Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/139

 the field. She sits on a splendidly isolated throne, a writer whose genius has enabled her to soar to certain peculiar heights which no other literary man or woman has succeeded in scaling.

"The Soul of Lilith," as we have inferred, displays its author in her element. It is a work which, from its nature, may be classed with "A Romance of Two Worlds" and "Ardath." It possesses the same mystic properties, the same speculative endeavors to obtain knowledge that is denied to mortals.

"I have kept one human creature alive and in perfect health for six years on that vital fluid alone."

This is the kernel of the story, which narrates how El-Râmi, a man of Arabian origin, possessing many of the mysteriously occult powers peculiar to the Indian fakir, injects a certain fluid into the still warm veins of a dead Egyptian girl-child called Lilith. In this way he preserves her body in a living condition, and the success of his experiment is proved by the fact that Lilith passes from childhood to womanhood whilst in this state, and answers questions put to her by El-Râmi.

It is the desire of El-Râmi, however, to make himself master of Lilith's soul as well as of her