes he
panted strangely. Through the interval he remained
absorbed in his emotion. He sat as quietly as
before and did not speak a word. Susie understood
why Arthur, notwithstanding his old indifference,
now showed such eager appreciation of music: it
eased the pain he suffered by transferring it to an
ideal world,and his own grievous sorrow made the
music so real that it gave him an enjoyment of
extraordinary vehemence. When it was all over
and Isolde had given her last wail of sorrow, Arthur
was so exhausted that he could hardly stir.
188 THE MAGICIAN
But they went out with the crowd, and while
they were waiting in the vestibule for space to move
in, a common friend came up to them. This was
Arbuthnot, an eye-specialist, whom Susie had met
on the Riviera and who, she presently discovered,
was a colleague of Arthur's at St. Luke's. He was
a prosperous bachelor with grey hair and a red,
contented face, well-to-do, for his practice was large,
and lavish with his money. He had taken Susie
out to luncheon once or twice in Monte
Carlo; for
he liked women, pretty or plain, and she attracted
him by her good humour. He rushed up to them
now and wrung their hands. He spoke in a jovial
voice.
"The very people I wanted to see! Why haven't
you been to see me, you wicked woman? I'm sure
your eyes are in a deplorable condition."
"Do you think I would let a bold, bad man like

you stare into them with an ophthalmoscope?'*

laughed Susie.
"Now, look here, I want you both to do me a
great favour. I'm giving a supper party at the
Savoy, and two of my people have suddenly failed
me. The table is ordered for eight, and you must
come and take their places/'
"I'm afraid I must get home," said Arthur. "I
have a deuce of a lot of work to do."
"Nonsense," answered Arbuthnot. "You work
much too hard, and a little relaxation will do you
good." He turned to Susie: "I know you like
curiosities in human nature; I'm having a man and
his wife who will positively thrill you, they're so
 THE MAGICIAN 189

queer, and a lovely actress, and an awfully jolly

American girl/*
"I should love to come," said Susie, with an ap-
pealing look at Arthur, "if only to show you how
much more amusing I am than lovely actresses."
Arthur, forcing himself to smile, accepted the in-
vitation. The specialist patted him cheerily on the
4>ack,and they agreed to meet at the Savoy.
"It's awfully good of you to come," said Susie,
as they drove along. "Do you know, I've never
been there in my life, and I'm palpitating with ex-
citement."
"What a selfish brute I was to refuse!" he an-
swered.
When Susie came out of the dressing-room, she
found Arthur waiting for her. She was in the best
of spirits.
"Now you must say you like my frock. I've
seen six women turn green with envy at the sight
of it. They think I must be French, and they're
sure I'm not respectable."
"That is evidently a great compliment," he smiled.
At that moment Arbuthnot came up to them in
his eager way and seized their arms.
"Come along. We're waiting for you. I'll just
introduce you all round, and then we'll go in to
supper."
They walked down the steps into the foyer, and
he led them to a group of people. They found
themselves face to face with Oliver Haddo and
Margaret.
"Mr. Arthur Burdon Mrs. Haddo. Mr. Burdon
190 THE MAGICIAN
is a colleague of mine at St. Luke's; and he will cut

out your appendix in a shorter time than any man

alive."
Arbuthnot rattled on. He did not notice that
Arthur had grown ghastly pale and that Margaret
was blank with consternation. Haddo, his heavy
face wreathed with smiles, stepped forward heartily.
He seemed thoroughly to enjoy the situation.
"Mr. Burdon is an old friend of ours/' he said.
"In fact, it was he who introduced me to my wife.
And Miss Boyd and I have discussed Art and the
Immortality of the Soul with the gravity due to
such topics."
He held out his hand, and Susie took it. She had
a horror of scenes, and, though this encounter was
as unexpected as it was disagreeable, she felt it

needful to behave naturally. She shook hands with

Margaret.
"How disappointing!" cried their host. "I was
hoping to give Miss Boyd something quite new in
the way of magicians, and behold! she knows all
about him."
"If she did I'm quite sure she wouldn't speak to
me." said Oliver, with a bantering smile.
They went into the supper-room.
"Now, how shall we sit?" said Arbuthnot, glanc-
ing round the table.
Oliver looked at Arthur, and his eyes twinkled.
"You must really let my wife and Mr. Burdon
be together. They haven't seen one another for so
long that I'm sure they have no end of things to
talk about." He chuckled to himself. "And pray
 THE MAGICIAN 191

give me Miss Boyd so that she can abuse me to her

heart's content."
This arrangement thoroughly suited the gay spe-
cialist, for he was able to put the beautiful actress
on one side of him and the charming American on
the other. He rubbed his hands.
"I feel that we're going to have a delightful
supper/'
Oliver laughed boisterously. He took, as was his
habit, the whole conversation upon himself, and
Susie was obliged to confess that he was at his
best. There was a grotesque drollery about him
that was very diverting, and it was almost impos-
sible to resist him. He ate and drank with tremen-
dous appetite. Susie thanked her stars at that
moment that she was a woman who knew by long
practice how to conceal her feelings, for Arthur,
overcome with dismay at the meeting, sat in stony
silence. But she talked gaily. She chaffed Oliver
as though he were an old friend and laughed viva-
ciously. She noticed meanwhile that Haddo, more
extravagantly dressed than usual, had managed to
get an odd fantasy into his evening clothes; he wore
knee-breeches, which in itself was enough to excite
attention; but his frilled shirt, his velvet collar, and
oddly-cut satin waistcoat, gave him the appearance
of a comic Frenchman. Now that she was able to
examine him more closely, she saw that in the last
six months he was grown much balder; and the shiny
whiteness of his naked crown contrasted oddly with
the redness of his face. He was stouter, too, and the
fat hung in heavy folds under his chin; his paunch
192 THE MAGICIAN
was preposterous. The vivacity of hismovements
made his huge corpulence subtly alarming. He was
growing indeed strangely terrible in appearance. His
eyes had still that fixed, parallel look, but there was
in them now at times a ferocious gleam. Margaret
was as beautiful as ever, but Susie noticed that his
influencewas apparent in her dress; for there could
be no doubt that it had crossed the line of individ-
uality and had degenerated into the eccentric. Her
gown was much too gorgeous. It told against the
classical character of her beauty. Susie shuddered a
little, reminded her of a courtesan's.
for it

Margaret talked and laughed as much as her hus-

band, but Susie could not tell whether this anima-
tion was affected or due to an utter callousness.
Her voice seemed natural enough, yet it was incon-
ceivable that she should be so lighthearted. Perhaps
she was trying to show that she was happy. The
supper proceeded, and the lights, the surrounding
gaiety, the champagne, made everyone more lively.
Their host was in uproarious spirits. He told a
story or two at which everyone laughed. Oliver
Haddo had an amusing anecdote handy. It was a
little risky, but it was so funnily narrated that every-

one roared but Arthur, who remained in perfect

silence. Margaret had been drinking glass after
glass of wine, and no sooner had her husband finished
than she capped his story with another. But whereas
his was was simply gross. At
wittily immoral, hers
first the other could not understand to what
women
she was tending, but when they saw, they looked
down awkwardly at their plates. Arbuthnot, Haddo,
 THE MAGICIAN 193

and the other man who was there laughed very

heartily; but Arthur flushed to the roots of his hair.
He felt horribly uncomfortable. He was ashamed.
He dared not look at Margaret. It was inconceiv-
able that from her exquisite mouth such indecency
should issue. Margaret, apparently quite uncon-
scious of the effect she had produced, went on talking
and laughing.
Soon the lights were put out, and Arthur's agony
was ended. He wanted to rush away, to hide his
face, to forget the sight of her and her gaiety, above
all to forget that story. It was horrible, horrible.
She shook hands with him quite lightly.
"You must come and see us one day. We've got
'
rooms at the Carlton.
He bowed and did not answer. Susie had gone
to the dressing-room to get her cloak. She stood at
when Margaret came out.
the door
"Can we drop you anywhere?" said Margaret.
"You must come and see us when you have nothing
better to do."
Susie threw back her head. Arthur was standing
just in front of
them, looking down at the ground in
complete abstraction.
"Do you see him?" she said, in a low voice quiver-
ing with indignation. "That is what you have made
him."
He looked up at that moment and turned upon
them his sunken, tormented eyes. They saw his
wan, pallid face with its look of hopeless woe.
"Do you know that he's killing himself on your
account? He can't sleep at night. He's suffered the
194 THE MAGICIAN
tortures of the damned. Oh, I hope you'll suffer as
he's suffered!"
"I wonder that you blame me/' said Margaret.
"You ought to be rather grateful."
"Why?"
"You're not going to deny that you've loved him
passionately from the first day you saw him? Do
you think I didn't see that you cared for him in
Paris? You care for him now more than ever."
Susie suddenly sick at heart. She
felt had never
dreamt that her secret was discovered. Margaret
gave a bitter little laugh and walked past her.
 Chapter XII

ARTHUR BURDON spent two or three days in a

jT\ state of utter uncertainty, but at last the idea
he had in mind grew so compelling as to overcome all
objections. He went to the
Carlton and asked for
Margaret. He had learnt
from the porter that
Haddo was gone out and so counted on finding her
alone. A
simple device enabled him to avoid send-
ing up his name. When he was shown into her
private room Margaret was sitting down. She
neither read nor worked.
"You told me I might call upon you," said
Arthur.
She stood up. without answering, and turned
deathly pale.
"May I sit down?" he asked.
She bowed her head. For a moment they looked
at one another in silence. Arthur suddenly forgot
all he had prepared to say. His intrusion seemed
intolerable.
5

"Why have you come?' she said, hoarsely.

They both felt that it was useless to attempt the

conventionality of society. It was impossible to

deal with the polite commonplaces that ease an
awkward situation.
"I thought that I might be able to help you," he
answered gravely.
195
196 THE MAGICIAN
"I want no help. I'm perfectly happy. I have
nothing to say to you."
She spoke hurriedly, with a certain nervousness,
and her eyes were fixed anxiously on the door as
though she feared that someone would come in.
"I feel that we have much to say to one another,"
he insisted. "If it is inconvenient for us to talk here,
will you not come and see me?"
"He'd know," she cried suddenly, as if the words
were dragged out of her. "D'you think anything
can be hidden from him?"
Arthur glanced at her. He was horrified by the
terror thatwas in her eyes. In the full light of day
a change was plain in her expression. Her face was
strangely drawn, and pinched, and there was in it a
constant look as of a person cowed. Arthur turned
away.
"I want you to know that I do not blame you in
the least for anything you did. No action of yours
can ever lessen my affection for you."
"Oh, why did you come here? Why do you tor-
ture me by saying such things?"
She burst on a sudden into a flood of tears and
walked excitedly up and down the room.
"Oh, if you wanted me to be punished for the pain
I've caused you, you can triumph now. Susie said
she hoped I'd suffer all the agony that Fve made you

suffer. If she only knew!"

Margaret gave a hysterical laugh. She flung her-
selfon her knees by Arthur's side and seized his
hands.
"Did she think I didn't see? My heart bled when
 THE MAGICIAN 197

I looked at your poor wan

and your tortured
face

eyes. Oh, you've changed. could never have

I

believed that a man could change so much in so few

months, and it's I who've caused it all. Oh, Arthur,
Arthur, you must forgive me. And you must pity
me."
"But there's nothing to forgive, darling," he cried.
She looked at him steadily. Her eyes now were
shining with a hard brightness.
"You say that, but you don't really think it. And
yet if
you only knew, all that I have endured
is

on your account."
She made a great effort to be calm.
"What do you mean?" said Arthur.
"He never loved me, he would never have thought
of me if he hadn't wanted to wound you in what you
treasured most. He hated you, and he's made me
what I am you might suffer. It isn't I who
so that
did but a devil within me; it isn't I who
all this,

lied to you and left you and caused you all this

unhappiness."
She rose to her feet and sighed deeply.
"Once I thought he was dying, and I helped him.
I took him into the studio and gave him water. And
he gained some dreadful power over me so that
I've been like wax in his hands. All my will has
disappeared, and I have to do his bidding. And
"
if I try to resist . .

Her face twitched with pain and fear.

"I've found out everything since. I know that
on that day when he seemed to be at the point of
death, he was merely playing a trick on me, and he
198 THE MAGICIAN
got Susie out of the way by sending a telegram
from a whose name he had seen on a photograph.
girl
I've heard him roar with laughter at his cleverness/*
She stopped suddenly, and a look of frightful
agony crossed her face.
"And at this very minute, for all I know, it may
be by his influence that I say this to you, so that he

may cause you still greater suffering by allowing

me to tell you that he never cared for me. You
know now that my life is hell, and his vengeance is

complete."
"Vengeance for what?"
"Don't you remember that you hit him once, and
kicked him unmercifully? I know him well now.
He could have killed you, but he hated you too
much. It pleased him a thousand times more to
devise this torture for you and me."
Margaret's agitation was terrible to behold. This
was the first time that she had ever spoken to a
soul of all these things, and now the long restraint
had burst as burst the waters of a dam. Arthur
sought to calm her.
"You're ill and overwrought. You must try to
compose yourself. After all Haddo is a human being
like the rest of us."
"Yes, you always laughed at his claims. You
wouldn't listen to the things he said. But I know.
Oh, I can't explain it; I daresay common-sense and
probability are all against it, but I've seen things
with my own eyes that pass all comprehension. I
tell you he has powers of the most awful kind.

That first day when I was alone with him, he seemed

 THE MAGICIAN 199

to take me to some kind of sabbath. I don't know

what it was, but I saw horrors, vile horrors, that

rankled for ever after like poison in my mind;

and, when we went up to his house in Staffordshire,
I recognised the scene; I recognised the arid rocks,
and the trees, and the lay of the land. I knew I'd
been there before on that fatal afternoon. Oh, you
must believe me! Sometimes I think I shall go
mad with the terror of it all."
Arthur did not speak. Her words caused a ghastly
suspicion to flash through his mind, and he could
hardly contain himself. He thought that some
dreadful shock had turned her brain. She buried
her face in her hands.
"Look here," he said, "you must come away at
once. You can't continue to live with him. You
must never go back to Skene."
"I can't leave him. We're bound together in-

separably."
"But it's monstrous. There can be nothing to
keep you to him. Come back to Susie. She'll be
very kind to you; she'll help you to forget all you've
endured."
"It's no use. You can do nothing for me."
"Why not?"
"Because, notwithstanding, I love him with all

my soul."

"Margaret!"
"I hate him. He fills me with repulsion. And
yet I do not know what there is in my blood that
draws me to him against my will. My flesh cries
out for him."
200 THE MAGICIAN
Arthur looked away in embarrassment. He could
not help a slight, instinctive movement of with-
drawal.
"Do I disgust you?'* she said.
He flushed slightly, but scarcely knew how to
answer. He made a vague gesture of denial.
"If you only knew," she said.
There was something so extraordinary in her tone
that he gave her a quick glance of surprise. He
saw that her cheeks were flaming. Her bosom was
panting as though she were again on the point of
breaking into a passion of tears.
"For God's sake, don't look at me!" she cried.
She turned away and hid her face. The words
she uttered were in a shamed unnatural voice.
"If you'd been at Monte Carlo you'd have heard
them say, God knows how they knew it, that it was
only through me he had his luck at the tables.
He's contented himself with filling my soul with
vice. And yet I have no purity in me. I'm sullied
through and through. He has made me into a sink
of iniquity, and I loathe myself. I cannot look at
myself without a shudder of disgust."
A cold sweat came over Arthur, and he grew more
pale than ever. He realised now he was in the
presence of a mystery that he could not unravel.
She went on feverishly.
"The other night, at supper, I told a story, and
I saw you wince with shame. It wasn't I that told
it. The impulse came from him, and I knew it
was vile, and yet I told it with gusto. I enjoyed the
telling of it; I enjoyed the pain I gave you, and the
 THE MAGICIAN 201

dismay of those women. There seem to be two per-

sons in me, and my real self, the old one that you
knew and loved, is growing weaker day by day, and
soon she will be dead entirely. And there will remain
only the wanton soul in the virgin body."
Arthur tried to gather his wits together. He
felt it an occasion on which it was essential to hold

on to the normal view of things.

"But for God's sake leave him. What you've
told me you every ground
gives for divorce. It's

all monstrous. The man must be so mad that he

ought to be put in a lunatic asylum."
"You can do nothing for me," she said.
"But if he doesn't love you what does he want
you for?"
"I don't know, but I'm beginning to suspect."
She looked at Arthur steadily. She was now
quite calm.
"I think he wishes to use me for a magical opera-
tion. I don't know if he's mad or not. But I think
he means to try some horrible experiment, and I

am needful for its success. That is my safeguard."

"Your safeguard?"
"He won't kill me because he needs me for that.
Perhaps in the process I shall regain my freedom/'
Arthur was shocked at the callousness with which
she spoke. He went up to her and put his hands
on her shoulders.
"Look here, you must pull yourself together,
Margaret. This isn't sane. If you don't take
care your mind will give way altogether. You
must come with me now. When you're- out of his
202 THE MAGICIAN
hands, you'll soon regain your calmness of mind,
You need never see him again. If you're afraid,
you shall be hidden from him, and lawyers shall

arrange everything between you."

"I daren't."
"But I promise you that you can come to no
harm. Be reasonable. We're in London now, sur-
rounded by people on every side. How do you
think he can touch you while we drive through the
crowded streets? I'll take you straight to Susie.
In a week you'll laugh at the idle fears you had."
"How do you know that he is not in the room
at this moment
listening to all you say?"
The question was so sudden, so unexpected, that
Arthur was startled. He looked round quickly.
"You must be mad. You see that the room is

empty."
"I tell you that you don't know what powers he
has. Have you ever heard those old legends with
which nurses used to frighten our childhood, of
men who could turn themselves into wolves, and
who scoured the country at night?" She looked
at him with staring eyes. "Sometimes when he's
come in at Skene in the morning, with blood-shot
eyes, exhausted with fatigue and strangely discom-
posed, I've imagined that he too .".She stopped
.

and threw back her head. "You're right, Arthur,

I think I shall go mad."
He watched her helplessly. He did not know
what to do. Margaret went on, her voice quivering
with anguish.
"When we were married I reminded him that
 THE MAGICIAN 203

he'd promised to take me to his mother. He would

never speak of her, but I felt I must see her. And
one day, suddenly, he told me to get ready for a
journey, and we went a long way, to a place I did
not know, and we drove into the country. We
seemed to go miles and miles. And we reached at
last a large house, surrounded by a high wall, and
the windows were heavily barred. We were shown
into a great empty room. It was dismal and cold
like the waiting-room at a station. A man came in
to us, a tall man, in a frock-coat and gold spectacles.
He was introduced to me as Dr. Taylor, and then,
suddenly, I understood."
Margaret spoke in hurried gasps, and her eyes
were staring wide, as though she saw still the scene
which at the time had seemed the crowning horror
of her experience.
"I knew it was an asylum, and Oliver hadn't
told me a word. He took us up a broad flight of
stairs, through a large dormitory oh, you only
if

knew what I saw there! I was so horribly fright-

ened, I'd never been in such a place before to a
cell. And the walls and the floor were padded."
Margaret passed her hand across her forehead to
chase away the recollection of that awful sight.

"Oh, I see it
still. I can never get it out of my
mind."
She remembered with a morbid vividness the
vast, misshapen mass which she had seen heaped
strangely in one corner. There was a slight move-
ment in it as they entered, and she perceived that
it was a human being. It was a woman, dressed in
204 THE MAGICIAN
shapeless brown flannel; a woman of great stature
and of a revolting, excessive corpulence. She turned
upon them a huge, impassive face; and its unwrinkled
smoothness gave it an appearance of aborted childish-
ness. The hair was and scanty.
dishevelled, grey,
But what most terrified Margaret was that she saw
in this creature an appalling likeness to Oliver.
"He told me it was his mother, and she'd been

there for five-and-twenty years."

Arthur could hardly bear the terror that was in

Margaret's eyes. He did not know what to say

to her. In a little while she began to speak again,
in a low voice and rapidly, as though to herself,
and she wrung her hands.
"Oh, you don't know what I've endured! He
used to spend long periods away from me, and I
remained alone at Skene from morning till night,
alone with my abject fear. Sometimes it seemed
that he was seized with a devouring lust for the
and
gutter, he would go to Liverpool or Manchester
and throw himself among the very dregs of the
people. He used to pass long days, drinking in filthy
pot-houses. While the bout lasted nothing was too
depraved for him. He loved the
company of all that
was criminal and He
used to smoke opium in
low.
foetid dens oh, you have no conception of his pas-
sion to degrade himself and at last he would come
back, dirty, with torn clothes, begrimed, sodden still
with his long debauch; and his mouth was hot with
the kisses of the vile women of the docks. Oh, he's
so cruel when the fit takes him that I think he has a
fiendish pleasure in the sight of suffering!"
 THE MAGICIAN 205

It was more than Arthur could stand. His mind

was made up to try a bold course. He saw on the
table a whisky bottle and glasses. He poured some
neat spirit into a tumbler and gave it to Margaret.
"Drink this/' he said.
"What is it?"
"Never mind! Drink it at once."

Obediently she put it to her lips. He stood over

her as she emptied the glass. A sudden glow filled

her.
"Now come with me."
He took her arm and led her down the stairs. He
passed through the hall quickly. There was a cab
just drawn up at the door, and he told her to get
in. One or two persons stared at seeing a woman
come out of that hotel in a tea-gown and without
a hat. He directed the driver to the house in which
Susie lived and looked round at Margaret. She had
fainted immediately she got into the cab.
When they arrived he carried Margaret upstairs
and laid heron a sofa. He told Susie what had
happened and what he wanted of her. The dear
woman forgot everything except that Margaret was
very ill and promised willingly to do all he wished.

.For a week Margaret could not be moved. Arthur

hired a little cottage in Hampshire, opposite the Isle

of Wight, hoping that amid the most charming, rest-

ful scenery in England, she would quickly regain
her strength; and as soon as it was possible Susie
took her down. But she was much altered. Her
gaiety had disappeared and with it her determina-
206 THE MAGICIAN
tion. Although her illness had been neither long nor
serious, she seemed as exhausted, physically and
mentally, as if she had been for months at the point
of death. She took no interest in her surroundings,
and was indifferent to the shady lanes through which
they drove and to the gracious trees and the meadows.
Her old passion for beauty was gone, and she cared
neither for the flowers which filled their little garden
nor for the birds that sang continually. But at last
it seemed necessary to discuss the future. Mar-
garet acquiesced in all that was suggested to her and
agreed willingly that the needful steps should be
taken to procure her release from Oliver Haddo. He
made apparently no effort to trace her, and nothing
had been heard of him. He did not know where
Margaret was, but he might have guessed that Arthur
was responsible for her flight, and Arthur was easily
to be found. It made Susie vaguely uneasy that
there was no sign of his existence. She wished that
Arthur were not kept by his work in London.
At last a suit for divorce was instituted.
Two days after this, when Arthur was in his con-
sulting room, Haddo's card was brought to him.
Arthur's jaw set more firmly.
"Show the gentleman in," he ordered.
When Haddo entered, Arthur, standing with his
back to the fireplace, motioned him to sit down.
"What can I do for you?" he asked coldly.
"I have not come to avail myself of your surgical
skill, my dear Burdon," smiled Haddo, as he fell

ponderously into an armchair.

"So I imagined."
 THE MAGICIAN 207

"Your perspicacity amazes me. I surmise that

it is to you I owe this amusing citation which was

served on me yesterday."
"I allowed you to come in so that I might tell you
I will have no communication with you except

through my solicitors."

"My dear fellow, why do you treat me with such

discourtesy? It is true that you have deprived me
of the wife of my bosom, but you might at least
so far respect my marital rights as to use me civilly."
"My patience is not so good as it was," answered
Arthur. "I venture to remind you that once be-
fore I lost my temper with you, and the
you result
must have found unpleasant."
"I should have thought you regretted that in-
cident by now, O Burdon," answered Haddo, en-
tirelyunabashed.
" 5'

My time is very short, said Arthur.

"Then I will get to my business without delay.
I thought it might interest you to know that I pro-

pose to bring a counter petition against my wife,

and I shall make you co-respondent."
"You infamous blackguard!" cried Arthur furi-

ously. "You know as well as I do that your wife

isabove suspicion."
"I know that she left my hotel in your company
and has been living since under your protection."
Arthur grew livid with rage. He could hardly
restrain himself from knocking the man down. He
gave a short laugh.
"You can do what you like. I'm really not
frightened."
208 THE MAGICIAN
"The innocent are so very incautious. I assure

you that I can make a good enough story to ruin

your career and force you to resign your appoint-

ments at the various hospitals you honour with
5

your attention/
"You forget that the case will not be tried in open
5
court/ said Arthur.
Haddo looked at him steadily. He did not answer
for a moment.
"You're quite right/' he said at last, with a little

smile. "I had forgotten that/'

"Then I need not detain you longer."
Oliver Haddo got up. He passed his hand re-
flectively over his huge face. Arthur watched him
with scornful eyes. He touched a bell, and the serv-
ant at once appeared.
"Show this gentleman out/'
Not in the least disconcerted, Haddo strolled

calmly to the door.

Arthur gave a sigh of he concluded that
relief, for
Haddo would not show fight. His solicitor indeed
had already assured him that Oliver would not ven-
ture to defend the case.
Margaret seemed gradually to take more interest
in the proceedings, and she was full of eagerness to
be set free. She did not shrink from the unpleasant
ordeal of a trial. She could talk of Haddo with
composure. Her friends were able to persuade them-
would be her old self
selves that in a little while she

again, for shewas growing stronger and more cheer-

ful; her charming laughter rang through the little
house as it had been used to do in the Paris studio.
 THE MAGICIAN 209

The case was to come on at the end of July, before

the long vacation, and Susie had agreed to take
Margaret abroad as soon as it was done.
But presently a change came over her. As the
day of the trial drew nearer, Margaret became ex-
cited and disturbed; her gaiety deserted her, and
she fell into long, moody silences. To some extent
this was comprehensible, for she would have to dis-
close to callous ears the most intimate details of her
married life; but at last her nervousness grew so
marked that Susie could no longer ascribe it to
natural causes. She thought it necessary to write
to Arthur about it.

"My Dear Arthur:

"I don't know what to make of Margaret, and I
wish you would come down and see her. The good
humour which I have noticed in her of late has given
way to a curious irritability. She is so restless that
she cannot keep still for a moment. Even when she
is sitting down her body moves in a manner that is

almost convulsive. I am beginning to think that

the strain from which she suffered is bringing on
some nervous disease, and I am really alarmed. She
walks about the house in a peculiarly aimless man-
ner, up and down the stairs, in and out of the garden.
She has grown suddenly much more silent, and the
look has come back to her eyes which they had when
first we brought her down here. When I beg her to
tell me what is troubling her, she says: 'I'm afraid
that something going to happen/ She will not or
is

cannot explain what she means. The last few weeks

 10 THE MAGICIAN
have set my own nerves on edge, so that I do not
know how much of what I observe is real, and how
much is due to my fancy; but I wish you would
come and put a little courage into me. The oddness
of it all is making me uneasy, and I am seized with
preposterous terrors. I don't know what there is in
Haddo that inspires me with this unaccountable
dread. He is always present to my thoughts. I
seem to see his dreadful eyes and his cold, sensual
smile. I wake up at night, my heart beating furi-
ously, with the consciousness that something quite
awful has happened.
"Oh, I wish the trial were over, and that we were
happy in Germany.
"Yours ever ,
SUSAN BoYD/

Susie took a certain pride in her common-sense,

and it was humiliating to find that her nerves could

be so distraught. She was worried and unhappy.

It had not been easy to take Margaret back to her
bosom as if nothing had happened. Susie was hu-
man; and, though she did ten times more than
could be expected of her, she could not resist a feeling
of irritation that Arthur sacrificed her so calmly.
He had no room for other thoughts, and it seemed
quite natural to him that she should devote herself
entirely to Margaret's welfare.
Susie walkedsome way along the road to post
this letter and then went to her room. It was a
wonderful night, starry and calm, and the silence
was like balm to her troubles. She sat at the win-
dow for a long time, and at last, feeling more tran-
 THE MAGICIAN
quil,went to bed. She slept more soundly than
she had done for many days. When she awoke the
sun was streaming into her room, and she gave a
deep sigh of delight. She could see trees from her
bed and blue sky. All her troubles seemed easy to
bear when the world was so beautiful, and she was
ready to laugh at the fears that had so affected her.
She got up, put on a dressing-gown, and went to
Margaret's room. It was empty. The bed had not
been slept in. On the pillow was a note.

"It's no good; I can't help myself. I've gone

back to him. Don't trouble about me any more.
It's quite hopeless and useless. "M."
Susie gave a little gasp. Her first thought was
for Arthur, and she uttered a wail of sorrow be-
cause he must be cast again into the agony of deso-
lation. Once more she had to break the dreadful
news. She dressed hurriedly and ate some break-
fast. There was no train till nearly eleven, and she
had to bear her impatience as best she could. At
last it was time to start, and she put on her gloves.
At that moment the door was opened, and Arthur
came in.
She gave a cry of terror and turned pale.
"I was just coming to London to see you," she
faltered. "How did you find out?"
"Haddo sent me a box of chocolates early this
morning with a card on which was written: / think
9
the odd trick is mine'
This cruel vindictiveness, joined with a school-
boy love of taunting the vanquished foe, was very
 THE MAGICIAN
characteristic. Susie ga^e Arthur Burden the note
which she had found in Margaret's room. He read
it and then thought for a long time.

"I'm afraid she's right," he said at length. "It

seems quite hopeless. The man has some power
over her which we can't counteract."
Susie wondered whether his strong scepticism was
failing at last. She could not withstand her own
feeling that there was something preternatural
about the hold that Oliver had over Margaret. She
had no shadow of a doubt that he was able to affect
his wife even at a distance and was convinced now
that the restlessness of the last few days was due to
this mysterious power. He had been at work in
some strange way, and Margaret had been aware of
it. At length she could not resist and had gone to
him instinctively: her will was as little concerned
as when a chip of steel flies to a magnet.
"I cannot find it in my heart now to blame her
for anything she has done," said Susie. "I think
she is the victim of a most lamentable fate. I can't

help it. must believe that he was able to cast

I
a spell on her; and to that is due all that has hap-
pened. have only pity for her great misfortunes."
I
"Has it occurred to you what will happen w hen r

she is back in Haddo's hands?" cried Arthur.

"You know as well as I do how revengeful he is
and how hatefully cruel. My heart bleeds when I
think of the tortures, sheer physical tortures, which
she may suffer."
He walked up and down in desperation.
"And yet there's nothing whatever that one can
 THE MAGICIAN 213

do. One can't go to the police and say that a man

has cast a magic spell on his wife."
"Then you believe it too?" said Susie.
"I don't know what I believe now," he cried.
"After all, we can't do anything if she chooses to
go back to her husband. She's apparently her own
mistress." He wrung his hands. "And I'm im-
prisoned in London! I can't leave it for a day. I
ought not to be here now, and I must get back in a
couple of hours. I can do nothing, and yet I'm
convinced that Margaret is utterly wretched."
Susie paused for a minute or two. She wondered
how he would accept the suggestion that was in her
mind.
"Do you know, it seems to me that common
methods are useless. The only chance is to fight
him with his own weapons. Would you mind if
I went over to Paris to consult Dr. Porhoet? You
know that he is learned in every branch of the oc-
cult, and perhaps he might help us."
But Arthur pulled himself together.
"It's absurd. We mustn't give way to supersti-
tion. Haddo is merely a scoundrel and a charlatan.
He's worked on our nerves as he's worked on poor
Margaret's. It's impossible to suppose that he has
any powers greater than the common run of man-
kind."
"Even after all you've seen with your own eyes?"
"If my eyes show me what allmy training assures
me impossible, I can only
is conclude that my eyes
deceive me."
"Well, I shall run over to Paris."
 Chapter XIII

weeks later Dr. Porhoet was sitting among

SOME his books in the quiet, low room that overlooked
the Seine. He had given himself over to a pleasing
melancholy. The heat beat down upon the noisy
streets of Paris, and the din of the great city pene^
trated even to his fastness in the He Saint Louis.
He remembered the cloud-laden sky of the country
where he was born, and the southwest wind that
blew with a salt freshness. The long streets of
Brest, present to his fancy always in a drizzle of
rain, with the lights of cafes reflected on the wet
pavements, had a familiar charm. Even in foul
weather the sailor-men who trudged along them
gave one a curious sense of comfort. There was
delight in the smell of the sea and in the freedom
of the great Atlantic. And then he thought of the
green lanes and of the waste places with their
scented heather, the fair broad roads that led from
v
one old sweet town to another, of the Pardons and
their gentle, sad crowds. Dr. Porhoet gave a sigh.
"It is good to be born in the land of Brittany/'
he smiled.
But showed Susie in, and he rose with
his bonne
a smile to greet her. She had been in Paris for
some time, and they had seen much of one another.
He basked in the gentle sympathy with which she
214
 THE MAGICIAN 215

interested herself in all the abstruse, quaint things

on which he spent his time; and, divining her love
for Arthur, he admired the courage with which
she effaced herself. They had got into the habit of
eating many of their meals together in a quiet
house opposite the Cluny called La Reine Blanche,
and here they had talked of so many things that
their acquaintance was grown into a charming
friendship.
"I'm ashamed to come here so often/' said Susie,
as she entered. "Matilde is beginning to look at me
with a suspicious eye."
"It is very good of you to entertain a tiresome
old man/' he smiled, as he held her hand. "But I
should have been disappointed if you had forgotten
your promise to come this afternoon, for I have
much to tell you."
"Tell me at once," she said, sitting down.
"I have discovered an MS. at the library of the
Arsenal this morning that no one knew anything
about."
He said this with an air of triumph, as though
the achievement were of national importance. Susie
had a tenderness for his innocent mania; and,
though she knew the work in question was occult
and incomprehensible, congratulated him heartily.
"It is the original version of a book by Paracelsus.
I have not read it yet, for the writing is most difficult
to decipher, but one point caught my eye in turning
over the pages. That is the gruesome fact that
Paracelsus fed the homunculi he manufactured on
human blood. One wonders how he came by it."
216 THE MAGICIAN
Susie gave a little start, which Dr. Porhoet
noticed.
"What the matter with you?"
is

"Nothing," she said quickly.

He looked at her for a moment, then proceeded
with the subject that strangely fascinated him.
"
You must let me take you one day to the library
of the Arsenal. There is no richer collection in the

world of books dealing with the occult sciences.

And of course, you know that it was at the Arsenal
that the tribunal sat, under the suggestive name of
chambre ardente, to deal with cases of sorcery and
magic?"
"I didn't," smiled Susie.
"I always think that these manuscripts and queer
old books, which are the pride of our library, served
in many an old trial. There are volumes there of
innocent appearance which have hanged wretched
men and sent others to the stake. You would not
believe how many persons of fortune, rank, and
intelligence, during the great reign of Louis XIV.,
immersed themselves in these satariic undertakings."
Susie did not answer. She could not now deal
with these matters in an indifferent spirit. Every-
thing she heard might have some bearing on the
circumstances which she had discussed with Dr.
Porhoet times out of number. She had never been
able to pin him down to an affirmation of faith.
Certain strange things had manifestly happened,
but what the explanation of them was no man could
say. He offered analogies from his well-stored
memory. He gave her books to read till she was
 THE MAGICIAN 217

saturated with occult science. At one moment she

was inclined to throw them aside impatiently,
all

and at another was ready to believe that everything

was possible.
Dr. Porhoet stood up and stretched out a medi-
He spoke in that agreeably academic
tative finger.
manner which, at the beginning of their acquaint-
ance, had always entertained Susie, because it con-
trasted so absurdly with his fantastic utterances.
"It was a strange dream that these wizards cher-
ished. They sought to make themselves beloved
of those they cared for and to revenge themselves
on those they hated; but above all they sought to
become greater than the common run of men and to
wield the power of the gods. They hesitated at
nothing to gain their ends. But Nature with diffi-
culty allows her secrets to be wrested from her.
In vain they lit their furnaces, and in vain they
studied their crabbed books, called up the dead, and
conjured ghastly spirits. Their reward was disap-
pointment, and wretchedness, poverty, the scorn ot
men, torture, imprisonment, and shameful death.
And yet, perhaps, after all there may be some
particle of truth hidden away in thesedark
places."
"You never go further than the cautious per-
haps," said Susie. "You never give me any definite
opinion."
"In these matters it is discreet to have no definite

opinion," he smiled, with a shrug of the shoulders.

"If a wise man studies the science of the occult,
his duty is not to laugh at everything, but to seek
218 \THE MAGICIAN
patiently, slowly, perseveringly, the truth that may
be concealed in the night of these illusions."
The words were hardly spoken when Matilde, the
ancient bonne, opened the door to let a visitor come
in. It was Arthur Burdon. Susie gave a cry of
surprise, for she had received a brief note from
him two days before, and he had said nothing of

crossing the Channel.

"I'm glad to find you both here," said Arthur,
as he shook hands with them.
"Has anything happened?" cried Susie.
His manner was curiously distressing, and there
was a nervousness about his movements that was
very unexpected in so restrained a person.
"I've seen Margaret again," he said.
"Well?"
He seemed unable to go on, and yet both knew
that he had something important to tell them. He
looked at them vacantly, as though all he had to
say was suddenly gone out of his mind.
"I've come straight here," he said, in a dull, be-
wildered fashion. "I went to your hotel, Susie,
in the hope of finding you; but when they told me
you were out I felt certain you would be here."
"You seem worn out, cher ami," said Dr. Por-
hoet, looking at him. "Will you let Matilde make
you a cup of coffee?"
"I should like something," he answered, with a
look of utter weariness.
"Sit still for a minute or two, and you shall
tell us what you want to when you are a little

rested."
 THE MAGICIAN 219

Dr. Porhoet had not seen Arthur since that after-

noon in the previous year when, in answer to Haddo's
telegram, he had gone to the studio in the Rue Cam-
pagne Premiere. He watched him anxiously while
Arthur drank his coffee. The change in him was
extraordinary; there was a cadaverous exhaustion
about his face, and were sunken in their
his eyes
sockets. But what alarmed the good doctor most
was that Arthur's personality seemed thoroughly
thrown out of gear. All that he had endured during
these nine months had robbed him of the strength
of purpose, the matter-of-fact sureness, which had
distinguished him. He was now unbalanced and
neurotic.
Arthur did not speak. With his eyes fixed moodily
on the ground, he wondered how much he could bring
himself to tell them. It revolted him to disclose his
inmost thoughts, yet he was come to the end of his
tether and needed the doctor's advice. He found
himself obliged to deal with circumstances that
might have existed in a world of nightmare, and he
was driven at last to take advantage of his friend's

peculiar knowledge.
Returning to London after Margaret's flight,
Arthur Burdon had thrown himself again into the
work which for so long had been his only solace.
It had lost its savour; but he would not take this
into account, and he slaved away mechanically, by
perpetual toil seeking to deaden his anguish. But
as the time passed he was seized on a sudden with
a curious feeling of foreboding, which he could in
no way resist; it grew in strength till it had all
220 THE MAGICIAN
the power of an obsession, and he could not reason
himself out of it. He was sure that a great danger
threatened Margaret. He could not tell what it
was, nor why the fear of it was so persistent, but

the idea was there always, night and day; it haunted

him like a shadow and followed him like remorse.
His anxiety increased continually, and the vague-
ness of his terror made it more tormenting. He
felt quite certain that Margaret was in imminent
peril, but he did not know how to help her. Ar-
thur supposed that Haddo had taken her back to
Skene; but, even if he went there, he had no chance
of seeing her. What made it more difficult still
was that his chief at St. Luke's was away, and he
was obliged to be in London in case he should be

suddenly called upon to do some operation. But

he could think of nothing else. He felt it urgently
needful to se j
Margaret. Night after night he
dreamed that she was at the point of death, and
heavy fetters prevented him from stretching out
a hand to help her. At last he could stand it no
more. He told a brother surgeon that private busi-
ness forced him to leave London, and put the work
into his hands. With no plan in his head, merely
urged by an obscure impulse, he set out for the
village of Yenning, which was about three miles
from Skene.
It was a tiny place, with one public-house serving
as a hotel to the rare travellers who found it needful
to stop there, and Arthur felt that some explanation
of his presence was necessary. Having seen at the
station an advertisement of a large farm to let, he
 THE MAGICIAN
told the inquisitive landlady that he had come to
see it. He arrived late at night. Nothing could
be done then, so he occupied the time by trying to
find out something about the Haddos.
Oliver was the local magnate, and his wealth
would have made him an easy topic of conversation
even without his eccentricity. The landlady roundly
called him insane, and as an instance of his queerness
told Arthur, to his great dismay, that Haddo would
have no servants to sleep in the house: after dinner
everyone was sent away to the various cottages in
the park, and he remained alone with his wife. It
was an awful thought that Margaret might be in
the hands of a raving madman, with not a soul to
protect her. But if he learnt no more than this of
solid fact, Arthur heard much that was significant.
To his amazement the old fear of the wizard had
grown up again in that lonely place, and the gar-
rulous woman gravely told him of Haddo's evil
influence on the crops and cattle of farmers who
had aroused his anger. He had had an altercation
with his bailiff, 'and the man had died within a
year. A small freeholder in the neighborhood had
refused to sell the land which would have rounded
off the estate of Skene, and a disease had attacked

every animal on his farm so that he was ruined.

Arthur was impressed because, though she reported
these rumours with mock scepticism as the stories
of ignorant yokels and old women, the innkeeper
had evidently a terrified belief in their truth. No
one could deny that Haddo had got possession of
the land he wanted; for, when it was put up to
 THE MAGICIAN
auction, no one would bid against him, and he
bought it for a song.
As soon as he could do so naturally Arthur asked
after Margaret. The woman shrugged her shoul-
ders. No one knew anything about her. She never
came out of the park gates, but sometimes you
could see her wandering about inside by herself.
She saw no one. Haddo had long since quarrelled
with the surrounding gentry; and though one old
lady, the mother of a neighbouring landowner, had
called when Margaret first came, she had not been
admitted, and the visit was never returned.
"She'll come to no good, poor lady," said the
hostess of the inn. "And they do say she's a perfect
picture to look at."
Arthur went to his room. He longed for the day
to come. There was no certain means of seeing
Margaret. It was useless to go to the park gates,
since even the tradesmen were obliged to leave their

goods at the lodge; but it appeared that she walked

alone, morning and afternoon, and it might be
possible to see her then. He decided to climb into
the park and wait he came upon her in some
till

spot where they were not likely to be observed.

Next day the great heat of the last week was
gone, and the melancholy sky was dark with lower-
ing clouds. Arthur inquired for the road which led
to Skene, and set out to walk the three miles which
separated him from it. The country was grey and
barren. There was a broad waste of heath, with
gigantic boulders strewn as though in prehistoric
times Titans had waged there a mighty battle. Here
 THE MAGICIAN
and there were trees, but they seemed hardly to
withstand the fierce winds of winter; they were old
and bowed before the storm. One of them attracted
his attention.It had been struck by lightning and
was riven asunder, leafless; but the maimed branches
were curiously set on the trunk so that they gave it
the appearance of a human being writhing in the
torture of infernal agony. The wind whistled
strangely. Arthur's heart sank as he walked on.
He had never seen a country so desolate.
He came to the park gates at last and stood for
some time in front ofthem. At the end of a long
avenue, among the trees, he could see part of a
splendid house. He walked along the wooden pali-
sade that surrounded the park. Suddenly he came
to a spot where a board had been broken down.
He looked up and down the road. No one was in
sight. He climbed up the low, steep bank, wrenched
down a piece more of the fence, and slipped in.
He found himself in a dense wood. There was
no sign of a path, and he advanced cautiously. The
bracken was so thick and high that it easily con-
cealed him. Dead owners had plainly spent much
care upon the place, for here alone in the neigh-
bourhood were trees in abundance; but of late it
had been utterly neglected. It had run so wild that
there were no traces now of its early formal ar-
rangement; and it was so hard to make one's way,
the vegetation was so thick, that it might almost
have been some remnant of primeval forest. But
at last he came to a grassy path and walked along
it slowly. He stopped on a sudden, for he heard a
224 THE MAGICIAN
sound. But was only a pheasant that flew heavily
it

through the low trees. He wondered what he

should do if he came face to face with Oliver. The
innkeeper had assured him that the squire seldom
came out, but spent his days locked in the great at-
tics at the top of the house. Smoke came from the
chimneys of them, even in hottest days of summer,
and weird tales were told of the devilries there
committed.
Arthur went on, hoping in the end to catch sight
of Margaret, but he saw no one. In that grey, chilly
day the woods, notwithstanding their greenery, were
desolate and sad. A sombre mystery seemed to
hang over them. At last he came to a stone bench
at a cross-way among the trees, and, since it was the
only resting-place he had seen, it struck him that
Margaret might come there to sit down. He hid
himself in the bracken. He had forgotten his watch
and did not know how the time passed; he seemed
to be there for hours.
But at length his heart gave a great beat against
had not
his ribs, for all at once, so silently that he
heard her approach, Margaret came into view. She
sat on the stone bench. For a moment he dared not
move in case the sound frightened her. He could
not tell how to make his presence known. But it was
necessary to do something to attract her attention,
and he could only hope that she would not cry out.
"Margaret," he called softly.
She did not move, and he repeated her name more
loudly. But still she made no sign that she had
heard. He came forward and stood in front of her.
 THE MAGICIAN 225

"Margaret."
She looked at him quietly. He might have been
someone she had never set eyes on, and yet from
her composure she might have expected him to be
standing there.
"Margaret, don't you know me?"
"What do you want?" she answered placidly.
He was so taken aback that he did not know what
to say. She kept gazing at him steadfastly. On a
sudden her calmness vanished, and she sprang to her
feet.
5'
"Is it you really? she cried, terribly agitated.
"I thought it was only a shape that mimicked
you."
"Margaret, what do you mean? What has come
over you?"
She stretched out her hand and touched him.
"I'm flesh and blood all right," he said, trying
to smile.
She shut her eyes for a moment, as though in an
effort to collect herself.
"I've had hallucinations lately," she muttered.
"I thought it was some trick played upon me."
Suddenly she shook herself.
"But what are you doing here? You must go.
How did you come? Oh, why won't you leave me
alone?"
"I've been haunted by a feeling that something
horrible was going to happen to you. I was obliged
to come."
"For God's sake, go. You can do me no good.
"
If he finds out you've been here
226 THE MAGICIAN
She stopped, and her eyes were dilated with ter-
ror. Arthur seized her hands.
"Margaret, I can't go I can't leave you like this.
For Heaven's sake, tell me what is the matter. I'm
so dreadfully frightened."
He was aghast at the difference wrought in her
during the two months since he had seen her last.
Her colour was all gone, and her face had the grey-
ness of the dead. There were strange lines on her
forehead, and her eyes had an unnatural glitter.
Her youth had suddenly left her. She looked as if
she were struck down by mortal illness.

"What isthe matter with you?" he asked.

"Nothing." She looked about her anxiously.
"Oh, why don't you go? How can you be so cruel?"
"I must do something for you," he insisted.
She shook her head.
"It's too late. Nothing can help me now." She
paused; and when she spoke again it was with a
voice so ghastly that it might have come from the
lips of a corpse. "I've found out at last what he's
going to do with me. He wants me for his great
experiment, and the time is growing shorter."
"What do you mean by saying he wants you?"
"He wants my life."
Arthur gave a cry of dismay, but she put up her
hand.
"It's no use resisting. I shan't do any good I
think I shall be glad when the moment comes. I

shall at least cease to suffer."

"But you must be mad."
"I don't know. I know that he is."
 THE MAGICIAN
"But if your life is in danger, come away for
God's sake. After all, you're free. He can't stop

you."
"I should have to go back to him as I did last
time," she answered, shaking her head. "I thought
I was free then, but gradually I knew that he was

calling me. I tried to resist, but I couldn't. I sim-

ply had to go to him."
"But it's awful to think that you are alone with
a man who's practically raving mad."
"I'm safe for to-day," she said quietly. "It can
only be done in the very hot weather. If there's no
more this year, I shall live till next summer."
"Oh, Margaret, for God's sake don't talk like
that. I love you I want to have you with me al-

ways. Won't you come away with me and let me

take care of you? I promise you that no harm shall
come to you."
"You don't love me any more; you're only sorry
forme now."
"It's not true."
"Oh, yes, it saw it when we were in the
is. I

country. Oh, I don't blame you. I'm a different

woman from the one you loved. I'm not the Mar-
garetyou knew."
"I can never care for anyone but you."
She put her hand on his arm.
"If you ever loved me I implore you to go. You
don't know what you expose me to. And when
I'm dead you must marry Susie. She loves you
with all her heart, and she deserves your love."
"Margaret, don't go. Come with me."
228 THE MAGICIAN
"And take care. He will never forgive you for
what you did. If he can he will kill you."
She started violently, as though she heard a sound.
Her face was convulsed with sudden fear.
"For God's sake go, go!"
She turned from him quickly, and, before he could
prevent her, had vanished. With heavy heart he
plunged again into the bracken.

When Arthur had given his friends some account

of this meeting, he stopped and looked at Dr. Por-
hoet. The doctor went thoughtfully to his book-
case.
M
What is it you want me to tell you?" he asked.
"I think the man is mad," said Arthur. "I found
out at what asylum his mother was, and by good
luck was able to see the superintendent on my way
through London. He told me that he had grave
doubts about Haddo's sanity, but it was impossible
at present to take any steps. I came straight here
because I wanted your advice. Granting that the
man is out of his mind, is it possible that he may be
trying some experiment that entails a sacrifice of
human life?"

"Nothing is more probable," said Dr. Porhoet,

gravely.
Susie shuddered. She remembered the rumour
Monte Carlo.
that had reached her ears in
"They said there that he was attempting to make
human creatures by a magical operation." She
glanced at the doctor, but spoke to Arthur. "Just
before you came in, our friend was talking of that
 THE MAGICIAN
book of Paracelsus in which he speaks of feeding
the monsters he had made on human blood."
Arthur gave a horrified cry.
"The most significant thing to my mind is that
5
fact about Margaret which we are certain of/ said
Dr. Porhoet. "All works that deal with the Black
Arts are unanimous upon the supreme efficacy of the
virginal condition/'
"But what is to be done?" asked Arthur in des-
peration. "We can't leave her in the hands of a
raving madman/' He turned on a sudden deathly
white. "For all we know she may be dead now."
"Have you ever heard of Gilles de Rais?" said
Dr. Porhoet, continuing his reflections. "That is
the classic instance of human sacrifice. I know the
country in which he lived; and the peasants to this
day dare not pass at night in the neighbourhood of
the ruined castle which was the scene of his horrible
crimes."
"It's awful to know that this dreadful danger
hangs over her and to be able to do nothing."
"We can only wait," said Dr. Porhoet.
"And if we wait too long, we may be faced by a
terrible catastrophe."

"Fortunately we live in a civilised age. Haddo

has a great care of his neck. I hope we are fright-
ened unduly."
It seemed to Susie that the chief thing was to dis-
tract Arthur,and she turned over in her mind some
means of directing his attention to other matters.
"I was thinking of going down to Chartres for
two days with Mrs. Bloomfield," she said. "Won't
230 THE MAGICIAN
you come with me? It is the most lovely cathedral
in the world, and I think you will find it restful
to wander about it for a little while. You can do
no good, here or in London. Perhaps when you are
calm you will be able to think of something practical."
Dr. Porhoet saw what her plan was, and joined
his entreaties to hers that Arthur should spend a

day or two in a place that had no associations for

him. Arthur was too much exhausted to argue,
and consented from sheer weariness. 'Next day Susie
took him to Chartres. Mrs. Bloomfield was no
trouble to them, and Susie induced him to linger
for a week in that pleasant, quiet town. They
passed many hours in the stately cathedral, and they
wandered about the surrounding country. Arthur
was obliged to confess that the change had done
him good, and a certain apathy succeeded the agi-
tation from which he had suffered so long. Finally
Susie persuaded him to spend three or four weeks
in Brittany with Dr. Porhoet, who was proposing
to revisit the scenes of his childhood. They returned
to Paris. When Arthur
her at the station, prom-
left

ising to meet her again in an hour at the restaurant

where they were to dine with Dr. Porhoet, he thanked
her for all she had done.
"I was an absurdly hysterical condition," he
in

said, holding her hand. "You've been quite an-

gelic. I knew that nothing could be done, and yet

I was tormented with the desire to do something.

Now I've got myself in hand once more. I think
my common-sense was deserting me and I was on
the point of believing in the farrago of nonsense
 THE MAGICIAN 231

which they call magic. After all it's absurd to

think that Haddo is going to do any harm to Mar-
garet. As soon back to London, I'll see
as I get

my lawyers, and I dare say something can be done.

If he's really mad we'll have him put under re-
straint, and Margaret will be free. I shall never

forget your kindness."

Susie smiled and shrugged her shoulders.
She was convinced that he would forget every-
thing if Margaret came back to him. But she chid
herself for the bitterness of the thought. After all

she loved him, and she was glad to be able to do

anything for him.
She returned to the hotel, changed her frock, and
walked slowly to the Chien Noir. It always exhil-
arated her to come back to Paris; and she looked
with happy, affectionate eyes at the plane-trees, the
yellow trams that rumbled along incessantly, and
the lounging people. When she arrived Dr. Por-
hoet was waiting, and his delight at seeing her
again was flattering and pleasant. They talked of
Arthur. They wondered why he was late.
In a moment he came in. They saw at once
that something quite extraordinary had taken place.
"Thank God, I've found you at last!" he cried.
His face was moving strangely. They had never
seen him
so discomposed.
"I've been round to your hotel, but I just missed
you. Oh, why did you insist on my going away?"
"What on earth's the matter?" cried Susie.
"Something awful has happened to Margaret."
Susie started to her feet with a sudden cry of
dismay.
232 THE MAGICIAN
"How do you know?" she asked quickly.
He looked at them for a moment and flushed.
He kept his eyes upon them as though actually to
force his listeners into believing what he was about
to say.
"I feel it," he answered hoarsely.
"What do you mean?"
"It came upon me quite suddenly, I can't ex-
plain why or how. I only know that something
has happened."
He began again to walk up and down the room,
prey to an agitation that was frightful to behold.
Susie and Dr. Porhoet stared at him helplessly.
They tried to think of something to say that would
calm him.
"Surely if anything had occurred, we should
have been informed."
He turned to Susie angrily.
"How
do you suppose we could know anything?
She was quite helpless. She was imprisoned like
a rat in a trap."
"But, dear friend, you mustn't give way in
my
this fashion," said the doctor. "What would you
say of a patient who came to you with such a story?"
Arthur answered the question with a shrug of the
shoulders.
"I should say he was absurdly hysterical."
"Well?"
"I can't help it, the feeling's there. If you try
all night you'll never be able to argue me out of
it. I feel it in every bone of my body. I couldn't
be more certain if I saw Margaret lying dead in
front of me."
 THE MAGICIAN 233

Susie saw that it was indeed useless to reason

with him. The only course was to accept his con-
viction and make the best of it.

"What do you want us to do?" she asked.

"I want you both to come to England with me
at once. If we start now we can catch the evening
5
train/
Susie did not answer, but she got up. She touched
the doctor on the arm.
"
Please come," she whispered.
He nodded and untucked the napkin he had al-
ready arranged over his waistcoat.
"I've got a cab at the door/' said Arthur.
"And what about clothes for Miss Susie?" said
the doctor.
"Oh, we can't wait for that," cried Arthur. "For
God's sake, come quickly."
Susie knew that there was plenty of time to fetch
a few necessary things before the train started,
but Arthur's impatience was too great to be with-
stood.
"It doesn't matter," she said. "I can get all I

want in England."
He hurried them to the door and told the cab-
man to drive to the station as quickly as ever he
could.
"For Heaven's sake, calm down a little," said
Susie. "You'll be no good to anyone in that state."
"I feel certain we're too late."
"Nonsense! I'm convinced that you'll find Mar-
garet safe and sound."
He did not answer. He gave a sigh of relief as
they drove into the courtyard of the station.
 Chapter XIV
never forgot the horror of that journey to
SUSIEEngland. They arrived in London early in the
morning and, without stopping, drove to Euston.
For three or four days there had been unusual
heat, and even at that hour the streets were sultry
and airless. The train north was crowded, and it
seemed impossible to get a breath of air. Her head
ached, but she was obliged to keep a cheerful de-
meanour in the effort to allay Arthur's increasing

anxiety. Dr. Porhoet sat in front of her. After

the sleepless night his eyes were weary and his face
was deeply lined. He was utterly exhausted. At
length, after much tiresome changing, they reached
Yenning. She had expected a greater coolness in that
northern country; but there was a hot blight over
the place, and, as they walked to the inn from the
little station, they could hardly drag their limbs

along.
Arthur had telegraphed from London that they
must have rooms ready, and the landlady expected
them. She
recognised Arthur. He passionately
desired to ask her whether anything had happened
since he went away, but forced himself to be silent
for a while. He
greeted her with cheerfulness.
"Well, Mrs. Smithers, what has been going on
since I left you?" he cried.
234
 THE MAGICIAN 235

"Of course you wouldn't have heard, sir," she

answered gravely.
He began to tremble, but with an almost super-
human effort controlled his voice.
"Has the squire hanged himself?" he asked lightly.
"No, sir but the poor lady's dead."
He did not answer. He seemed turned to stone.
He stared with ghastly eyes.
"Poor thing!" said Susie, forcing herself to speak.
"Was it very sudden?"
The garrulous innkeeper turned to Susie, glad to
have someone with whom to discuss the event. She
took no notice of Arthur's agony.
"Yes, mum; no one expected it. She died quite
suddenly. She was only buried this morning."
"What did she die of?" asked Susie, her eyes on
Arthur.
She feared that he would faint. She wanted
enormously to get him away, but did not know how
to manage it.

"They say it was heart disease," answered the

landlady. "Poor thing! it's a happy release for

her."
"Won't you get us some tea, Mrs. Smithers?
We're very tired, and we should like something
immediately."
"Yes, miss. I'll get it at once."
The good woman bustled away. Susie quickly
locked the door. She seized Arthur's arm.
"Arthur, Arthur."
She expected him to break down. She looked
with agony at Dr. Porhoet, who stood helplessly by.
236 THE MAGICIAN
"You couldn't have done anything if you'd been
here. You heard what that woman said. If Mar-
garet died of heart disease your suspicions were quite
without ground."
He shook her away, almost violently.
"For God's sake, speak to us," cried Susie.
His utter silence terrified her more than would
have done any outburst of grief. Dr. Porhoet went
up to him gently.
"Don't try to be too brave, my friend. You will
not suffer so much if you allow yourself a little
weakness."
"For Heaven's sake leave me alone!" said Arthur,
hoarsely.
They drew back and watched him silently. Susie
heard their hostess come along to the sitting-room
with tea, and she unlocked the door. The landlady
brought in the things. She was on the point of
leaving them when Arthur stopped her.
"How do you know that Mrs. Haddo died of heart
disease?" he asked suddenly.
His voice was hard and stern. He
spoke with a
peculiar abruptness that made the poor woman look
at him in amazement.
"Dr. Richardson told me so."
"Had he been attending her?"
"Yes, sir. Mr. Haddo had called him in several
times to see his lady."
"Where does Dr. Richardson live?"
"Why, sir, he lives at the white house near the
station."
 THE MAGICIAN 237

She could not make out why Arthur asked these

questions.
"Did Mr. Haddo go to the funeral?"
"Oh, yes, sir. I've never seen anyone so upset."
"That'll do. You can go."
Susie poured out the tea and handed it to Arthur.
To her surprise, he drank it and ate some bread and
butter. She could not understand him. The ex-
pression of strain and the restlessness which had
been so painful, were both gone from his face, and
it was set now to a look of grim determination.

At last he spoke to them.

"I'm going to see this doctor. Margaret's heart
was as sound as mine."
"What are you going to do?"
"Do?"
He turned on her with a peculiar fierceness.
"I'm going to put a rope round that man's neck,
and if the law won't help me, by God, I'll kill him
myself."
"Mais, mon ami, vous etesfou," cried Dr. Porhoet,
springing up.
Arthur put out hand
his angrily, as though to keep
him back. The frown on his face grew darker.
"You must leave me alone. Good Heavens, the
time has gone by for tears and lamentation. After
all I've gone through for months I can't weep be-

cause Margaret is dead. My heart is dried up.

But I know that she didn't die naturally, and I'll
never rest so long as that fellow lives."
He stretched out his hands and with clenched
jaws prayed that one day he might hold the man's
238 THE MAGICIAN
neck between them, and see his face turn livid and
purple as he died.
"I am going to this fool of a doctor, and then I
shall go to Skene."
"You must let us come with you," said Susie.
"You need not be frightened," he answered. "I
shall not take any steps of my own till I find the
law is powerless."
"I want to come with you all the same."
"As you like."
Susie went out and ordered a trap to be got ready.
But since Arthur would not wait, she arranged
that it should be sent for them to the doctor's door.
They went there at once, on foot.
Dr. Richardson was a man of five-and-fifty,
little

with a fair beard that was now nearly white, and

prominent blue eyes. He spoke with a broad Staf-
fordshire accent. There was in him something of
the farmer, something of the well-to-do tradesman,
and at the first glance his intelligence did not impress
one.
Arthur was shewn with his two friends into the
consulting-room, and after a short interval the doc-
tor came in. He was dressed in flannels and had an
old-fashioned racket in his hand.
"Fm sorry to have kept you waiting, but Mrs.
Richardson has got a few lady-friends to tea, and
I was just in the middle of a set."
His effusiveness jarred upon Arthur, whose man-
ner by contrast became more than usually abrupt.
"
I have just learnt of the death of Mrs. Haddo. I

was her guardian and her oldest friend. I came to

 t

THE MAGICIAN 239

you hope that you would be able to tell me

in the

something about it."

Dr. Richardson gave him at once the suspicious
glance of a stupid man.
"I don't know why you come to me instead of to
her husband. He will be able to tell you all that
you wish to know/'
"I came to you as a fellow-practitioner," answered
Arthur. "I am at St. Luke's Hospital." He
pointed to his card, which Dr. Richardson still held.
"And my friend is Dr. Porhoet, whose name will be
familiar to you with respect to his studies in Malta
Fever."
"I think I read an article of yours in the B. M. J.,"
said the country doctor.
His manner assumed a singular hostility. He
had no sympathy with London specialists, whose
attitude towards the general practitioner he resented.
He was pleased to sneer at their pretensions to
omniscience, and quite willing to pit himself against
them.
"What can I do for you, Mr. Burdon?"
"I should be very much obliged if you would tell
tell me as exactly as possible how Mrs. Haddo died."

"It was a very simple case of endocarditis."

Arthur looked at him with an expression from
which it was easy to see his scorn.
"May I ask how long before death you were
called in?"
The doctor hesitated. He reddened a little.
"I'm not inclined to be cross-examined," he burst
out, suddenly making up his mind to be angry.
240 THE MAGICIAN
"As a surgeon I dare say your knowledge of cardiac
diseases is neither extensive nor peculiar. But this
was a very simple case, and everything was done
that was possible. I don't think there's anything
I can tell you."
Arthur took no notice of the outburst.
"How many times did you see her?"
"Really, sir, I don't understand your attitude.
I can't see that you have any
right to question me."
"Did you have a post-mortem?"
"Certainly not. In the first place there was no
need, as the cause of death was perfectly clear, and
secondly you must know as well as I do that the rela-
tives are very averse to anything of the sort. You
gentlemen in Harley Street don't understand the con-
ditions of private practice. We
haven't the time
to do post-mortems to gratify a needless curiosity."
Arthur was silent for a moment. The little man
was evidently convinced that there was nothing odd
about Margaret's death, but his foolishness was as
great as his obstinacy. It was clear that several
motives would induce him to put every obstacle in
Arthur's way, and chief of these was the harm it
would do him if it were discovered that he had given
a certificate of death carelessly. He would naturally
do anything to avoid scandal. Still Arthur was
obliged to speak.
"I think I'd better tell you frankly that I'm not
satisfied, Dr. Richardson. I can't persuade myself

that this lady's death was due to natural causes."

"Stuff and nonsense!" cried the other angrily.
"I've been in practice for hard upon thirty-five
 THE MAGICIAN 241

years, and I'm willing to stake my professional rep-

utation on it."
"I have reason to think you are mistaken."
"And to what do you ascribe death, pray?" asked
the doctor.
"I don't know yet."
"Upon my soul, I think you must be out of your
senses. Really, sir, your behaviour
is childish. You
tell me that you are a surgeon of some eminence . . ."
"I surely told you nothing of the sort."
"Anyhow, you read papers before learned bodies
and have them printed. And you come with as
silly a story as a Staffordshire peasant who thinks
someone has been trying to poison him because he's

got a stomach-ache. You may be a very admirable

surgeon, but I venture to think I am more capable
than you of judging in a case which I attended and
you know nothing about."
"I mean to take the steps necessary to get an
order for exhumation, Dr. Richardson, and I can-
not help thinking it will be worth your while to
assist me in every possible
way."
"I do nothing of the kind. I think you
shall

very impertinent, sir. There is no need for exhu-

mation, and I shall do everything in my power to
prevent it. And I tell you as chairman of the board
of magistrates, my opinion will have as great value
as any Harley Street."
specialist's in
He flounced to the door and held it open. Susie
and Dr. Porhoet walked out; and Arthur, looking
down thoughtfully, followed on their heels. Dr.
Richardson slammed the street-door angrily.
 42 THE MAGICIAN
Dr. Porhoet slipped his arm in Arthur's.
"You must be reasonable, my friend/' he said.
"From his own point of view this doctor has all
the rights on his side. You have nothing to jus-
tify your demands. It is monstrous to expect that
for a vague suspicion you will be able to get an
"
order for exhumation.
Arthur did not answer. The trap was waiting for
them.
"Why do you want to see Haddo?" insisted the
doctor. "You will do no more good than you have
with Dr. Richardson."
"I have made up my mind to see him," answered
Arthur shortly. "But there is no need that either
of you should accompany me."
"If you go we will come with you," said Susie.
Without a word Arthur jumped into the dogcart,
and Susie took the seat by his side. Dr. Porhoet,
with a shrug of the shoulders, mounted behind.
Arthur whipped up the pony, and at a smart trot
they traversed the three miles across the barren
heath that lay between Yenning and Skene.
When they reached the park gates, the lodge-
keeper, as luck would have it, was standing just
inside, and she held one of them open for her little
boy to come in. He was playing in the road and
showed no inclination to do so. Arthur jumped
down.
"I want to see Mr. Haddo," he said.
"Mr. Haddo's not in," she answered roughly.
She tried to close the gate, but Arthur quickly put
his foot inside.
 THE MAGICIAN 243

"Nonsense! I have to see him on a matter of

great importance."
"Mr. Haddo's orders are that no one is to be
admitted.
"I can't help that, I'm proposing to come in all

the same."
Susie andDr. Porhoet came forward. They
promised the small boy a shilling to hold their
horse.
"Now then, get out of here," cried the woman.
"You're not coming in whatever you say."
She tried to push the gate to, but Arthur's foot
prevented her. Paying no heed to her angry ex-
postulations, he forced his way in. He walked
quickly up the drive. The lodgekeeper accompanied
him, with shrill abuse. The gate was left unguarded,
and the others were able to follow without difficulty.
"You can go to the door, but you won't see
Mr. Haddo," the woman cried angrily. "You'll
get me sacked for letting you come."
Susie saw the house. It was a fine old building
in the Elizabethan style, but much in need of re-
pair; and it had the desolate look of a place that
has been long uninhabited. The garden that sur-
rounded it had been allowed to run wild, and the
avenue up which they walked was green with rank
weeds. Here and there a fallen tree, which none
had troubled to remove, marked the owner's negli-
gence. Arthur went to the door and rang a bell.
They heard it clang through the house as though
not a soul lived there. A man came to the door, and
as soon as he opened it, Arthur, expecting to be
244
/
THE MAGICIAN
refused admission, pushed in. The fellow was as
angry as the virago, his wife, who explained noisily
how the three strangers had got into the park.
"You can't see the squire, so you'd better be
off. He's up in the attics, and no one's allowed to
go to him."
The man tried to push Arthur away.
"Be off with you, or I'll send for the police."
"Don't be a fool," said Arthur. "I mean to find
Mr. Haddo."
The housekeeper and his wife broke out with
abuse, to which Arthur listened in silence. Susie
and Dr. Porhoet stood by anxiously. They did not
know what to do. Suddenly a voice at their el-
bows made them start, and the two servants were
immediately silent.
"What can I do for you?"
Oliver Haddo was standing motionless behind
them. It startled Susie that he should have come
upon them so suddenly, without a sound. Dr. Por-
hoet, who had not seen him for some time, was
astounded at the change which had taken place in
him. The corpulence which had been his before
was become now a positive disease. He was enor-
mous. His chin was a mass of heavy folds dis-
tended with fat, and his cheeks were puffed up so
that his eyes were preternaturally small. He peered
at you from between the swollen lids. All his
features had sunk into that hideous obesity. His
ears were horribly bloated, and the lobes were large
and swelled. He had apparently a difficulty in
breathing, for his large mouth, with its scarlet,
 THE MAGICIAN 245

shining lips, was constantly open. He had grown

much balder and now there was only a crescent
of long hair stretching across the back of his head
from ear to ear. There was something terrible
about that great shining scalp. His pauhch was
huge; he was a very tall man and held himself
erect, so that it protruded like a vast barrel. His
hands were infinitely repulsive; they were red and
soft and moist. He was sweating freely, and beads
of perspiration stood on his forehead and on his
shaven lip.
For a moment they all looked at one another in
silence. Then Haddo turned to his servants.

"Go," he said.
As though frightened out of their wits, they
made for the door and with a bustling hurry flung
themselves out. A torpid smile crossed his face as
he watched them go. Then he moved a step nearer
his visitors. His manner had still the insolent ur-
banity which was customary to him.
"And now, my friends, will you tell me how I
can be of service to you."
"I have come about Margaret's death," said
Arthur.
Haddo, "as was his habit, did not immediately
answer. He slowly from Arthur to Dr.
looked
Porhoet, and from Dr. Porhoet to Susie. His eyes
rested on her hat, and she felt uncomfortably that
he was inventing some gibe about it.
"I should have thought this hardly the moment
to intrude upon my sorrow," he said at last. "If
you have condolences to offer I venture to suggest
246 THE MAGICIAN
that you might conveniently send them by means ot
the penny post."
Arthur frowned.
"Why did you not let me know that she was ill?"
he asked.
"
Strange as it may seem to you, my worthy
friend, it never occurred to me that my wife's health
could be any business of yours."
A faint smile flickered once more on Haddo's
lips, but his eyes had still the peculiar hardness
which was so uncanny. Arthur looked at him
steadily.
"I have every reason to believe that you killed

her," he said.
Haddo's face did not for an instant change its

expression.
"And have you communicated your suspicions to
the police?"
"I propose to."
"And, if I am not indiscreet, may I inquire upon
what you base them?"
"I saw Margaret three weeks ago, and she told
me that she went in terror of her life."
"Poor Margaret! She had always the romantic
temperament. I think it was that which first

brought us together."
"You damned scoundrel!" cried Arthur.
"My dear fellow, pray moderate your language.
This is surely not an occasion when you should
give wayto your lamentable taste for abuse. You
outrage all Miss Boyd's susceptibilities." He turned
to her with an airy wave of his fat hand. "You
 THE MAGICIAN 47

must forgive me do not offer you the hospital-

if I

ity of Skene, but the loss I have so lately sustained

does not permit me to indulge in the levity of en-
tertaining."
He gave her an ironical, low bow; then looked
once more at Arthur.
"If I can be of no further use to you, perhaps
you would leave me to my own reflections. The
lodgekeeper will give you the exact address of the
village constable."
Arthur did not answer. He stared into vacancy
as if hewere turning over other things in his mind.
Then he turned sharply on his heel and walked to-
wards the gate. Susie and Dr. Porhoet, taken
completely aback, did not know what to do; and
Haddo's little eyes twinkled as he watched their
discomfiture.
"I always thought that your friend had deplor-
able manners," he murmured.
Susie, feeling very ridiculous, flushed, and Dr.
Porhoet awkwardly took off his hat. As they walked
away, they felt Haddo's mocking gaze fixed upon
them, and they were heartily thankful to reach the
gate. They found Arthur waiting for them.
"I beg your pardon," he said, "I forgot that I
was not alone."
The three of them walked slowly back to the inn.
"What are you going to do now?" asked Susie.
For a long time Arthur made no reply, and Susie
thought he could not have heard her. At last he
broke the silence.
"I see that I can do nothing by ordinary meth-
248 THE MAGICIAN
ods. I realise that it is useless to make a public
outcry. There is only my own conviction that
Margaret came to a violent end, and I cannot ex-
pect anyone to pay heed to that."
"After all, it's just possible that she really died
of heart disease."
Arthur gave Susie a long look. He seemed to
consider her words deliberately.
"Perhaps there are means to decide that con-
clusively,"he replied at length, thoughtfully, as
though he were talking to himself.
"What are they?"
Arthur did not answer. When they came to the
door of the house in which they were living he
stopped.
"Will you go in ? I wish to take a walk by myself,"
he said.
Susie looked at him anxiously.
"You're not going to do anything rash?"
"I will do nothing till I have made quite sure that
Margaret was foully murdered."
He turned on his heel and walked quickly away.
It was late now, and they found a frugal meal wait-

ing for them in the little sitting-room. It seemed no

use to delay it till Arthur came back, and silently,
sorrowfully, they ate. Afterwards the doctor smoked
cigarettes, while Susie sat at the open window and
looked at the stars. She thought of Margaret, of
her beauty and her charming frankness, of her fall
and of her miserable end; and she began to cry
quietly. She knew enough of the facts now to be
aware that the wretched girl was not to blame for
 THE MAGICIAN 249

anything that had happened. A cruel fate had fallen

upon her, and she had been as powerless as in the
old tales Phoedra, the daughter of Minos, or Myrrha
of the beautiful hair. The hours passed, and still
Arthur did not return. Susie thought now only of
him, and she was frightfully anxious.
But at last he came in. The night was far ad-
vanced. He put down his hat and sat down. For
a long while he looked silently at Dr. Porhoet.
"What is it, my friend?" asked the good doctor
at length.
"Do you remember that you, told us once of an
experiment you made in Alexandria?" he said, after
some hesitation.^
He spoke in a curious voice.
"You told us that you took a boy, and when he
looked in a magic mirror, he saw things which he
could not possibly have known."
"I remember very well," said the doctor.
"I was much inclined to laugh at you at the time.
I was convinced that the boy was a knave who
deceived you."
"Yes?"
"Of late I've thought of that story often. Some
hidden recess of my memory has been opened, and
I seem to remember strange things. Was I the
boy who looked in the ink?"
"Yes," said the doctor quietly.
Arthur did not say anything. A profound silence
fell upon them, while Susie and the doctor watched

him intently. They wondered what was in his mind.

"There is a side of my character which I did
250 THE MAGICIAN
not know till lately," Arthur said at last. "When
dawned upon me I fought against
first it it. I said
to myself that deep down in all of us, a relic from
the long past, is the remains of the superstition
that blinded our fathers; and it is needful for the
man of science to fight against it with all his might.
And yet it was stronger than I. Perhaps my birth,
my early years, in those Eastern lands where every-
one believes in the supernatural, affected me although
I knew it began to remember vague, mysteri-
not. I
ous things, which I never knew had been part of my
knowledge. And at last one day it seemed that a
new window was opened on to my soul, and I saw
with extraordinary clearness the incident which you
had described. I knew suddenly it was part of my
own experience. I saw you take me by the hand and
pour the ink on my palm and bid me look at it. I
felt again the strange glow that thrilled me, and

with an indescribable distinctness I saw things in the

mirror which were not there before. I saw people
whom I had never seen. I saw them perform certain
actions. And some force I knew not, obliged me to
speak. And at length everything grew dim, and I
was as exhausted asif I had not eaten all day/'

He went over to the open window and looked

out. Neither of the others spoke. The look on
Arthur's face, curiously outlined by the light of the
lamp, was very stern. He seemed to undergo some
mental struggle of extraordinary violence. His
breath came quickly. At last he turned and faced
them. He spoke hoarsely, quickly.
"I must see Margaret again."
 THE MAGICIAN 251
"
Arthur, you're mad!" cried Susie.
He went up to Dr. Porhoet and, putting his hands
on his shoulders, looked fixedly into his eyes.
"You have studied this science. You know all

that can be known of it. I want you to show her

to me."
The doctor gave an exclamation of alarm.
"My dear fellow, how can I? I have read many
books, but I have never practised anything. I have
only studied these matters for my amusement."
"Do you believe it can be done?"
"I don't understand what you want."
"I want you to bring her to me so that I may
speak with her, so that I may find out the truth."
"Do you think I am God that I can raise men
from the dead?"
Arthur's hands pressed him down in the chair
from which he sought to rise. His fingers were
clenched on the old man's shoulders so that he
could hardly bear the pain.
"You told us once how Eliphas Levi raised a
spirit. Do you believe that was true?"
"I don't know. I have always kept an open
rpind. There was much to be said on both sides."
"Well, now you must believe. You must do
what he did."
"You must be mad, Arthur."
"I want you to come to that spot where I saw
her last. If her spirit can be brought back any-
where it must be in that place where she sat and
wept. You know all the ceremonies and all the
words that are necessary."
252 THE MAGICIAN
But Susie came forward and laid her hand on his
arm. He looked at her with a frown.
"Arthur, you know in your heart that nothing
can come of it. You're only increasing your un-
happiness. And even if you could bring her from
the grave for a moment, why can you not let her
troubled soul rest in peace?"
"If she died a natural death we shall have no
power over but if her death was violent perhaps
her,
her spirit is earthbound still. I tell you I must be
certain. I want to see her once more, and afterwards
I shall know what to do."
"I cannot, I cannot," said the doctor.
"Give me the books and I will do it alone/'
"You know that I have nothing here."
"Then you must help me," said Arthur. "After
all, why should you mind? We perform a certain
operation, and if nothing happens we are no worse
off than before. On the other hand, if we suc-
ceed. .
Oh, for
. .God's sake, help me! If you have
any care for my happiness do this one thing for me."
He stepped back and looked at the doctor. The
Frenchman's eyes were fixed upon the ground.
"It's madness," he muttered.
He was intensely moved by Arthur's appeal. At
last he shrugged his shoulders.
"After all, if it is but a foolish mummery it can
do no harm."
"You will help me?" cried Arthur.
"If can give you any peace or any satisfaction,
it

I am willing to do what I can. But I warn you to

be prepared for a great disappointment."
 Chapter XV
wished to set about the invocations
AUTHUR
then and there, but Dr. Porhoet said it was
impossible. They were all exhausted after the long
journey, and was necessary to get certain things
it

together without which nothing could be done. In

his heart he thought that a night's rest would bring
Arthur to a more reasonable mind. When the light
of day shone upon the earth he would be ashamed of
the desire which ran counter to all his preposses-
sions. But Arthur remembered that on the next
day it would be exactly a week since Margaret's
death, and it seemed to him that then their spells
might have a greater efficacy.
When they came down in the morning and greeted
one another, it was plain that none of them had
slept.
"Are you still of the same purpose as last night?"
asked Dr. Porhoet gravely.
"I am."
The doctor hesitated nervously.
"It will be necessary, if you wish to follow out
the rules of the old necromancers, to fast through
the whole day."
"I arn ready to do anything."
"It will be no hardship to me," said Susie, with
258
254 THE MAGICIAN
a little hysterical laugh. "I feel I couldn't eat a

thing if I tried/'
"I think the whole affair is sheer folly," said
Dr. Porhoet.
"You promised me you would try."
The day, the long summer day, passed slowly.
There was a hard brilliancy in the sky that re-
minded the Frenchman of those Egyptian heavens
when the earth seemed crushed beneath a bowl of
molten fire. Arthur was too restless to remain in-
doors and left the others to their own devices. He
walked without aim, as fast as he could go; he felt
no weariness. The burning sun beat down upon
him, but he did not know it. The hours passed
with lagging feet. Susie lay on her bed and tried
to read. Her nerves were so taut that, when there
was a sound in the courtyard of a pail falling on the.
cobbles, she cried out in terror. The sun rose up,
and presently her window was flooded with quiver-
ing rays of gold. It was midday. The sun passed
on, and it was afternoon. The evening came, but it
brought no freshness. Meanwhile Dr. Porhoet sat
in the little parlour, with his head between his
hands, trying by a great mental effort to bring back
to his memory all that he had read. His heart be-
gan to beat more quickly. Then the night fell,
and one by one the stars shone out. There was no
wind. The air was peculiarly heavy. Susie came
downstairs and began to talk with Dr. Porhoet. But
they spoke in a low tone as if they were afraid that
someone would overhear. They were faint now with
want of food. The hours went one by one, and the
 THE MAGICIAN 255

striking of a clock filled them each time with a

mysterious apprehension. The lights in the village

were put out little by little, and everybody slept.
Susie had lighted the lamp, and they watched
beside it. A cold shiver passed through her.
"I feel as though someone were lying dead in the

room," she said.

"Why does not Arthur come?"

They spoke inconsequently, and neither heeded
what the other said. The window was open wide,
but the air was difficult to breathe. And now the
silence was so unusual that Susie grew strangely
nervous. She tried to think of the noisy streets in
Paris, the constant roar of traffic, and the shuffling
of the crowd towards evening as the working people
returned to their homes. She stood up.
"There's no air to-night. Look at the trees.
Not a leaf is moving."
"Why does not Arthur come?" repeated the
doctor.
"There's no moon to-night. It will be very
dark at Skene."
"He's walked all day. He should be here by
now."
Susie felt an extraordinary oppression, and she
panted for breath. At last they heard a step on
the road outside, and Arthur stood at the window.
"Are you ready to come?" he said.
"We've been waiting for you."
They joined him, bringing the few things that
Dr. Porhoet had said were necessary, and they
walked along the solitary road that led to Skene.
256 THE MAGICIAN
On each side the heather stretched into the dark
night, and there was a peculiar blackness about it
that was ominous. There was no sound except
that of their own
steps. Dimly, under the stars,
they saw the desolation with which they were sur-
rounded. The way seemed very long. They were
utterly exhausted now, and they could hardly drag
one foot after the other.
"You must let me rest for a minute/* said Susie
at last.

They did not answer, but stopped, and she sat on

a boulder by the wayside. They stood motionless
in front of her, waiting patiently till she was
ready. After a little while she forced herself to
get up.
"Now can go," she said.
I

they did not speak, but walked on. They

Still

moved like figures in a dream, with a stealthy direct-

ness, as though they acted under the influence of
another's will. Suddenly the road stopped, and they
found themselves at the gates of Skene.
"Follow me very closely," said Arthur.
He turned on one side, and they followed a paling.
Susie could feel that they walked along a narrow
path. She could see hardly two steps in front of
her. At last he stood still.

"I came here earlier in the night and made the

opening easier to get through."
He turned back a broken piece of railing and
slipped in. Susie followed, and Dr. Porhoet entered
after her.
"I can see nothing," said Susie.
 THE MAGICIAN 257

"Give me your hand, and I will lead you."

They walked with difficulty through the tangled
bracken, among closely planted trees. They stum-
bled, and once Dr. Porhoet fell. It seemed that they
went a long way. Susie's heart beat fast with
anxiety. was now forgotten.
All her weariness
Then Arthur stopped them, and he pointed in front
of him. Through an opening in the trees they saw
the house. All the windows were dark except those
just under the roof, and from them came bright
lights.
"Those are the attics which he uses as^a laboratory.
You see, he is working now. There is no one else
in the house."
Susiewas curiously fascinated by the flaming
lights.There was an awful mystery in those un-
known labours which absorbed Oliver Haddo night
after night till the sun rose. What horrible things
were done there, hidden from the eyes of men ? By
himself in that vast house the madman performed
ghastly experiments; and who could tell what dark
secrets he trafficked in?
"There is no danger that he will come out,"
said Arthur. "He remains there till the break of
day."
He took her hand again and led her on. Back
they went among the trees, and presently they were
on a pathway. They walked along with greater
safety.
"Are you all right, Porhoet?" asked Arthur.!
"Yes."
But the trees grew thicker and the night more
258 THE MAGICIAN
sombre. Now the stars were shut out, and they
could hardly see in front of them.
"Here we are," said Arthur.
They stopped and found that there was in front
of them a green space formed by four cross-ways.
In the middle a stone bench gleamed vaguely against
the darkness.
"This is where Margaret sat when last I saw her."
"I can see to do nothing here," said the doctor.
They had brought two flat bowls of brass to serve
as censers, and these Arthur gave to Dr. Porhoet.
He stood by Susie's side while the doctor busied
himself with his preparations. They saw him move
to and fro. They saw him bend to the ground.
Presently there was a crackling of wood, and from
the brazen bowls red flames shot up. They did
not know what he burnt, but there were heavy
clouds of smoke, and a strong, aromatic odour filled
the air. Now and again the doctor was sharply
silhouetted against the light. His slight, bowed
figurewas singularly mysterious. When Susie caught
sight of his face she saw that it was touched with a

strong emotion. The work he was at affected him

so that his doubts, his fears, had vanished. He
looked like some old alchemist busied with un-
natural things. began to beat pain-
Susie's heart

fully. She was growing desperately frightened and

stretched out her hand so that she might touch
Arthur. Silently he put his arm through hers.
And now the doctor was tracing strange signs upon
the ground. The flames died down and only a glow
remained, but he seemed to have no difficulty in
 THE MAGICIAN 259

seeing what he was about. Susie could not discern

what figures he drew. Then he put more twigs
upon the braziers, and the flames sprang up once
more, cutting the darkness sharply as with a sword.
"Now come," he said.
But inexplicably a sudden terror seized Susie.
She felt that the hairs of her head stood up, and a
cold sweat broke out on her body. Her limbs had
grown on an instant inconceivably heavy, so that
she could not move. A
panic such as she had never
known came upon her, and, except that her legs
would not carry her, she would have fled blindly.
She began violently to tremble. She tried to speak,
but her tongue clave to her throat.
"I can't, Pm afraid," she muttered hoarsely.
"You must. Without you we can do nothing,"
said Arthur.
She could not reason with herself. She had for-
gotten everything except that she was frightened to
death. Her heart was beating so quickly that she
almost fainted. And now Arthur held her, so firmly
that she winced.
"Let me go," she whispered. "I won't help you.
I'm afraid."
"You must," he said. "You must."
"No."
"I tell you, you must come."
"Why?"
Her deadly fear expressed itself in a passion of
sudden anger.
"Because you love me, and it's the only way to
give me peace."
260 THE MAGICIAN
She uttered a low wail of pain, and her terror
gave way to shame. She blushed to the roots of
her hair because he too knew her secret. And then
she was seized again with violent anger because he
had the cruelty to taunt her with it. She had re-
covered her courage now, and she stepped forward.
Dr. Porhoet told her where to stand. Arthur took
his place in front of her.
"You must not move till I give you leave. If
you go outside the figure I have drawn, I cannot
protect you."
For a moment Dr. Porhoet stood in perfect silence.
Then he began to recite strange words in Latin.
Susie heard him but vaguely. She did not know the
sense, and his voice was so low that she could not
have distinguished the words. But his intonation
had lost that gentle irony which was habitual to him,
and he spoke with a trembling gravity that was
extraordinarily impressive. Arthur stood immobile
as a rock. The flames died away, and they saw one
another only by the glow of the ashes, dimly, like
persons in a vision of death. There was silence.
Then the necromancer spoke again, and now his
voice was louder. He seemed to utter weird invo-
cations, but they were in a tongue that the others
knew not. And while he spoke the light from the
burning cinders on a sudden went out.
It did not die, but was sharply extinguished as
though by invisible hands. And now the darkness
was more sombre than that of the blackest night.
The trees that surrounded them were hidden from
their eyes, and the whiteness of the stone bench was
 THE MAGICIAN 261

seen no longer. They stood but a little way one

from the other, but each might have stood alone.
Susie strained her eyes, but she could see nothing.
She looked up quickly; the stars were gone out, and
she could see no further over her head than round
about. The darkness was terrifying. And from it
the voice that spoke slowly had a ghastly effect.
It stemed to come, wonderfully changed, from the
void of bottomless chaos. Susie clenched her hands
so that she might not faint.
All at once she started, for the old man's voice
was cut by a sudden gust of wind. A moment before
the utter silence had been almost intolerable, and
now a storm seemed to have fallen upon them.
The trees all round them rocked in the wind; they
heard the branches creak; and they heard the hiss-
ing of the leaves. They were in the midst of a
hurricane. And they felt the earth sway as it re-
sisted the straining roots of great trees, which seemed
to be dragged up by the force of the furious gale.
Whistling and roaring the wind stormed all about
them, and the doctor, raising his voice, tried in vain
to command it.But the strangest thing of all was
that where they stood there was no sign of the raging
blast. The air immediately about them was as still
as it had been before, and not a hair on Susie's head
was moved. And it was terrible to hear the tumult,
and yet to be in a calm that was almost unnatural.
On a sudden, Dr. Porhoet raised his voice, and
with a sternness they had never heard in it before,
unknown language. Then he called
cried out in that

upon Margaret. He called her name three times.

262 THE MAGICIAN
In the uproar Susie could scarcely hear. Terror had
seized her again, but in her confusion she remem-
bered his command, and she dared not move.
"Margaret, Margaret, Margaret."
Without a pause between, as quickly as a stone
falls to the ground, the din which was all about

them, ceased. There was no gradual diminution.

But at one moment there was a roaring hurricane
and at the next a silence so complete that it might
have been the silence of death.
And then, seeming to come out of nothingness,
extraordinarily, they heard with a curious distinct-
ness the sound of a woman weeping. Susie's heart
stood still. They heard the sound ot a woman
weeping, and they recognised the voice of Mar-
garet. A groan of anguish burst from Arthur's lips,
and he was on the point of starting forward. But
quickly Dr. Porhoet put out his hand to prevent
him. The sound was heartrending, the sobbing of
a woman who had lost all hope, the sobbing of a
woman terrified. If Susie had been able to stir she
would have put her hands to her ears to shut out
the ghastly agony of it.
And in a moment, notwithstanding the heavy
darkness of the starless night, Arthur saw her. She
was seated on the stone bench as when he had
last

spoken with her. In her anguish she sought not

to hide her face. She looked at the ground, and the
tears fell down her cheeks. Her bosom heaved
with the pain of her weeping.
Then Arthur knew that all his suspicions were true.
 Chapter XVI

would not leave the little village of

ARTHUR
Yenning. Neither Susie nor the doctor could
get him to make any decision. None of them spoke
of the night which they had spent in the woods of
Skene; but it coloured all their thoughts, and they
were not free for a single moment from the ghastly
memory of it. They seemed still to hear the sound
of that passionate weeping. Arthur was moody.
When he was with them he spoke little; he opposed
a stubborn resistance to their efforts at diverting his
mind. He spent long hours by himself, in the
country, and they had no idea what he did. Susie
was terribly anxious. He had lost his balance so
completely that she was prepared for any rashness.
She divined that his hatred of Haddo was no longer
within the bounds of reason. The desire for ven-
geance filled him entirely, so that he was capable of
any violence.
Several days went by.
At last, in concert with Dr. Porhoet, she deter-
mined to make one more attempt. It was late at
night, and they open windows in the sit-
sat with

ting-room of the inn. There was a singular op-

pressiveness in the air which suggested that a
thunderstorm was at hand. Susie prayed for it;
263
264 THE MAGICIAN
for she ascribed to the peculiar heat of the last few
days much of Arthur's sullen irritability.
"Arthur, you must tell us what you are going to
do/' she said. "It is useless to stay here. We are
all so ill and nervous that we cannot consider
any-
thing rationally. We want you to come away with
us to-morrow."
"You can go if you choose," he said. "I shall
remain till that man is dead."
"It is madness to talk like that. You can do
nothing. You are only making yourself worse by
staying here."
"I have quite made up my mind."
"The law can offer you no help, and what else
can you do?"
She asked the question, meaning if possible to
get from him some hint of his intentions; but the
grimness of his answer, though it only confirmed
her vague suspicions, startled her.
"If I can do nothing else I shall shoot him like
a dog."
She could think of nothing to say, and for a
while they remained in silence. Then he got up.
"I think I should prefer it if you went," he said.
"You can only hamper me."
"I shall stay here as long as you do."
"Why?"
"Because if you do anything I shall be compro-
mised. I may be arrested. I think the fear of that
may restrain you."
He looked at her steadily. She met his eyes with
a calmness which showed that she meant exactly
 THE MAGICIAN 265

what she said, and he turned uneasily away. A

silence even greater than before fell upon them.
They did not move. It was so still in the room that
it might have been quite empty. The breathlessness
of the air increased, so that it was horribly op-
pressive. Suddenly there was a loud rattle of thun-
der, and a flash of lightning tore across theheavy
clouds. Susie thanked Heaven for the storm which
would give presently a welcome freshness. She felt
excessively ill at ease, and it was a relief to ascribe
her sensation to a state of the atmosphere. Again
the thunder rolled. It was so loud that it seemed
to be immediately above their heads. And the
wind rose suddenly and swept with a long moan
through the trees that surrounded the house. It
was a sound so human that it might have come from
the souls of dead men suffering hopeless torments of
regret.
The lamp went out, so suddenly that Susie was
vaguely frightened. gave one flicker, and they
It
were in total darkness. It seemed as though some-
one had leaned over the chimney and blown it out.
The night was very black, and they could not see
the window which opened on to the country. The
darkness was so peculiar that for a moment no one
stirred.
Then Susie heard Dr. Porhoet slip his hand
across the table to find matches, but it seemed
that they were not there. Again a loud peal of
thunder startled them, but the rain would not fall.
They panted for fresh air. On a sudden Susie's
heart gave a bound, and she sprang up.
266 THE MAGICIAN
"There's someone in the room."
The words were no sooner out of her mouth than
she heard Arthur fling himself upon the intruder.
She knew at once, with the certainty of an intui-
tion, that it was Haddo. But how had he come
in? What did he want? She tried to cry out, but
no sound came from her throat. Dr. Porhoet seemed
bound to his chair. He did not move. He made no
sound. She knew that an awful struggle was pro-
ceeding. It was a struggle to the death between
two men who hated one another, but the most ter-
rible part of it was that nothing was heard. They
were perfectly noiseless. She tried to do something,
but she could not stir. And Arthur's heart exulted,
enemy was in his grasp, under his hands, and
for his
he would not let him go while life was in him. He
clenched his teeth and
tightened his straining
muscles. Susie heard his laboured breathing, but
she only heard the breathing of one man. She won-
dered in abject terror what that could mean. They
struggled silently, hand to hand, and Arthur knew
that his strength was greater. He had made up his
mind what to do and directed all his energy to a
definite end. His enemy was extraordinarily power-
ful, but Arthur appeared to create strength from the
sheer force of his will. It seemed for hours that they
struggled. He could not bear him down.
Suddenly he knew that the other was frightened
and sought to escape from him. Arthur tightened
his grasp; for nothing in the world now would he
ever loosen his hold. He took a deep, quick breath,
and then put out all his strength in a tremendous
 THE MAGICIAN 267

effort. They swayed from side to side. Arthur

muscles were being torn from the bones,
felt as if his

he could not continue for more than a moment

longer; but the agony that flashed across his mind
at the thought of failure braced him to a sudden

angry jerk. All at once Haddo collapsed, and they

fell heavily to the ground. Arthur was breathing
more quickly now. He thought that if he could
keep on for one instant longer, he would be safe.
He threw all his weight on the form that rolled
beneath him, and bore down furiously on the man's
arm. He twisted it sharply, with all his might, and
felt it give way. He gave a low cry of triumph;
the arm was broken. And now his enemy was
seized with panic; he struggled madly, he wanted
only to get away from those long hands that were
killing him. They seemed to be of iron. Arthur
seized the huge bullock throat and dug his fingers
into it, and they sunk in the heavy rolls of fat; and
he flung the whole weight of his body into them.
He exulted, for he knew that his enemy was in his
power at last; he was strangling him, strangling the
life out of him. He wanted light so that he might
and the deadly fear,
see the horror of that vast face,
and the starting eyes. And he pressed with
still

those iron hands. And now the movements were

strangely convulsive. His victim writhed with the
agony of death. His struggles were desperate, but
the avenging hands held him as in a vice. And then
the movements grew utterly spasmodic, and then
they grew weaker. Still the hands pressed upon
the gigantic throat, and Arthur forgot everything.
268 THE MAGICIAN
He was mad with rage and fury and hate and sorrow.
He thought of Margaret's anguish and of her fiendish
torture, and he wished the man had ten lives so that
he might take them one by one. And at last all was
and that vast mass of flesh was motionless, and
still,

he knew that his enemy was dead. He loosened his

grasp and slipped one hand over the heart. It would
never beat again. The man was stone dead. Arthur
got up and straightened himself. The darkness was
intense still, and he could see nothing. Susie heard
him, and at length she was able to speak.
"Arthur, what have you done?"
"I've killed him," he said hoarsely.
"O God, what shall we do?"
Arthur began to laugh aloud, hysterically, and in
the darkness his hilarity was terrifying.
"For God's sake let us have some light."
"I've found the matches," said Dr. Porhoet.
He seemed to awake suddenly from his long
stupor. He struck one, and it would not light. He
struck another, and Susie took off the globe and
the chimney as he kindled the wick. Then he held
up the lamp, and they saw Arthur looking at them.
His face was ghastly. The sweat ran off his fore-
head in great beads, and his eyes were bloodshot.
He trembled in every limb. Then Dr. Porhoet ad-
vanced with the lamp and held it forward. They
looked down on the floor for the man who lay there
dead. Susie gave a sudden cry of horror.
There was no one there.
Arthur stepped back in terrified surprise. There
was no one in the room, living or dead, but the
 THE MAGICIAN 269

three friends. The ground sank under Susie's feet,

she felt horribly ill, and she fainted. When she
awoke, seeming difficultly to emerge from an eternal
night, Arthur was holding down her head.
"Bend down," he said. "Bend down."
All that had happened came back to her, and she
burst into tears. Her self-control deserted her,
and, clinging to him for protection, she sobbed as
though her heart would break. She was shaken
from head to foot. The strangeness of this last hor-
ror had overcome her, and she could have shrieked
with fright.
"It's all right," he said. "You need not be
afraid."
"Oh, what does it mean?"
"You must pluck up courage. We're going now
to Skene."
She sprang to her feet, as though to get away from
him; her heart beat wildly.
"No, I can't; I'm frightened."
"We must see what it means. We have no time
to lose, or the morning will be upon us before we
get back."
Then she sought to prevent him.
"Oh, for God's sake, don't go, Arthur. Some-
thing awful may await you there. Don't risk your
life."

"There is no danger. I tell you the man is dead."

"If anything happened to you ." . .

She stopped, trying to restrain her sobs; she dared

not go on. But he seemed to know what was in her
mind.
270 THE MAGICIAN
"I will take no risks because of you. I know that
whether I live or die is not a matter of indifference
to you."
She looked up and saw that his eyes were fixed
upon her gravely. She reddened. A curious feeling
came into her heart.
"I will go with you wherever you choose," she
said humbly.
"Come then."
They stepped out into the night. And now, with-
out rain, the storm had passed away, and the stars
were shining. They walked quickly. Arthur went
in front of them. Dr. Porhoet and Susie followed
him, side by side, and they had to hasten their steps
in order not to be left behind. It seemed to them
that the horror of the night was passed, and there
was a fragrancy in the air which was curiously re-
freshing. The sky was very beautiful. And at last
they came to Skene. Arthur led them again to the
opening in the palisade, and he took Susie's hand.
Presently they stood in the place from which a few
days before they had seen the house. As then it
stood in massive blackness against the night, and as
then the attic windows shone out with brilliant lights.
Susie started, for she had expected that the whole
place would be in darkness.
"There is no danger, I promise you," said Arthur
gently. "We are going to find out the meaning of
all this mystery."

He began to walk towards the house.

"Have you a weapon of some sort?" asked the
doctor.
 THE MAGICIAN 271

Arthur handed him a revolver.

"Take this. It will reassure you, but you will
have no need of it. I bought it the other day when
I had other plans."

Susie gave a little shudder. They reached the

drive and walked to the great portico which adorned
the fajade of the house. Arthur tried the handle,
but it would not open.
"Will you wait here?" he said. "I can get through
one of the windows, and I will let you in."
He left them. They stood quietly there, with
anxious hearts; they could not guess what they
would see. They were afraid that something would
happen to Arthur, and Susie regretted that she had
not insisted on going with him. Suddenly she re-
membered that awful moment when the light of the
lamp had been thrown where all expected to see a
body, and there was nothing.
"What do you think it meant?" she cried sud-
denly. "What is the explanation?"
"Perhaps we shall see now," answered the doctor.
Arthur still lingered, and she could not imagine
what had become of him. All sorts of horrible
fancies passed through her mind, and she dreaded
she knew not what. At last they heard a footstep
inside the house, and the door was opened.
"I was convinced that nobody slept here, but I
was obliged to make sure. I had some difficulty in
getting in."
Susie hesitated to enter. She did not know what
horrors awaited her, and the darkness was terrifying.
"I cannot see," she said.
 THE MAGICIAN
"I've brought a lantern/' said Arthur.
He pressed a button, and a narrow ray of bright
light was cast upon the floor. Dr. Porhoet and
Susie went in. Arthur carefully closed the door,
and flashed the light of his lamp all round them.
They stood in a large hall, the floor of which was
scattered with the skins of lions that Haddo on his
celebrated expedition had killed in Africa. There
were perhaps a dozen, and their number gave a wild,
barbaric note. In front of them a great oak staircase
led to the upper floors.
"We must go through all the rooms," said Arthur.
He did not expect to find Haddo till they came
to the lighted attics, but it seemed needful neverthe-
less to pass right through the house on their way.
A had shown him that the walls
flash of his lantern
of the hall were decorated with all manner of armour,
ancient swords of Eastern handiwork, barbaric weap-
ons from central Africa, savage implements of mediae-
val warfare; and an idea came to him. He took
down a huge battle-axe and swung it in his hand.
"Now come."
Silently, holding their breath as though they
feared to wake the dead, they went into the first
room. They saw it difficultly with their scant light,
since the thin shaft of brilliancy, emphasising acutely
the surrounding darkness, revealed it only piece
by piece. It was a large room, evidently unused,
for the furniture was covered with holland, and
there was a mustiness about it which suggested
that the windows were seldom opened. As in many
old houses the rooms led not from a passage but
 THE MAGICIAN 278

into one another, and they walked through many

tillthey came back into the hall. They had all a
desolate, uninhabited air. Their sombreness was
increased by the oak with which they were pannelled.
There was pannelling in the hall too, and on the
broadly to the top of the house. As
stairs that led

they ascended Arthur stopped for one moment and

passed his hand over the polished wood.
"It would burn like tinder," he said.
They went through the rooms on the first floor,
and they were as empty and as cheerless. Presently
they came to that which had been Margaret's.
In a bowl were dead flowers. Her brushes were still
on the toilet table. But it was a gloomy chamber,
with its dark oak, and so comfortless that Susie
shuddered. Arthur stood for a time and looked at
it, but he said nothing. They found themselves
again on the stairs and they went to the second
story. But here they seemed to be at the top of the
house.
"How does one get up to the attics?" said Arthur,
looking about him with surprise.
He paused for a while to think. Then he nodded
his head.
"There must be some steps leading out of one of
the rooms."
They went on. And now the ceilings were much
lower, with heavy beams, and there was no furniture
at all. The emptiness seemed to make everything
more terrifying. They felt that they were on the
threshold of a great mystery, and Susie's heart began
to beat very fast. Arthur conducted his examina-
274 THE MAGICIAN
tion with the greatest method; he walked round
each room carefully, looking for a door that might
lead to a staircase; but there was no sign of one.
"What will you do if you can't find the way up?"
asked Susie.
"I shall find the way up," he answered.
They came to the staircase once more and had
discovered nothing. They looked at one another
helplessly.
is a way," said Arthur, with
"It's quite clear there

impatience. "There must be something in the na-

ture of a hidden door somewhere or other."
He leaned against the balustrade and meditated.
The light of his lantern threw a narrow ray upon the
opposite wall.
"I feel certain must be in one of the rooms at the
it

end of the house. That seems the most natural

place to put a means of ascent to the attics."
They went back, and again he examined the pan-
nelling of a small room that had outside walls on
three sides of it. It was the only one that did not
lead into another.
"It must be here," he said.
Presently he gave a little laugh, for he saw that
a small door was concealed by the woodwork. He
pressedit where he thought there might be a spring,

and it flew open. Their lantern showed them a

narrow wooden staircase. They walked up and
found themselves in front of a door. Arthur tried
it, but it was locked. He smiled grimly.
"Will you get back a little," he said.
He lifted his axe and swung it down upon the
 THE MAGICIAN 275

latch. The handle was shattered, but the lock did

not yield. He shook his head. As he paused for
a moment, and there was complete silence, Susie
distinctly heard a slight noise. She put her hand
on Arthur's arm to call his attention to it, and with
strained ears they listened. There was something
alive on the other side of that door. They heard a
curious sound it was not that of a human voice, it
:

was not the crying of an animal, it was extraordinary.

It was a sort of gibber, hoarse and rapid, and it
filled them with an icy terror because it was so

weird and so unnatural.

"Comeaway, Arthur," said Susie. "Come away."
"There's some living thing in there," he answered.
He did not know why the sound horrified him.
The sweat broke out on his forehead.
"Something awful will happen to us," whispered

Susie, shaking with uncontrollable fear.

"The only thing is to break the door down."
The horrid gibbering was drowned by the noise
he made. Quickly, without pausing, he began to
hack at the oak door with all his might. In rapid
succession his heavy blows rained down, and the
sound echoed through the empty house. There was
a crash, and the door swung back. They had been
so long in almost total darkness that they were
blinded for an instant by the dazzling light. And
then instinctively they started back, for, as the door
opened, a wave of heat came out upon them so that
they could hardly breathe. The place was like an
oven.
They entered. It was lit by enormous lamps the
 76 THE MAGICIAN
light of which was increased by reflectors, and
warmed by a great furnace. They could not un-
derstand why so intense a heat was necessary. The
narrow windows were closed. Dr. Porhoet caught
sight of a thermometer and was astounded at the
temperature it indicated. The room was used evi-
dently as a laboratory. On broad tables were test-
tubes, basins and baths of white porcelain, measur-
ing-glasses, and utensils of all sorts; but the surpris-
ing thing was the great scale upon which everything
was. Neither Arthur nor Dr. Porhoet had ever
seen such gigantic measures nor such large test-
tubes. There were rows of bottles, like those in
the dispensary of a hospital, each containing great
quantities of a different chemical. The three friends
stood in silence. The emptiness of the room con-
trasted so oddly with its appearance of being in
immediate use that it was uncanny. Susie felt
that he who worked there was in the midst of his
labours,and might return at any moment; he could
only have gone for an instant into another cham-
ber in order to see the progress of some experi-
ment. It was quite silent. Whatever had made
those vague, unearthly noises was hushed by their
approach.
The door was closed between this room and the
next. Arthur opened it, and they found themselves
in a long,low attic, ceiled with great rafters, as
brilliantly and as hot as the first. Here too
lit

were broad tables laden with retorts, instruments

for heating, huge test-tubes, and all manner of ves-
sels. The furnace that warmed it gave a very
 THE MAGICIAN 277

steady but extreme heat. Arthur's gaze travelled

slowly from table to table, and he wondered what
Haddo's experiments had really been. The air was
heavy with an extraordinary odour: it was not
musty like that of the closed rooms through which
they had passed, but singularly pungent, disagree-
able and sickly. He asked himself what it could
spring from. Then his eyes fell upon a huge re-
ceptacle that stood on the table nearest to the fur-
nace. It was covered with a white cloth. He
went up to it and took this off. The vessel was
about four feet high, round, and shaped somewhat
like a washing tub, but it was made of glass more
than an inch thick. In it was a spherical mass, a
little larger than a football, of a peculiar, livid col-
our. The surface was smooth, but rather coarsely
grained, and over itran a dense system of blood-
vessels. It reminded the two medical men of those

huge tumours which are preserved in spirit in hos-

pital museums. Susie looked at it with an incom-

prehensible disgust. Suddenly she gave a cry.
"Good God, it's moving !"
Arthur put his hand on her arm quickly to quieten
her and bent down with irresistible curiosity. They
saw that it was a mass of flesh, but of some strange,
horrible flesh unlike that of any human being; and
it pulsated regularly. The movement was quite
up and down, like the
distinct, delicate heaving of
a woman's breast when she is asleep. Arthur
touched the thing with one finger and it shrank
slightly.
5
"It's quite warm,' he said.
278 THE MAGICIAN
He turned it over, and it remained in the
posi-
tion in which he had placed it, as if there were
neither top nor bottom to it. But they could see
now, irregularly placed on one side, a few short
hairs. They were just like human hairs.
"Is it alive ?" whispered Susie, struck with horror
and amazement.
"Yes!"
Arthur seemed fascinated. He could not take his
eyes off the loathsome thing. He watched it slowly
heave with even motion.
"What can it mean?" he asked.
He looked at Dr. Porhoet with pale and startled
face. A thought was coming to him, but a thought
so unnatural, extravagant, and terrible, that he
pushed it from him with a movement of both hands,
as though it were a material thing. Then all three
turned around abruptly with a start, for they heard
again the wild gibbering which had first shocked
their ears. In the wonder of this revolting object
they had forgotten all the rest. The sound seemed
extraordinarily near, and Susie drew back instinc-
tively, for it appeared to come from her very side.
"There's nothing here/' said Arthur. "It must
be in the next room."
"Oh, Arthur, let us go," cried Susie. "I'm
afraid to seewhat may be in store for us. It is
nothing to us, and what we see may poison our
sleep for ever."
She looked appealingly at Dr. Porhoet. He was
white and anxious. The heat of that place had
made the sweat break out on his forehead.
 THE MAGICIAN 279

"I have seen enough. I want to see no more/*

he said.
"Then you may go, both of you/' answered
Arthur. "I do not wish to force you to see any-
thing. But I shall go on. Whatever it is, I wish
to find out."
"But Haddo? Supposing he is there, waiting?
Perhaps you are only walking into a trap that he
has set for you."
"I am convinced that Haddo is dead."
Again that unintelligible jargon, unhuman and
shrill, fell upon their ears, and Arthur stepped for-
ward. Susie did not hesitate. She was prepared
to followhim anywhere. He opened the door, and
there was a sudden quiet. Whatever made those
sounds was there. It was room than any
a larger
of the others and much
higher, for it ran along the
whole front of the house. The powerful lamps
showed every corner of it at once, but above, the
beams of the open ceiling were dark with shadow.
And here the nauseous odour, which had struck
them before, was so overpowering that for a while
they could not go in. It was indescribably foul.
Even Arthur thought it would make him sick, and he
looked at the windows to see if it was possible to
open them; but it seemed they were hermetically
closed. The extreme warmth made the air more
overpowering. There were four furnaces here
and they were all alight. In order to give out more
heat and to burn slowly, the fronts of them were
open, and one could see that they were filled with
glowing coke.
280 THE MAGICIAN
The room was furnished no differently from the
others, but to the various instruments for chemical
operations on a large scale were added all manner
of electrical appliances. Several books were lying
about, and one had been left open face downwards
on the edge of a table. But what immediately at-
tracted their attention was a row of those large
glass vessels like that which they had seen in the
adjoining room. Each was covered with a white
cloth. They hesitated a moment, for they knew
that here they were face to face with the great
enigma. At last Arthur pulled away the cloth
from one. None of them spoke. They stared with
astonished eyes. For here, too, was a strange mass
of flesh, almost as large as a new-born child, but
there was in it the beginnings of something ghastly
human. It was shaped vaguely like an infant, but
the legs were joined together so that it looked like
a mummy rolled up in its coverings. There were
neither feet nor knees. The trunk was formless,
but there was a curious thickening on each side;
it was as if a modeller had meant to make a figure

with the arms loosely bent, but had left the work
unfinished so that they were still one with the body.
There was something that resembled a human head,
covered with long golden hair, but it was horrible;
it was an uncouth mass, without eyes or nose or

mouth. The colour was a kind of sickly pink, and

it was almost transparent. There was a very slight
movement in it, rhythmical and slow. It was living
too.
Then quickly Arthur removed the covering from
 THE MAGICIAN 281

allthe other jars but one; and in a flash of the eyes

they saw abominations so awful that Susie had to
clench her fists in order not to scream. There was
one monstrous thing in which the limbs approached
nearly to the human. It was extraordinarily heaped
up, with fat tiny arms, little bloated legs, and an
absurd squat body, so that it looked like a Chinese
mandarin in porcelain. In another the trunk was
almost like that of a human child, except that it was
patched strangely with red and grey. But the
terror of it was that at the neck it branched hide-
ously, and there were two distinct heads, mon-
strously large, but duly provided with all their
features. The features were a caricature of humanity
so shameful that one could hardly bear to look.
And as the light fell on it, the eyes of each head
opened slowly. They had no pigment in them, but
were pink like the eyes of white rabbits; and they
stared for a moment with an odd, unseeing glance.
Then they were shut again, and what was curiously
terrifying was that the movements were not quite
simultaneous; the eyelids of one head fell slowly
just before those of the other. And in another
place was a ghastly monster in which it seemed that
two bodies had been dreadfully entangled with one
another. It was a creature of nightmare, with
four arms and four legs, and this one actually
moved. With a peculiar motion it crawled along
the bottom of the great receptacle in which it was
kept, towards the three persons who looked at it.
It seemed to wonder what
they did. Susie started
282 THE MAGICIAN
back with fright, as it raised itself on its four legs
and tried to reach up to them.
Susie turned away and hid her face. She could
not look at those ghastly counterfeits of humanity.
She was terrified and ashamed.
"Do you understand what this means ?" said
Dr. Porhoet to Arthur, in an awed voice. "It
means that he has discovered the secret of life."
"Was it for these vile monstrosities that Mar-
garet was sacrificed in all her loveliness?"
The two men looked at one another with sad,
wondering eyes.
"Don't you remember that he talked of the
manufacture of human beings? It's these mis-
shapen things that he's succeeded in producing,"
said the doctor.
"There is one more that we haven't seen," said
Arthur.
He pointed to the covering which still hid the
largest of the vases. He had a feeling that it con-
tained the most fearful of
all these monsters; and it

was not without an effort that h drew the cloth

away. But no sooner had he done this than some-
thing sprang up, so that instinctively he started
back, and it began to gibber in piercing tones.
These were the unearthly sounds that they had
heard. It was not a voice, it was a kind of rau-
cous crying, hoarse yet shrill, uneven like the bark-
ing of a dog, and appalling. The sounds came
forth in rapid succession, angrily, as though the
being that uttered them sought to express itself in
furious words. It was mad with passion and beat
 THE MAGICIAN 283

against the glass walls of its prison with clenched

fists. For the hands were human hands, and the
body, though much larger, was of the shape of a
new-born child. The creature must have stood
about four feet high. The head was horribly mis-
shapen. The skull was enormous, smooth and
distended like that of a hydrocephalic, and the fore-
head protruded over the face hideously. The fea-
tures were almost unformed, preternaturally small
under the great, overhanging brow; and they had
an expression of fiendish malignity. The tiny, mis-
shapen countenance writhed with convulsive fury,
and from the mouth poured out a foaming spume.
It raised its voice higher and higher, shrieking
senseless gibberish in its rage. Then it began to
hurl whole body madly against the glass walls
its

and to beat its head. It appeared to have a sudden,

incomprehensible hatred for the three strangers.
It was trying to fly at them. The toothless gums
moved spasmodically, and it threw its face into
horrible grimaces. That nameless, loathsome abor-
tion was the nearest that Oliver Haddo had come to
the human form.
"Come away," said Arthur. "We must not
look at this/'
He quickly flung the covering over the jar.
"Yes, for God's sake let us go," said Susie.
"We haven't done yet," answered Arthur. "We
haven't found the author of all this."
He looked at the room in which they were, but
there was no door except that by which they had
284 THE MAGICIAN
entered. Then he uttered a startied cry, and
stepping forward fell on his knee.
On the other side of the long tables heaped up
with instruments, hidden so that at first they had
not seen him, Oliver Haddo lay on the floor, dead.
His blue eyes were staring wide, and they seemed
larger than they had ever been. They kept still
the expression of terror which they had worn in the
moment of his agony, and his heavy face was dis-
torted with deadly fear. It was purple and dark,
and the eyes were injected with blood.
5
"Hedied of suffocation/ whispered Dr. Porhoet.
Arthur pointed to the neck. There could be seen
on it distinctly the marks of the avenging fingers
that had strangled the life out of him. It was im-

possible to hesitate.
"I told you that I had killed him," said Arthur.
Then he remembered something more. He took
hold of the right arm. He was convinced that it
had been broken during that desperate struggle in
the darkness. He felt it carefully and listened.
He heard plainly the two parts of the' bone rub
against one another. The dead man's arm was
broken just in the place where he had broken it.
Arthur stood up. He took one last look at his
enemy. That vast mass of flesh lay heaped up on
the floor in horrible disorder.
"Now that you have seen, will you come away?"
said Susie, interrupting him.
The words seemed to bring him suddenly to him-
self.

"Yes, we must go quickly."

 THE MAGICIAN 285

They turned away and with hurried steps walked

through those bright attics till they came to the

stairs.
"Now go down and wait for me at the door," said
"
Arthur. "I will follow you immediately.
"What are you going to do?" asked Susie.
"Never rnind. Do as I tell you. I have not
finished here yet."

They went down the great oak staircase and waited

in the hall. They wondered what Arthur was about.

Presently he came running down.

"Be quick!" he cried. "We have no time to
lose."
"What have you done, Arthur?"
"There's no time to tell you now."
He hurried them out and slammed the door be-
hind him. He took Susie's hand.
"Now we must Come."
run.
She did not know what his great haste signified,
but her heart beat furiously. He dragged her along.
Dr. Porhoet hurried on behind them. Arthur
plunged into the wood. He would not leave them
time to breathe.
"You must be quick," he said.
At last they came to the opening in the fence, and
he helped them to get through. Then he carefully
replaced the wooden paling, and taking Susie's arm,
began to walk rapidly towards their inn.
"I'm frightfully tired," she said. "I simply can't
go so fast."
"You must. Presently you can rest as long as
you like."
286 THE MAGICIAN
They walked very quickly for a while. Now and
then Arthur looked back. The night was still quite
dark, and the stars shone out in their myriads. At
last he slackened their pace.
"Now you can go more slowly," he said.
Susie saw the smiling glance that he gave her.
His eyes were full of tenderness. He put his arm
affectionately round her shoulders to support her.
"I'm
afraid you're quite exhausted, poor thing,'*
he said. "I'm sorry to have had to hustle you so
much."
"It doesn't matter at all."
She leaned against him comfortably. With that
protecting arm about her she felt capable of any
fatigue. Dr. Porhoet stopped.
"You must really let me roll myself a cigarette,"
he said.
"You may do whatever you like," answered
Arthur.
There was a different ring in his voice now, and
it was soft with a good humour that they had not
heard in it for many months. He appeared singu-
larly relieved. Susie was ready to forget the ter-
rible past and give herself over to the happiness
that seemed at last in store for her. They began
to saunter slowly on. And now they could take
pleasure in the exquisite night. The air was very
suave, odorous with the heather that was all about

them, and there was an enchanting peace in that

scene which wonderfully soothed their weariness.
It was dark still, but they knew the dawn was at

hand, and Susie rejoiced in the approaching day.

 THE MAGICIAN 287

In the east the azure of the night began to thin

away into pale amethyst, and the trees seemed grad-
ually to stand out from the darkness in a ghostly
beauty. Suddenly birds began to sing all around
them in a splendid chorus. From their feet a lark

sprang up with a rustle of wings, and mounting

proudly upon the air, chanted blithe canticles to
greet the morning. They stood upon a little hill.
"Let us wait here and see the sun rise," said
Susie.
"As you will."
They stood, all three of them, and Susie took in
deep, joyful breaths of the sweet air of dawn. The
whole land, spread at her feet, was clothed in the
purple dimness that heralds day, and she exulted in
its beauty. But she noticed that Arthur, unlike her-
self and Dr. Porhoet, did not look toward the east.
His eyes were fixed steadily upon the place from
which they had come. What did he look for in the
darkness of the west ? She turned round, and a cry
broke from her lips, for the shadows there were lurid
with a deep red glow.
"It looks like a fire," she said.
"It is. Skene is burning like tinder."
And as he spoke it seemed that the roof fell in,

for suddenly vast flames sprang up, rising high into

the still night air; and they saw that the house they

had just left was blazing furiously. It was a mag-

nificent sightfrom the distant hill on which they
stood to watch the fire as it soared and sunk, as it
shot scarlet tongues along like strange Titanic mon-
sters, as it raged from room to room. Skene was
288 THE MAGICIAN
burning. It was beyond the reach of human help.
In a little while there would be no trace of all those
crimes and all those horrors. Now it was one mass
of flame. Itlooked like some primeval furnace,
where the gods might work unheard-of miracles.
"Arthur, what have you done?" asked Susie, in
a tone that was hardly audible.
He did not answer directly. He put his arm about
her shoulder again, so that she was obliged to turn
round.
"Look, the sun is rising."
In the east a long ray of light climbed up the sky,
and the sun, yellow and round, appeared upon the
face of the earth.

THE END