n.

He returned my own gaze steadily, searchingly, and then, breaking into a
slight laugh, resumed:--

"You call my word 'Pythoness' affected. I know of no better. My
recollections of classic anecdote and history are confused and dim;
but somewhere I have read or heard that the priests of Delphi were
accustomed to travel chiefly into Thrace or Thessaly, in search of the
virgins who might fitly administer their oracles, and that the oracles
gradually ceased in repute as the priests became unable to discover the
organization requisite in the priestesses, and supplied by craft and
imposture, or by such imperfect fragmentary developments as belong now
to professional clairvoyants, the gifts which Nature failed to afford.
Indeed, the demand was one that mast have rapidly exhausted so limited
a supply. The constant strain upon faculties so wearying to the vital
functions in their relentless exercise, under the artful stimulants by
which the priests heightened their power, was mortal, and no Pythoness
ever retained her life more than three years from the time that her gift
was elaborately trained and developed."

"Pooh! I know of no classical authority for the details you so
confidently cite. Perhaps some such legends may be found in the
Alexandrian Platonists, but those mystics are no authority on such a
subject. After all;" I added, recovering from my first surprise, or awe,
"the Delphic oracles were proverbially ambiguous, and their responses
might be read either way,--a proof that the priests dictated the verses,
though their arts on the unhappy priestess might throw her into real
convulsions, and the real convulsions, not the false gift, might shorten
her life. Enough of such idle subjects! Yet no! one question more. If
you found your Pythoness, what then?"

"What then? Why, through her aid I might discover the process of an
experiment which your practical science would assist me to complete."

"Tell me of what kind is your experiment; and precisely because such
little science as I possess is exclusively practical, I may assist you
without the help of the Pythoness."

Margrave was silent for some minutes, passing his hand several times
across his forehead, which was a frequent gesture of his, and then
rising, he answered, in listless accents,--

"I cannot say more now, my brain is fatigued; and you are not yet in the
right mood to hear me. By the way, how close and reserved you are with
me!"

"How so?"

"You n