cleared the centre of the room; stooped and drew a circle of red on
the floor, around the spot where he stood; wrote in the four quarters
mystical signs, and numbers which were all powers of seven or nine;
examined the whole ring carefully, to see that no smallest break had
occurred in the circumference; and then rose from his bending posture.
As he rose, the church clock struck seven; and, just as she had appeared
the first time, reluctant, slow, and stately, glided in the lady. Cosmo
trembled; and when, turning, she revealed a countenance worn and wan, as
with sickness or inward trouble, he grew faint, and felt as if he dared
not proceed. But as he gazed on the face and form, which now possessed
his whole soul, to the exclusion of all other joys and griefs, the
longing to speak to her, to know that she heard him, to hear from her
one word in return, became so unendurable, that he suddenly and hastily
resumed his preparations. Stepping carefully from the circle, he put
a small brazier into its centre. He then set fire to its contents of
charcoal, and while it burned up, opened his window and seated himself,
waiting, beside it.

It was a sultry evening. The air was full of thunder. A sense of
luxurious depression filled the brain. The sky seemed to have grown
heavy, and to compress the air beneath it. A kind of purplish tinge
pervaded the atmosphere, and through the open window came the scents of
the distant fields, which all the vapours of the city could not quench.
Soon the charcoal glowed. Cosmo sprinkled upon it the incense and other
substances which he had compounded, and, stepping within the circle,
turned his face from the brazier and towards the mirror. Then, fixing
his eyes upon the face of the lady, he began with a trembling voice to
repeat a powerful incantation. He had not gone far, before the lady grew
pale; and then, like a returning wave, the blood washed all its banks
with its crimson tide, and she hid her face in her hands. Then he passed
to a conjuration stronger yet.

The lady rose and walked uneasily to and fro in her room. Another spell;
and she seemed seeking with her eyes for some object on which they
wished to rest. At length it seemed as if she suddenly espied him;
for her eyes fixed themselves full and wide upon his, and she drew
gradually, and somewhat unwillingly, close to her side of the mirror,
just as if his eyes had fascinated her. Cosmo had never seen her so near
before. Now at least, e