Page:Magician 1908.djvu/148

 great obesity was somehow more remarkable. There was the acrid perfume which Margaret remembered 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 I done to you that you should 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