as girt around with yellow fire, and had seen him
swerve madly and fall off the machine. And when the devil had picked
himself up, he had tried to blast him with the Great Curse of the
Underworld; but Paul had shown him his cornelian heart, his talisman,
and the devil had remounted his glowing vehicle and had ridden away in
a spume of flame. The Father of Lies had tried to pass himself off as a
postman. The memory of the shallow pretence tickled Paul so that he
laughed; and then he half fainted in pleuritic agony.

After the interlude with the devil he could recollect little. He was
going up to London to make his fortune. A princess was waiting for him
at the golden gate of London, with a fortune piled up in a
coach-and-six. But being very sick and dizzy, he thought he would sit
down and rest in a great green cathedral whose doors stood invitingly
open ... and now he found himself in the hospital ward. Sometimes he
felt a desire to question the blue-and-white nurse, but it seemed too
much trouble to move his lips. Then in a flash came the solution of the
puzzle, and he chuckled to himself over his cunning. Of course it was a
dream. The nurse was a dream-nurse, who wanted to make him believe that
she was real. But she was not clever enough. The best way to pay her
out for her deception was to take no notice of her whatsoever. So
comforted, he would go to sleep.

At last one morning he woke, a miserably weak but perfectly sane man,
and he turned his head from side to side and looked wonderingly at the
fresh and exquisite room. A bowl of Morning Glow roses stood by his
bedside, gracious things for fevered eyes to rest upon. A few large
photographs of famous pictures hung on the walls. In front of him was
the Santa Barbara of Palma Vecchio, which he recognized with a smile.
He had read about it, and knew that the original was in Venice.
Knowledge of things like that was comforting.

The nurse, noticing the change, came up to him and spoke in a soothing
voice. "Are you feeling better?"

"I think so," said Paul. "I suppose I've been very ill."

"Very ill," said the nurse.

"This can't be a hospital?"

"Oh, no. It's the house of some very kind, good friends. You don't know
them," she added quickly, seeing him knit a perplexed brow. "You
stumbled into their garden and fainted. And they're very anxious for
you to get well and strong."

"Who are they?" asked Paul.

"Colonel and Miss Winwood. T hey will be so glad to se