site!"

Here Cellini paused, and his eyes were uplifted in a sort of wondering
rapture. He continued after a pause:

"Yes, mademoiselle, I discovered that I was loved, and watched over and
guided by ONE so divinely beautiful, so gloriously faithful, that
mortal language fails before the description of such perfection!"

He paused again, and again continued:

"When he found me perfectly healthy again in mind and body, Heliobas
showed me his art of mixing colours. From that hour all my works were
successful. You know that my pictures are eagerly purchased as soon as
completed, and that the colour I obtain in them is to the world a
mystery almost magical. Yet there is not one among the humblest of
artists who could not, if he chose, make use of the same means as I
have done to gain the nearly imperishable hues that still glow on the
canvases of Raphael. But of this there is no need to speak just now. I
have told you my story, mademoiselle, and it now rests with me to apply
its meaning to yourself. You are attending?"

"Perfectly," I replied; and, indeed, my interest at this point was so
strong that I could almost hear the expectant beating of my heart.
Cellini resumed:

"Electricity, mademoiselle, is, as you are aware, the wonder of our
age. No end can be foreseen to the marvels it is capable of
accomplishing. But one of the most important branches of this great
science is ignorantly derided just now by the larger portion of
society--I mean the use of human electricity; that force which is in
each one of us--in you and in me--and, to a very large extent, in
Heliobas. He has cultivated the electricity in his own system to such
an extent that his mere touch, his lightest glance, have healing in
them, or the reverse, as he chooses to exert his power--I may say it is
never the reverse, for he is full of kindness, sympathy, and pity for
all humanity. His influence is so great that he can, without speaking,
by his mere presence suggest his own thoughts to other people who are
perfect strangers, and cause them to design and carry out certain
actions in accordance with his plans. You are incredulous?
Mademoiselle, this power is in every one of us; only we do not
cultivate it, because our education is yet so imperfect. To prove the
truth of what I say, _I_, though I have only advanced a little way in
the cultivation of my own electric force, even _I_ have influenced YOU.
You cannot deny it. By my thought, impelled to you, yo