he idea of
an elixir of youth without any incredulity, and did not find anything
extraordinary in the fact of its discovery. In that respect, I fancied,
she was typical of a large class of women--that class that thinks a
doctor is a magician, or should be. But when Sarakoff said that the
whole world was going to have the elixir, a spasm of anger shewed for a
moment in her face. She lowered her eyes.

"This is unkind of you, Alexis. Why should not just you and I have the
elixir?" She raised her eyes and turned them directly on Sarakoff. "Why
not?" she murmured.

The Russian flushed slightly.

"Leonora, it must either not be, or else the whole world must have it.
It can't be confined. It must spread. It's a germ. We have let it loose
in Birmingham."

She shuddered.

"A germ? What does he mean?" She turned to me.

"It's a germ that will do away with all disease and decay," I said.

"It will make me younger?"

"Of that I am uncertain. It will more probably fix us where we are."

The Russian nodded in confirmation of my view. Leonora considered for a
while. I could see nothing in her appearance that she could have wished
altered, but she seemed dissatisfied.

"I should have preferred it to make us all a little younger," she said
decidedly. Her total lack of the sense of miracles astonished me. She
behaved as if Sarakoff had told her that we had discovered a new kind
of soap or a new patent food. "But I am glad you have found it, Alexis,"
she continued. "It will certainly make you famous. That will be nice,
but I am sorry you should have given the elixir to Birmingham first.
Birmingham is in no need of an elixir, my friend. You should have put
something else in their water-supply." She turned to me and examined me
with calm criticism. "What a pity you didn't discover the elixir when
you were younger, Richard. Your hair is grey at the temples." A clear
laugh suddenly came from her. "What a lot of jealously there will be,
Alexis. The old ones will be so envious of the young. Think how Madame
Reaour will rage--and Betty, and the Signora--all my friends--oh, I feel
quite glad now that it doesn't make people younger. You are sure it
won't?"

"I don't think so," said Sarakoff, watching her through half-closed
lids. "No, I think you are safe, Leonora."

"And my voice?"

"It will preserve that ... indefinitely, I think."

She was arrested by the new idea. She looked into the distance and
fingered the pearls at her