nd such dark things
as he had seen seemed like a dangerous sport with unclean and coltish
beings, more brute-like than human. Yet now he read in his curious books
with care, and studied the tales of necromancers, who had indeed seemed
to have some power over the souls of men departed. But the old books
gave him but little faith, and a kind of angry disgust at the things
attempted. And he began to think that the horror in which such men as
made these books abode, was not more than the dark shadow cast on the
mirror of the soul by their own desperate imaginings and timorous
excursions.

One day, a Sunday, he was strangely sad and heavy; he could settle to
nothing, but threw book after book aside, and when he turned to some
work of construction, his hand seemed to have lost its cunning. It was a
grey and sullen day in October; a warm wet wind came buffeting up from
the West, and roared in the chimneys and eaves of the old house. The
shrubs in the garden plucked themselves hither and thither as though in
pain. Anthony walked to and fro after his midday meal, which he had
eaten hastily and without savour; at last, as though with a sudden
resolution, he went to a secret cabinet and got out a key; and with it
he went to the door of the little room that was ever locked.

He stopped at the threshold for a while, looking hither and thither; and
then he suddenly unlocked it and went in, closing and locking it behind
him. The room was as dark as night, but Anthony going softly, his hands
before him, went to a corner and got a tinder-box which lay there, and
made a flame.

A small dark room appeared, hung with a black tapestry; the window was
heavily shuttered and curtained; in the centre of the room stood what
looked like a small altar, painted black; the floor was all bare, but
with white marks upon it, half effaced. Anthony looked about the room,
glancing sidelong, as though in some kind of doubt; his breath went and
came quickly, and he looked paler than was his wont.

Presently, as though reassured by the silence and calm of the place, he
went to a tall press that stood in a corner, which he opened, and took
from it certain things--a dish of metal, some small leathern bags, a
large lump of chalk, and a book. He laid all but the chalk down on the
altar, and then opening the book, read in it a little; and then he went
with the chalk and drew certain marks upon the floor, first making a
circle, which he went over again and aga