y touch
can influence you?"

"Yes; most thoroughly."

"Very well. All other explanations, if you desire them, shall be given
you in due time. In the power I possess over you and some others, there
is neither mesmerism nor magnetism--nothing but a purely scientific
fact which can be clearly and reasonably proved and demonstrated. But
till you are thoroughly restored to health, we will defer all
discussion. And now, mademoiselle, permit me to escort you to the door.
I shall expect you to-morrow."

Together we left the beautiful room in which this interview had taken
place, and crossed the hall. As we approached the entrance, Heliobas
turned towards me and said with a smile:

"Did not the manoeuvres of my street-door astonish you?"

"A little," I confessed.

"It is very simple. The button you touch outside is electric; it opens
the door and at the same time rings the bell in my study, thus
informing me of a visitor. When the visitor steps across the threshold
he treads, whether he will or no, on another apparatus, which closes
the door behind him and rings another bell in my page's room, who
immediately comes to me for orders. You see how easy? And from within
it is managed in almost the same manner."

And he touched a handle similar to the one outside, and the door opened
instantly. Heliobas held out his hand--that hand which a few minutes
previously had exercised such strange authority over me.

"Good-bye, mademoiselle. You are not afraid of me now?"

I laughed. "I do not think I was ever really afraid of you," I said.
"If I was, I am not so any longer. You have promised me health, and
that promise is sufficient to give me entire courage."

"That is well," said Heliobas. "Courage and hope in themselves are the
precursors of physical and mental energy. Remember to-morrow at five,
and do not keep late hours to-night. I should advise you to be in bed
by ten at the latest."

I agreed to this, and we shook hands and parted. I walked blithely
along, back to the Avenue du Midi, where, on my arrival indoors, I
found a letter from Mrs. Everard. She wrote "in haste" to give me the
names of some friends of hers whom she had discovered, through the
"American Register," to be staying at the Grand Hotel. She begged me to
call upon them, and enclosed two letters of introduction for the
purpose. She concluded her epistle by saying:

"Raffaello Cellini has been invisible ever since your departure, but
our inimitable wai