say, so is your meaning.--PUBLISHER.

Don't give it away, but that's what I mean.--ED.

With a curious swaying motion which I have never seen anything
like--for he seemed less to be walking than to be impelled from behind
like a perambulator, or dragged from in front like a canal-boat--he
advanced to the table, where lay some pieces of a white substance like
papyrus, all of the same size and oblong shape, which showed on their
surfaces, some of them antique-looking figures and faces curiously
stained, and others red and black dots, arranged, as it seemed to me,
in some sort of design, although at first sight they looked jumbled
enough. Near to these lay a book bound in brown, but with heavy black
and gold lettering, amid which I thought I could make out the words
_Modern Magic_, and the name _Hoffmann_. The swathed figure poised
itself a moment, resting one thin hand on the table, and then spoke.

'There is naught that is wonderful about this matter,' it said, 'could
you but understand it. Prestigiation itself is wonderful, but that its
phases and phrases should be changed is not wonderful. Not now, I ween,
is the _gibeciere_ of the Ancient Wizard seen; not now the "Presto,
pass!" of the less ancient conjurer heard. Nay, all things change, yet
I change not; that which is not yet cannot yet have taken place--at
least not its proper place; that which shall not be may yet come to a
bad pass, and the blind race of man watches helpless the trammels it
could shake off did it but greatly dare. My business, ladies and
gentlemen, now is, as I have just explained to you, to attempt to
puzzle your eyes by the quickness of my fingers. Yours, on the other
hand, will be to detect the way--or _modus operandi_, as old Simon
Magus used to say--in which I perform my little wonders--if you can.
Will any gentleman lend me a helmet--I mean a hat?'

As the only male person present was the Boshman, this appeared to me a
futile question, and even the stately Magician seemed to be struck by
some dim idea of the kind, for I could discern a pair of mysterious
eyes peering anxiously through his swathings, and I heard him mutter to
himself in several languages, 'Ought to have thought of that. No hat
present. Don't know any trick to produce one. Nothing about it in the
book.'

But he recovered himself quickly, and went on in clear cheerful tones,
'Ladies and gentlemen, as no person present has a hat, I will proceed
to another of the tric