uld tell
you something singular about the newest process."

"What is the connection?"

"I am embalming myself, body and mind. It is but an experiment,
and unless it succeeds it must be the last. Embalming, as it is now
understood, means substituting one thing for another. Very good. I
am trying to purge from my mind its old circulating medium; the new
thoughts must all be selected from a class which admits of no decay.
Nothing could be simpler."

"It seems to me that nothing could be more vague."

"You were not formerly so slow to understand me," said the strange
little man with some impatience.

"Do you know a lady of Prague who calls herself Unorna?" the Wanderer
asked, paying no attention to his friend's last remark.

"I do. What of her?" Keyork Arabian glanced keenly at his companion.

"What is she? She has an odd name."

"As for her name, it is easily accounted for. She was born on the
twenty-ninth day of February, the year of her birth being bisextile.
Unor means February, Unorna, derivative adjective, 'belonging to
February.' Some one gave her the name to commemorate the circumstance."

"Her parents, I suppose."

"Most probably--whoever they may have been."

"And what is she?" the Wanderer asked.

"She calls herself a witch," answered Keyork with considerable scorn. "I
do not know what she is, or what to call her--a sensitive, an hysterical
subject, a medium, a witch--a fool, if you like, or a charlatan if you
prefer the term. Beautiful she is, at least, whatever else she may not
be."

"Yes, she is beautiful."

"So you have seen her, have you?" The little man again looked sharply up
at his tall companion. "You have had a consultation----"

"Does she give consultations? Is she a professional seer?" The Wanderer
asked the question in a tone of surprise. "Do you mean that she
maintains an establishment upon such a scale out of the proceeds of
fortune-telling?"

"I do not mean anything of the sort. Fortune-telling is excellent! Very
good!" Keyork's bright eyes flashed with amusement. "What are you doing
here--I mean in this church?" He put the question suddenly.

"Pursuing--an idea, if you please to call it so."

"Not knowing what you mean I must please to call your meaning by your
own name for it. It is your nature to be enigmatic. Shall we go out?
If I stay here much longer I shall be petrified instead of embalmed. I
shall turn into dirty old red marble like Tycho's effigy there, an awful
wa