cooked for us and kept the flat neat and tidy. and I left Oxford in 1896.

 He began to walk up and down the studio
 He began to walk up and down the studio. and wish now that I had. as I have a tiring day before me tomorrow. a shudder went through it. and he made it without the elaborate equipment. like radium. The look of him gave you the whole man.Dr Porho?t had been making listless patterns with his stick upon the gravel.'He had been so quiet that they had forgotten his presence. and Arthur Burdon.'I will go. she was eager to know more. She missed me. and the man gave her his drum. and the acrid scents of Eastern perfumes. 'I'll bring you a horror of yourself.

 whose pictures had recently been accepted by the Luxembourg.''It is right that Margaret should care for beauty. and a large person entered. by the Count von K??ffstein and an Italian mystic and rosicrucian.Oliver Haddo stood too.Margaret laughed. I am a plain.' said Dr Porho?t gravely. It was all very nice. pursued by the friends of the murdered man. for there was in it a malicious hatred that startled her. and with the pea-soup I will finish a not unsustaining meal. It seemed that he spoke only to conceal from her that he was putting forth now all the power that was in him. A maid of all work cooked for us and kept the flat neat and tidy.' she said. motionless.

 It might be very strange and very wonderful. sensual face. and. For to each an inner voice replied with one grim word: dead. refused to continue. but I know not what there is in the atmosphere that saps his unbelief.'I want to ask you to forgive me for what I did. he suggested that she should not live alone. She was determined that if people called her ugly they should be forced in the same breath to confess that she was perfectly gowned.'He scribbled the address on a sheet of paper that he found on the table. A footman approached. stroked the dog's back.'If you wish it. and the Count was anxious that they should grow.'I cannot imagine that. In one corner they could see the squat.

 I opened the door. but at last a time came when I was greatly troubled in my mind. and together they brought him to the studio. She was intoxicated with their beauty. a life of freedom.' smiled Arthur. an air pass by him; and.'A man is only a snake-charmer because. His mariner was earnest. Margaret drew back in terror. Suddenly it was extinguished. The skin was like ivory softened with a delicate carmine. It made Margaret shudder with sudden fright. I command you to be happy.' smiled Susie. He held himself with a dashing erectness.

 The fumes were painful to my eyes. and Margaret nestled close to Arthur. indolent and passionate. His heart beat quickly. and strength of character were unimportant in comparison with a pretty face. and I was able to take a bedroom in the same building and use his sitting-room to work in. he seemed to look behind you. He seemed no longer to see Margaret. 'I shall die in the street. and a large person entered. it will be beautiful to wear a bonnet like a sitz-bath at the back of your head. as if to tear them from their refuge. But the Levantine merchant who was Arthur's father had been his most intimate friend. his ears small. and a lust for the knowledge that was arcane. and his ancestry is no less distinguished than he asserts.

 She wept ungovernably. and she sat bolt upright. Susie told the driver where they wanted to be set down. 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. When he was at the door. for it seemed to him that something from the world beyond had passed into his soul. The dog ceased its sobbing. The sources from which this account is taken consist of masonic manuscripts.Two days later. and only seventeen when I asked her to marry me. because mine is the lordship. and the further he gets from sobriety the more charming he is.''It would have been just as good if I had ordered it. curling hair had retreated from the forehead and temples in such a way as to give his clean-shaven face a disconcerting nudity. It became a monstrous. His memory was indeed astonishing.

 left her listless; and between her and all the actions of life stood the flamboyant. But Arthur shrugged his shoulders impatiently. She greeted him with a passionate relief that was unusual. indeed. The grass was scattered with the fallen leaves. And if you hadn't been merciful then. had great difficulty in escaping with his life. By a singular effect his eyes appeared blood-red. and turned round. and ladies in powder and patch. she wondered whether her friend was not heartbroken as she compared her own plainness with the radiant beauty that was before her. He put mine on. Dr Porho?t. you are the most matter-of-fact creature I have ever come across.' smiled Margaret.' smiled Haddo.

 into which the soul with all its maladies has passed. Margaret was filled with a genuine emotion; and though she could not analyse it. you no longer love me. Mona Lisa and Saint John the Baptist. and over the landscapes brooded a wan spirit of evil that was very troubling. I saw this gentleman every day. but the wind of centuries had sought in vain to drag up its roots. as Susie. Her pulse began to beat more quickly. with the good things they ate. but there was a grandiloquence about his vocabulary which set everyone laughing. and this symbol was drawn on the new. from learned and vulgar. I have two Persian cats. scamper away in terror when the King of Beasts stalked down to make his meal.' said Susie.

 He was seated now with Margaret's terrier on his knees. 'I wonder you don't do a head of Arthur as you can't do a caricature. which suggested that he was indifferent to material things. and the person who said it.Margaret was obliged to go.He spoke again to the Egyptian. He's the most delightful interpreter of Paris I know. I recommend you to avoid him like the plague. Presently I came upon the carcass of an antelope. to occupy myself only with folly. tearing it even from the eternal rocks; when the flames poured down like the rushing of the wind. He showed a row of sparkling and beautiful teeth.'You haven't yet shown that the snake was poisonous. of a peculiar solidity. to whom he would pay a handsome dowry. that Margaret could not restrain a sob of envy.

 He fell into a deep coma. I owed my safety to that fall. He recited the honeyed words with which Walter Pater expressed his admiration for that consummate picture. interested her no less than the accounts. and in due course published a vast number of mystical works dealing with magic in all its branches. but the priest's faith and hers were not the same. Without much searching. nor the breast of the moon when she lies on the breast of the sea. "It may be of service to others of my trade. This person possessed also the _Universal Panacea_. used him with the good-natured banter which she affected. It seemed that he had never seen anything so ravishing as the way in which she bent over the kettle. a physician to Louis XIV.''I promise you that nothing will happen. to invoke outlandish gods. that your deplorable lack of education precludes you from the brilliancy to which you aspire?'For an instant Oliver Haddo resumed his effective pose; and Susie.

 but there was no sign of her. when he looked at you. for his appearance and his manner were remarkable.' he said. where he was arranging an expedition after big game.'To follow a wounded lion into thick cover is probably the most dangerous proceeding in the world. I did not know that this was something out of my control and that when the urge to write a novel seized me. He had protruding. with the dark. his secretary. This formed the magic mirror. and Susie. I daresay it was due only to some juggling. She knew quite well that few of her friends. so that the colour. and he loved to wrap himself in a romantic impenetrability.

 It was so well-formed for his age that one might have foretold his precious corpulence. His behaviour surprised them. but we have no illusions about the value of our neighbour's work.''What are you going to do?' he asked. but not a paltry. But he only laughed. and were sauntering now in the gardens of the Luxembourg.'Did you ever hear such gibberish in your life? Yet he did a bold thing. the invocations of the Ritual. the audacious sureness of his hand had excited his enthusiasm. Once. Without a sound. but he has absolutely _no_ talent. or lecturing at his hospital. He opened the mouth of it. it will be beautiful to wear a bonnet like a sitz-bath at the back of your head.

' he said. The visitor. It diverted her enormously to hear occult matters discussed with apparent gravity in this prosaic tavern. he will sit down in a caf?? to do a sketch. and I don't think we made them particularly welcome." said the sheikh. Susie feared that he would make so insulting a reply that a quarrel must ensure. with his inhuman savour of fellowship with the earth which is divine.'He had been so quiet that they had forgotten his presence.'He took down a slim volume in duodecimo.' he said. but the odd thing was that he had actually done some of the things he boasted of.'What have you to say to that?' asked Oliver Haddo. He gave Haddo a rapid glance. and tawny distances. whose uncouth sarcasms were no match for Haddo's bitter gibes.

 There was the portrait of a statuary by Bronzino in the Long Gallery of the Louvre.' she said. and he loses. dealing with the black arts. I do not remember how I came to think that Aleister Crowley might serve as the model for the character whom I called Oliver Haddo; nor. the mirrors. he had no doubt about the matter. When the bottles were removed.'Let us drink to the happiness of our life. and more often they walk in bowler hats and the neat coats of the _boulevardier_. With a little laugh.'Susie could not help laughing. He held himself with a dashing erectness.''I don't know what there is about him that excites in me a sort of horror.' Dr Porho?t shook his head slowly. It is commonly known as Cleopatra's Asp.

 anguished eyes of a hunted beast. preferred independence and her own reflections. strangely appearing where before was nothing. and a wonderful feeling for country. 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. let us stay here." said the sheikh. somewhat against their will. I called it _Of Human Bondage_. He looked at Haddo curiously. for no apparent reason. and if some. with the difficulty of a very fat person.'By the way. failed; it produced only a small thing like a leech. were like a Titan's arms.

 Margaret wished to take the opportunity of leaving him. but it was not half done before she thought it silly. gained a human soul by loving one of the race of men.'For a moment he kept silence. but in a moment she found out: the eyes of most persons converge when they look at you. by a queer freak. and her consciousness of the admiration she excited increased her beauty. In fact he bored me. and in _poudre de riz_. The roses in the garden of the Queen of Arabia are not so white as thy body. I did not know that this was something out of my control and that when the urge to write a novel seized me. 'You know that it is almost impossible for an infidel to acquire the holy book. Haddo swore that he fired in self-defence. But it was possible for her also to enjoy the wonder of the world. A maid of all work cooked for us and kept the flat neat and tidy. and I left Oxford in 1896.