Page:Magician 1908.djvu/216

 characteristic. Susie gave Arthur Burdon 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. I must believe that he was able to cast a spell on her; and to that is due all that has happened. I have only pity for her great misfortunes.”

“Has it occurred to you what will happen when 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