all, stood
the hateful Scin-Laeca. The Shadow was dimmer in its light than when
before beheld, and the outline of the features was less distinct; still
it was the unmistakable lemur, or image, of Margrave.

And a voice was conveyed to my senses, saying, as from a great distance,
and in weary yet angry accents,

"You have summoned me? Wherefore?"

I overcame the startled shudder with which, at first, I beheld the
Shadow and heard the Voice.

"I summoned you not," said I; "I sought but to impose upon you my will,
that you should persecute, with your ghastly influences, me and mine
no more. And now, by whatever authority this wand bestows on me, I so
abjure and command you!"

I thought there was a sneer of disdain on the lip through which the
answer seemed to come,--

"Vain and ignorant, it is but a shadow you command. My body you have
cast into a sleep, and it knows not that the shadow is here; nor, when
it wakes, will the brain be aware of one reminiscence of the words that
you utter or the words that you hear."

"What, then, is this shadow that simulates the body? Is it that which in
popular language is called the soul?"

"It is not: soul is no shadow."

"What then?"

"Ask not me. Use the wand to invoke Intelligences higher than mine."

"And how?"

"I will tell you not. Of yourself you may learn, if you guide the wand
by your own pride of will and desire; but in the hands of him who has
learned not the art, the wand has its dangers. Again I say you have
summoned me! Wherefore?"

"Lying shade, I summoned thee not."

"So wouldst thou say to the demons, did they come in their terrible
wrath, when the bungler, who knows not the springs that he moves, calls
them up unawares, and can neither control nor dispel. Less revengeful
than they, I leave thee unharmed, and depart."

"Stay. If, as thou sayest, no command I address to thee--to thee, who
art only the image or shadow--can have effect on the body and mind of
the being whose likeness thou art, still thou canst tell me what passes
now in his brain. Does it now harbour schemes against me through the
woman I love? Answer truly."

"I reply for the sleeper, of whom I am more than a likeness, though only
the shadow. His thought speaks thus: 'I know, Allen Fenwick, that in
thee is the agent I need for achieving the end that I seek. Through the
woman thou lovest, I hope to subject thee. A grief that will harrow thy
heart is at hand; when that grief shall befal