an impossibility, nor the brewing of the elixir of
life a matter to be scoffed at as a matter of course. The world is full
of people who, in their inmost selves, put faith in the latent qualities
of precious stones and amulets, who believe their fortunes, their
happiness, and their lives to be directly influenced by some trifling
object which they have always upon them. We do not know enough to state
with assurance that the constant handling of any particular metal, or
gem, may not produce a real and invariable corresponding effect upon
the nerves. But we do know most positively that, when the belief in such
talismans is once firmly established, the moral influence they exert
upon men through the imagination is enormous. From this condition of
mind to that in which auguries are drawn from outward and apparently
accidental circumstances, is but a step. If Keyork Arabian inclined to
the psychic rather than to the physical school in his view of Unorna's
witchcraft and in his study of hypnotism in general, his opinion
resulted naturally from his great knowledge of mankind, and of the
unacknowledged, often unsuspected, convictions which in reality direct
mankind's activity. It was this experience, too, and the certainty to
which it had led him, that put him beyond the reach of Unorna's power so
long as he chose not to yield himself to her will. Her position was
in reality diametrically opposed to his, and although he repeated his
reasonings to her from time to time, he was quite indifferent to the
nature of her views, and never gave himself any real trouble to make her
change them. The important point was that she should not lose anything
of the gifts she possessed, and Keyork was wise enough to see that the
exercise of them depended in a great measure upon her own conviction
regarding their exceptional nature.

Unorna herself believed in everything which strengthened and developed
that conviction, and especially in the influences of time and place. It
appeared to her a fortunate circumstance, when she at last determined
to overcome her pride, that the resolution should have formed itself
exactly a month after she had so successfully banished the memory of
Beatrice from the mind of the man she loved. She felt sure of producing
a result as effectual if, this time, she could work the second change
in the same place and under the same circumstances as the first. And to
this end everything was in her favour. She needed not to cl