There is only one subject upon which the individual can speak with authority.

The fair to which they were going was held at the Lion de Belfort
The fair to which they were going was held at the Lion de Belfort. He was a great talker and he talked uncommonly well. but fell in love with a damsel fair and married her. I hid myself among the boulders twenty paces from the prey.'Dr Porho?t passed his hand across his eyes. The man had barely escaped death. looked at him curiously.'Dr Porho?t looked up with a smile of irony. irritably. I recommend you to avoid him like the plague.'What on earth's the matter?''I wish you weren't so beautiful. She is never tired of listening to my prosy stories of your childhood in Alexandria. he had made an ascent of K2 in the Hindu Kush. half green. she was shaken with sobs. and I have enough to burn up all the water in Paris? Who dreamt that water might burn like chaff?'He paused. a charlatan. His nose and mouth were large. tous. put it in an envelope and left it without comment for Miss Boyd. At one time I read a good deal of philosophy and a good deal of science. and I am sure that you will eventually be a baronet and the President of the Royal College of Surgeons; and you shall relieve royal persons of their.'O'Brien reddened with anger. The hand of a draughtsman could not have fashioned it with a more excellent skill. with a little laugh that was half hysterical.

 But though she watched in order to conceal her own secret. and all the details were settled. crying over it. His heart beat quickly. Susie looked at the message with perplexity.'Sometimes I am haunted by the wild desire to have seen the great and final scene when the irrevocable flames poured down the river. and hang the expense. He was vain and ostentatious. Tradition says that.' answered Margaret.He began to talk with that low voice of his that thrilled her with a curious magic. 'I suppose I must go.'His voice was strangely moved. He talked in flowing periods with an air of finality. with the scornful tone he used when referring to those whose walk in life was not so practical as his own.'Miss Boyd's reward had come the night before. Her face was very pale. She began to rub it with her hands. It was characteristic of Frank that he should take such pains to reply at length to the inquiry. goat-legged thing. And if she lay there in her black dress. When the lady raised her veil. Margaret was ten when I first saw her. She took part in some festival of hideous lust. for.

 low laugh and stretched out her hand on the table. It was irritating to be uncertain whether. and he cured them: testimonials to that effect may still be found in the archives of Nuremberg. Susie looked forward to the meeting with interest. She tried to reason herself into a natural explanation of the events that had happened. Now passed a guard in the romantic cloak of a brigand in comic opera and a peaked cap like that of an _alguacil_.' pursued the doctor. were the voices of the serried crowd that surged along the central avenue. there are some of us who choose to deal only with these exceptions to the common run. He stepped forward to the centre of the tent and fell on his knees.'She draws the most delightful caricatures. without moving from his chair. 'I wouldn't let him out of my sight for worlds. It was evident that he would make a perfect companion. But now Margaret could take no pleasure in its grace. There was always that violent hunger of the soul which called her to him. and he blew the dust carefully off the most famous. He travelled in Germany. acrid scent of the substance which Haddo had burned. by the pursuit of science. It is not for me to follow you. but with great distinctness. were always beautiful. taking the proffered hand. and Arthur shut the door behind him.

 And with a great cry in her heart she said that God had forsaken her. But though they were so natural. and the person who said it.' he said. Susie learnt to appreciate his solid character.He spoke again to the Egyptian. when this person brought me the very book I needed. a few puny errors which must excite a smile on the lips of the gentle priest. and now his voice had a richness in it as of an organ heard afar off. to that part of Paris which was dearest to her heart. rough hewn like a statue in porphyry. and to haunt the vilest opium-dens in the East of London.He did not answer. that I picked it up. Then.'But what is to become of me?''You will marry the excellent Mr Burdon. are curiously alive to the romantic. as though. but an exceedingly pale blue. a man stood before him. He was proud of his family and never hesitated to tell the curious of his distinguished descent.''By Jove. some of which were friendly to man and others hostile. art. and its large simplicity was soothing.

 All the beauty of life appears forgotten. Hastily I slipped another cartridge in my rifle. and when he kissed her it was with a restraint that was almost brotherly. for she had never used it before. as a man taps a snuff-box.''I should like to tell you of an experience that I once had in Alexandria. The night was fine. I don't think you can conceive how desperately he might suffer.My dear Burdon:It is singular that you should write just now to ask what I know of Oliver Haddo. the glittering steel of armour damascened. have caused the disappearance of a person who lives in open sin; thereby vacating two seats.Susie stood up and went to her. but with no eager yearning of the soul to burst its prison. suddenly. tell me.'You haven't yet shown that the snake was poisonous. such as are used to preserve fruit. and if some. The drawn curtains and the lamps gave the place a nice cosiness. There were ten _homunculi_--James Kammerer calls them prophesying spirits--kept in strong bottles. The woman in the corner listlessly droned away on the drum. if you came across it in a volume of Swinburne's. O well-beloved. He did not seem to see her. who claimed to possess an autograph manuscript by the reputed author Schimeon ben Jochai.

 he loosened his muscles. I took one step backwards in the hope of getting a cartridge into my rifle. and miseries of that most unruly nation. But the reverse occurred also. with faded finery.'Arthur gave a little laugh and pressed her hand. dealing only with the general. The door was shut. They were all so taken aback that for a moment no one spoke. I have never heard him confess that he had not read a book. between the eyes. and this is a particularly rare copy. He leaned against the wall and stared at them.'They came into full view. Galen. On the sixth day the bird began to lose its feathers.'Susie was convulsed with laughter at his pompousness.'What have you to say to that?' asked Oliver Haddo. His hideous obesity seemed no longer repellent. It was music the like of which she had never heard. He sank painfully into a chair. I think you would be inclined to say. Margaret remembered that her state had been the same on her first arrival in Paris.'Arthur saw a tall. and.

 But she could not bear to look at him. and that her figure was exceedingly neat. But the students now are uneasy with the fear of ridicule. but with great distinctness. titanic but sublime. and the black slaves who waited on you. I took one step backwards in the hope of getting a cartridge into my rifle. Her busy life had not caused the years to pass easily. for the mere pleasure of it; and to Burkhardt's indignation frequently shot beasts whose skins and horns they did not even trouble to take. Margaret could not now realize her life apart from his. There is a sense of freedom about it that disposes the mind to diverting speculations. but he staggered and with a groan tumbled to his knees. There were ten _homunculi_--James Kammerer calls them prophesying spirits--kept in strong bottles.'The man's a funk.'He dragged himself with difficulty back to the chair.''I don't know what there is about him that excites in me a sort of horror. smiling. Haddo uttered a cry.'Haddo spoke in a low voice that was hardly steady.'His voice. and its large simplicity was soothing.They looked idly at the various shows. and she was curiously alarmed. something of unsatisfied desire and of longing for unhuman passions. but her voice sounded unnatural.

Susie knew. The dog jumped down from Arthur's knee. which was a castle near Stuttgart in W??rtemberg.''You know I cannot live without you. look at that little bald man in the corner. but Margaret had kept him an empty seat between herself and Miss Boyd. the Parnabys. with a shrug of his massive shoulders. refused to continue. and her candid spirit was like snow. I. One lioness remained. was the most charming restaurant in the quarter. Sooner or later you run across persons who believe in everything.' pursued the doctor. I'm perfectly delighted to meet a magician.'Her eyes filled with tears and her voice broke. It was so well-formed for his age that one might have foretold his precious corpulence.* * * * *Wednesday happened to be Arthur's birthday. Though she knew not why. which.I tell you that for this art nothing is impossible. and ladies in powder and patch. They were something of a trial on account of the tips you had to give to the butler and to the footman who brought you your morning tea. but.

 Gustave Moreau.'He went there in the spring of 1856 to escape from internal disquietude and to devote himself without distraction to his studies. with a laugh. he confounded me by quoting the identical words of a passage in some work which I could have sworn he had never set eyes on. The lies which at first seemed intolerable now tripped glibly off her tongue. have been proud to give their daughters to my house. There is a sense of freedom about it that disposes the mind to diverting speculations. a singular exhilaration filled him; he was conscious of his power. as though conscious of the decorative scheme they helped to form. of plays which. half green. He had the neck of a bullock. and his gaunt face grew pale with passion.'Susie's passion for caricature at once asserted itself. notwithstanding her youth. She motioned him to a seat beside her. Paracelsus concludes his directions for its manufacture with the words: _But if this be incomprehensible to you. The formal garden reminded one of a light woman. and their eyes were dull with despair. which gave such an unpleasant impression. when he was arranging his journey in Asia. with a faint sigh of exhaustion. he spoke. and the key of immortality. And there are women crying.

'He replaced the precious work. Burkhardt had vaguely suspected him of cruelty. I could never resist going to see him whenever opportunity arose. They were not large. and the whole world would be consumed. and it was due to her influence that Margaret was arrayed always in the latest mode. when the door was flung open.'You've never done that caricature of Arthur for me that you promised. it cites an author who is known to have lived during the eleventh century. those are fine words. ambiguous passion. 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. If you do not guarantee this on your honour. His height was great. I knew that it could mean but one thing. It seemed to her that she was entering upon an unknown region of romance. and I discovered that he was studying the same subjects as myself. curled over the head with an infinite grace. laughing. His memory was indeed astonishing.'I've tried. he left me in a lordly way to pay the bill. She was intoxicated with their beauty.'Her blood ran cold. and therefore I cannot occupy myself with them.

 I haven't.' answered Arthur. and he loved to wrap himself in a romantic impenetrability.' said Margaret. With a laugh Margaret remonstrated.'Not many people study in that library. but with an elaboration which suggested that he had learned the language as much from study of the English classics as from conversation. and they broke into peal upon peal of laughter. It was like a procession passing through her mind of persons who were not human. almost authenticated. Suddenly he jerked up his tail. and the flowers. he immersed himself in the study of the supreme Kabbalah. He is superior to every affliction and to every fear. titanic but sublime. I suppose he offered the charm of the unexpected to that mass of undergraduates who. large and sombre.'Dr Porho?t interposed with introductions. There was a pleasant darkness in the place. crying over it. quaint towers of Saint Sulpice. he could not forgive the waste of time which his friend might have expended more usefully on topics of pressing moment. however. it was because he knew she would use it. for no apparent reason.

 But Susie. And now everyone is kneeling down. but Susie had not the courage to prevent her from looking. They threw a strange light. but had not the courage. without interest. and she realized with a start that she was sitting quietly in the studio. You won't try to understand.He hit Haddo in the face with his clenched fist. Is it nothing not only to know the future. smiling. The expression was sombre. I told the friend with whom I shared the flat that I wanted to be rid of it and go abroad. gathered round him and placed him in a chair. but took her face in his hands and kissed her passionately. she went. He sneered at the popular enthusiasm for games. for these are the great weapons of the magician. but in a moment she found out: the eyes of most persons converge when they look at you.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. an exotic savour that made it harmonious with all that he had said that afternoon. In the shut cab that faint.'They decorate the floors of Skene.'Margaret laughed charmingly as she held out her hands. It confers wealth by the transmutation of metals and immortality by its quintessence.

 He stretched out his hand for Arthur to look at. and dreamed strange dreams.'I grieve to see. who sought. blushing as though she had been taken in some indiscretion. No sculptor could have modelled its exquisite delicacy.' smiled Susie. Nothing has been heard of him since till I got your letter.'He spoke execrable French. too. Often. who offered sacrifice before this fair image. Her answer came within a couple of hours: 'I've asked him to tea on Wednesday. 'I am the only man alive who has killed three lions with three successive shots. _The Magician_ was published in 1908.He turned his eyes slowly.'Why can't we be married at once?' she asked. male and female. which was held at six in the evening. When it seemed that some accident would do so. you are the most matter-of-fact creature I have ever come across. with heavy moist lips. and a flowing tie of black silk?''Eliphas remarks that the lady spoke French with a marked English accent. Crowley told fantastic stories of his experiences. it is impossible to know how much he really believes what he says.

 She saw that the water was on fire. a good deal about him. To her.'Does not this remind you of the turbid Nile. All things about them appeared dumbly to suffer. Burkhardt had so high an opinion of Haddo's general capacity and of his resourcefulness that. Letters and the arts meant little to him. notwithstanding the pilgrimages. carried wine; and when they spilt it there were stains like the stains of blood. and we've known one another much too long to change our minds. Dr Porho?t. is singularly rich in all works dealing with the occult sciences. and the mobile mouth had a nervous intensity which suggested that he might easily suffer the very agonies of woe. I have described the place elsewhere.'I'm desperately unhappy. you'll hear every painter of eminence come under his lash. which dissolved and disappeared. Downstairs was a public room. with no signs now that so short a while ago romance had played a game with her. I settled down and set to work on still another novel. it civilised Greece to the sounds of Orpheus's lyre. when.' he said. some of them neat enough. which for the same reason I have been obliged to read.

 a strange. Power was the subject of all his dreams.Haddo looked round at the others.'When?''Very soon. and it troubled her extraordinarily that she had lied to her greatest friend. Before anyone could have moved. in the attitude of a prisoner protesting his innocence. she would scarcely have resisted her desire to wear nondescript garments of violent hue. and she must let them take their course. 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.' said Arthur.'Not exactly. It was he who first made me acquainted with the Impressionists. and looked with a peculiar excitement at the mysterious array.They touched glasses. The _homunculus_ within died after a few painful respirations in spite of all efforts to save him. but his remained parallel. were the voices of the serried crowd that surged along the central avenue. They spoke a different tongue. as Leda. 'God has foresaken me. He analysed Oliver Haddo's character with the patience of a scientific man studying a new species in which he is passionately concerned.'Dr Porho?t looked up with a smile of irony.Susie remarked that he looked upon her with friendliness. An immense terror seized her.

 but my friend Oliver Haddo claims to be a magician. if we want to go to the fair we must start. Is he an impostor or a madman? Does he deceive himself. with charcoal of alder and of laurel wood.She felt Oliver Haddo take her hands.'Let us drink to the happiness of our life. left her listless; and between her and all the actions of life stood the flamboyant.' cried Susie.' said Arthur. and it stopped as soon as he took it away. When he has sojourned for some years among Orientals. and the eyes were brown.Arthur came forward and Margaret put her hands on his shoulders.'We'll do ourselves proud. and I'm quite sure that she will make you the most admirable of wives.'Well. She has a delightful enthusiasm for every form of art. and noisome brutes with horny scales and round crabs' eyes. for it seemed to him that something from the world beyond had passed into his soul. and I had four running in London at the same time. and below.He opened the door.Though these efforts of mine brought me very little money.Then Oliver Haddo moved.Tea was ready.

 gives an account of certain experiments witnessed by himself. 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. and.'I am willing to marry you whenever you choose. but by making it to force the very gates of the unknown?'Suddenly the bantering gravity with which he spoke fell away from him. Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Paracelsus Bombast von Hohenheim. I should be able to do nothing but submit.' answered Margaret. my friend. as though it consisted of molten metal. 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. I can with difficulty imagine two men less capable of getting on together. He spoke not of pictures now. almost against your will.'But I do. No unforeseen accident was able to confuse him. and with a terrified expression crouched at Margaret's feet. she could enjoy thoroughly Margaret's young enchantment in all that was exquisite. by the end of which the actors he wanted for the play he had been obliged to postpone would be at liberty. When he has sojourned for some years among Orientals. And all these things were transformed by the power of his words till life itself seemed offered to her. notwithstanding her youth. She would not let his go. certainly never possessed. were extraordinarily significant.

 judged it would be vulgar to turn up her nose. and their malice: he dwelt with a horrible fascination upon their malformations. a life of supernatural knowledge. She might have been under a spell. to her outbursts. She ran up the stairs and knocked at the door. and the _concierge_ told me of a woman who would come in for half a day and make my _caf?? au lait_ in the morning and my luncheon at noon.'Oh. We were apt to look upon them as interlopers. 'I'm so afraid that something will happen to prevent us from being happy.'But I do. with his puzzling smile. But we. but it was not an unpopularity of the sort which ignores a man and leaves him chiefly to his own society. and would have no reconciliation.But Arthur impatiently turned to his host. His voice was hoarse with overwhelming emotion. She began to rub it with her hands. almost surly in the repose of the painted canvas.'She went to the chimneypiece.'What have you to say to that?' asked Oliver Haddo. She made a little sketch of Arthur. and the shuffle of their myriad feet. Either Haddo believed things that none but a lunatic could. I found an apartment on the fifth floor of a house near the Lion de Belfort.

 searching out the moisture in all growing things. then took the boy's right hand and drew a square and certain mystical marks on the palm. and it pleased her far more than the garish boulevards in which the English as a rule seek for the country's fascination. The sound of it was overpowering like too sweet a fragrance. I was looking up some point upon which it seemed impossible to find authorities. but he would not speak of her. for science had taught me to distrust even the evidence of my five senses.The new arrival stood at the end of the room with all eyes upon him. She felt excessively weak. 'I should think you had sent it yourself to get me out of the way. who had been sitting for a long time in complete silence. but of life.' said Margaret. narrow street which led into the Boulevard du Montparnasse. somewhat against their will. as was then the custom. and she saw a lovely youth. gained a human soul by loving one of the race of men. The church which was thereupon erected is still a well-known place for pilgrimage. And Jezebel looked out upon her from beneath her painted brows. 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. of a fair complexion. 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.'My dear. the hydrocephalic heads.

 and to the end he remained a stranger in our midst. It gave the impression that he looked straight through you and saw the wall beyond.''Oh. He did nothing that was manifestly unfair. and for a little while there was silence. 'An odd thing happened once when he came to see me. but I doubt if it is more than a name to you.' answered Arthur. They told her he was out. and hang the expense. One of these casual visitors was Aleister Crowley. She sat down. naturally or by a habit he had acquired for effect. He was spending the winter in Paris. He beholds God face to face without dying. but enough remains to indicate the bottom of the letters; and these correspond exactly with the signature of Casanova which I have found at the Biblioth??que Nationale. Soon after my arrival. But now Margaret could take no pleasure in its grace.'He reasoned with her very gently. Haddo has had an extraordinary experience. Fools and sots aim at happiness. and her physical attraction was allied with physical abhorrence.The two women hurried to the doorway. I lost; and have never since regained. and you were uneasily aware that your well-worn pyjamas and modest toilet articles had made an unfavourable impression upon him.

 and was bitterly disappointed when she told him they could not. irritably. Though his gaze preserved its fixity. she knew not what. 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. when he looked at you. you had better go away. These alone were visible. and the same unconscious composure; and in her also breathed the spring odours of ineffable purity. nor the majesty of the cold mistress of the skies. It was comparatively empty. Suddenly he jerked up his tail. 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. She did not think of the future. a smile that was even more terrifying than the frown of malice. He was a man of great size. 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. by Count Max Lemberg.' cried Warren.' he said. It was remote and strange.His presence cast an unusual chill upon the party. tight jackets. and stood lazily at the threshold.'Then there was the _Electrum Magicum_.

' answered Miss Boyd. and it is certainly very fine. She is the mistress of Rouge. that no one after ten minutes thought of her ugliness.A few months before this. and sometimes I am very near death. he was plainly making game of them. very white and admirably formed. but at length it was clear that he used them in a manner which could not be defended. Those pictures were filled with a strange sense of sin. It was curious to see this heavy man. it strangely exhilarated her. as a result of which the man was shot dead. He held himself with a dashing erectness.'For once Haddo lost his enigmatic manner.''I see a little soot on your left elbow. who was apparently arriving in Paris that afternoon. She couldn't help it."'Oliver Haddo told his story not ineffectively. Sprenger's _Malleus Malefikorum_.I have heard vaguely that he was travelling over the world. nor a fickle disposition the undines. while you were laughing at him.' he laughed. The magus.

Oliver Haddo slowly turned his glance to the painter.'I am willing to marry you whenever you choose. sallow from long exposure to subtropical suns. wondering if they were tormented by such agony as she. I was in a rut. He had been greatly influenced by Swinburne and Robert Browning. The humility of it aroused her suspicion. But with our modern appliances.'Margaret shuddered. with a smile. Dr Porho?t knew that a diversity of interests. but scarcely sympathetic; so. It would not have been so intolerable if he had suspected her of deceit. irritated. The pose which had seemed amusing in a lad fresh from Eton now was intolerable.'Sometimes I am haunted by the wild desire to have seen the great and final scene when the irrevocable flames poured down the river. Then.'"I see four men come in with a long box. As a rule. In such an atmosphere it is possible to be serious without pompousness and flippant without inanity.' said Haddo. They found themselves in a dirty little tent. and we dined together at the Savoy. and began. Margaret knew well the part in which she sat.

 but the humour filled me with mortification. for that is the serpent which was brought in a basket of figs to the paramour of Caesar in order that she might not endure the triumph of Augustus. And it seemed that all the mighty dead appeared before her; and she saw grim tyrants. smiling. and drowsy odours of the Syrian gardens. They were all so taken aback that for a moment no one spoke. He stretched out his hand for Arthur to look at. and in some detail in the novel to which these pages are meant to serve as a preface. You will see that the owner's name had been cut out. my son-in-law. He fell into a deep coma. Her heart was uplifted from the sordidness of earth. and a lust for the knowledge that was arcane. and he watched her in silence. and his manner had an offensiveness which was intensely irritating.' said Margaret. engaged for ever in a mystic rite. His chief distinction was a greatcoat he wore.''Now assistant physician at St Luke's Hospital. she was seized often with a panic of fear lest they should be discovered; and sometimes.''But why should you serve them in that order rather than in the order I gave you?'Marie and the two Frenchwomen who were still in the room broke into exclamations at this extravagance. who is a waiter at Lavenue's. were very gay.'Hail. of plays which.

 She caught the look of alarm that crossed her friend's face. on which he at once recognized the character of Solomon's Seal. Jacques Casanova.'She never turned up. painfully. I was awakened one night by the uneasiness of my oxen. surrounded by a chain of magnetic iron.' smiled Arthur. who was making a sketch--notwithstanding half-frozen fingers.'You have modelled lions at the Jardin des Plantes. and they swept along like the waves of the sea.' He showed her a beautifully-written Arabic work. She motioned him to a seat beside her. and his words gave a new meaning to paintings that Margaret had passed thoughtlessly by. pliant. He was a small person. He leaned against the wall and stared at them. I took my carbine and came out of my tent. but it would be of extraordinary interest to test it for oneself. She passed her hand absently across her forehead.Oliver Haddo slowly turned his glance to the painter. and Susie. And to him also her eyes had changed. But Arthur shrugged his shoulders impatiently. There is only one subject upon which the individual can speak with authority.