n final ruin! But, as I said,
I did not think, and it was not evident until recently, that I injured
any one. I had for a long time been aware that I had an unusual mesmeric
or magnetic influence--call it what you will--over others. I cultivated
that power in eye and hand, so that I was soon able to take any person
at unawares whom I considered fit for my purpose, and subdue him or her
completely to myself. Then after one or two failures I hit upon a
method, which I perfected at length into entire simplicity, by which I
was able to tap the nervous system and draw into myself as much as ever
I needed of the abounding force of life, without leaving any sign which
even the most skilful doctor could detect."

"Julius, you sicken me!" exclaimed Lefevre. "I am a doctor, but you
sicken me!"

"I explain myself so in detail," said Julius, "_because_ you are a
doctor. But let me finish. I lived that life of complete wedlock with
Nature for I dare not think how many years."

"And you did not get weary of it?" asked Lefevre.

"Weary of it? No! I returned to it always, after a pause of a few days
for the reinvigoration I needed,--I returned to it with all the
freshness of youth, with the advantage which, of course, mere youth can
never have,--an amazingly rich experience. I revelled in the full lap of
life. I passed through many lands, civilised and barbaric; but it was my
especial delight to strike down to that simple, passionate, essential
nature which lies beneath the thickest lacquer of refinements in our
civilised societies. Oh, what a life it was!--what a life!

"But a change came: it must have been growing on me for some time
without my knowledge. I commonly removed from society when I felt
exhaustion coming on me; but on one occasion it chanced that I stayed on
in the pleasant company I was in (I was then in Vienna). I did not
exactly feel ill; I felt merely weary and languid, and thought that
presently I would go to bed. Gradually I began to observe that the looks
of my companions were bent strangely on me, and that the expression of
their countenances more and more developed surprise and alarm. 'What is
the matter with you all?' I demanded; when they instantly cried, 'What
is the matter with _you?_ Have you been poisoned?' I rose and went and
looked in a mirror; I saw, with ghastly horror, what I was like, and I
knew then that I was _doomed_. I fled from that company for ever. I saw
that, when the alien life on which