y took no place in
his mental record of things, save perhaps the place of punctuation
marks, commas and semicolons for the most part, rarely rising to the
definite degree of a full point and never approaching the dramatic
significance of an exclamation mark. Already he floated above the common
world, looking down upon its tortured contours and half-defaced
frontiers--for the true poet is a fakir who quits his physical body at
the beck of inspiration, to return laden with strange secrets.

Jules Thessaly's letter explaining his extraordinary breach of good
behaviour had been characteristic of the man. For whilst it was couched
in more or less conventional terms of apology, the writer obviously
regarded his action as justified and assumed in Paul an understanding
which rendered pique impossible. Paul's theory regarding Thessaly's
sudden departure had been correct.

"The gods are all dead," ran one passage in the letter. "A shell, one of
our own, fortunately imperfect, entered the upper storey of my house and
rudely forced a passage through one floor and the outer wall. Some
slight damage has been done to my collection"--etc.

* * * * *

The tangled details of Paul's legacy became disentangled at last, and he
fixed a definite date for his departure. That same evening the weather
broke and grey clouds veiled the stars. He was keenly susceptible to
climatic changes, and this abrupt interruption of summer plunged him
into a dark mood. Gone were the fairies from the meadows, gone the
dryads from the woods. The birds grew mute and roses drooped their
heads. He found himself alone facing a sorrowful world and sharing its
sorrows. The shadow of the black hat in the dining-room portrait lay
darkly on Hatton Towers.

When such a mood was upon him he would resign himself to it with all
that spiritual and intellectual abandon of which he was capable,
savagely goading himself to blacker despair and contemplating his own
condition with the critical faculty of his mind, which at these times
remained undisturbed. Whilst the rain beat upon the windows and
draperies billowed eerily in the draught, he passed from the library
into the study and unlocked that high black oak bureau which concealed
the private collection of works artistic and literary which had informed
him of the true character of his late uncle. He had caused a huge fire
to be made up in the old open hearth in the dining-room and he propose