ay, impossible to bear. It was necessary to prove to her that the
power I possess"--here his blue eyes gleamed with the same metallic
light I had before noticed--"is something more than _conjuring_;
something more than a 'clever imposture'. You will see now."

As he spoke he stretched out his hand and took the parcel from my aunt,
and as he did so, I recognised with horror the morocco case which I knew
contained the heirlooms.

"Who are these for?" he said, addressing Aunt Phoebe.

"For you," came from my aunt's lips, but her eyes were fixed and her
voice seemed to come with difficulty.

"She is mad!" I exclaimed. "She does not know what she is saying!"

Sclamowsky smiled.

"And who am I?" he continued, still addressing my aunt.

"The Professor Dmitri Sclamowsky."

"And what is this?" indicating the morocco case.

"My diamonds."

"You make them a present to me?"

"Yes."

Sclamowsky opened the case and took out the jewels.

"A handsome present, certainly!" he said, turning to me with a smile.

I was speechless. There was something so horrible in my dear Aunt
Phoebe's set face and wide open, stony eyes, something so weird in the
dim room, with its one miserable lamp; something so mockingly fiendish
in Sclamowsky's glittering eyes as he stood with the diamonds flashing
and twinkling in his hands, that though I strove for utterance, I could
not succeed in articulating a single word.

"Enough!" at last he said, replacing the diamonds in their case and
closing it sharply--"the experiment is concluded," and so saying he
stepped up close to Aunt Phoebe and made two or three passes with his
hands in front of her face. A quiver ran all over my aunt's figure. She
swayed and would have fallen if I had not rushed forward and caught her
in my arms.

She looked round at me with terror and bewilderment in every feature.

"Where am I, Elizabeth?" she stammered, and then looking round she
caught sight of Sclamowsky. "What is the meaning of this?"

"Never mind, Aunt Phoebe," I said. "Come home, and I will tell you all
about it."

Aunt Phoebe passed her hand over her eyes, and as she did so I glanced
inquiringly from Sclamowsky's face to the jewellery case in his hands.
What was to be the end of it all? I had certainly heard my aunt
distinctly give this man her diamonds as a present, but could a gift
made under such circumstances hold good for a moment? He evidently saw
the query in my face.

"You judge me even mo