tly, like the blossom
of the little bitter apple here in your country. The red embers in the
fireplace gave out a steady light; and in the glow of it, on the marble
hearth, stood the one who had descended from the elevation of the
andiron."

Again the man hesitated, as for an accurate method of expression.

"In the flesh, Excellency, there was color that would not appear in
the image. The hair was yellow, and the eyes were blue; and against the
black marble of the fireplace the body was conspicuously white. But in
every other aspect of her, Excellency, the woman was on the hearth
in the flesh as she is in the clutch of the savage male figure in the
image.

"There is no dress or ornament, as you will recall, Excellency. Not even
an ear-jewel or an anklet, as though the graver of the image felt
that the inherent beauty of his figure could take nothing from these
ostentations. The woman's heavy yellow hair was wound around her head,
as in the image. She shivered a little, faintly, like a naked child in
an unaccustomed draught of air, although she stood on the warm marble
hearth and within the red glow of the fire.

"The voice from the male figure of the image, which I had brought the
Master, and which stood as the andiron, now so immensely enlarged, was
beginning again to speak. The thin metallic sounds seemed to splinter
against the dense silence, as it went forward in the ritual prescribed.

"But the Master had already decided; he stood now on the great marble
hearth with his papers crushed together. And as I looked on, through the
crevice under the doorsill, he put out his free hand and with his
finger touched the woman gently. The flesh under his finger yielded, and
stooping over, he put the formulas into the fire."

Like one who has come to the end of his story, the huge Oriental
stopped. He remained for some moments silent. Then he continued in an
even, monotonous voice:

"I got up from the floor then, and purified myself with water. And after
that I went into an upper chamber, opened the window to the east, and
sat down to write my report to the brotherhood. For the thing which I
had been sent to do was finished."

He put his hand somewhere into the loose folds of his Oriental garment
and brought out a roll of thin vellum like onion-skin, painted in
Chinese characters. It was of immense length, but on account of the
thinness of the vellum, the roll wound on a tiny cylinder of wood was
not above two inches