I were an operatic nightingale with a
poor voice or a variety comedian who was not funny."

"Yvonne told you I had called?"

"Yes. You did not know I was away?"

"My knowledge of your movements up to the time that I left France was
based upon those two or three brief communications, partially
undecipherable, with which you have favoured me during the past six
months. I read your paper, _Le Bateleur_, in the _Review_. Everybody has
read it. Paul, you have created a bigger sensation with those five or
six thousand words than Hindenburg can create with an output of five or
six thousand lives!"

"It was designed to pave the way, Don. You think it has succeeded?"

"Succeeded! You have stirred up the religious world from Little Bethel
to St. Peter's." Don dropped into an armchair and began to load his pipe
from the Mycenaean vase. "Some of your facts are startlingly novel. For
instance, where on earth did you get hold of that idea about the
initiation of Christ by the Essenes at Lake Moeris in Egypt?"

Paul's expression grew wrapt and introspective. "From material in the
possession of Jules Thessaly," he replied. "In a tomb near the Pyramid
of Hawara in the Egyptian Fayum was found the sarcophagus of one
Menahim, chief of the Order of the Essenes, who were established near
Lake Moeris. Menahim's period of office dated from the year 18 B.C. to
the year of his death in the reign of Caligula, and amid the dust of his
bones was found the Golden Chalice of Initiation. I cannot hope to make
clear to you without a very lengthy explanation how the fact dawned upon
my mind that Jehoshoua of Nazareth, son of Joseph, became an initiate,
but the significance of these dates must be evident. When you see the
Chalice you will understand."

"Had it been found in Renan's time what a different _Vie de Christ_ we
should have had."

"Possibly. Renan's _Vie de Christ_ is an exquisite evasion, a jewelled
confession of failure. But there are equally wonderful things at
Thessaly's house, Don. You must come there with me."

"I shall do so without fail. It appears to me, Paul, that you have
materially altered your original plan. You have abandoned the idea of
casting your book in the form of a romance?"

"I have--yes. The purely romantic appeal may be dispensed with, I think,
in this case. _Zarathustra_ has entered the blood of the German people
like a virus from a hypodermic needle. I do not hesitate to accept its
lesson. Where I desire