s--Ulysses and the sirens. But when I reached the
lower hall I walked plump into Dr. Gonzales, who fixed me with a
penetrating look. "Go back!" he said, authoritatively. "The Lady
Allegra sings--and for you." I listened; it was, "Ah, fors e lui."

I divide my time between the library on the third floor and the red
drawing-room, where the strange beauty of the opal-tinted mirror holds
me possessed for hours together. Remember that the Lady Allegra still
maintains her tantalizing role of inviolable seclusion. It is through
her voice alone that she impresses her personality upon my senses. That
seems ridiculous, does it not? But then you have not heard her sing
"Ah, fors e lui."

Yet, after all, the end came quickly. I shall be equally succinct in my
chronicle of the events leading up to it.

As usual I had dined alone, and had afterwards submitted to the
customary examination at the hands of Dr. Gonzales. Why he should deem
it necessary to take my pulse and temperature and then ascertain my
weight and power of grip with such scrupulous exactitude I never
troubled to inquire. Indeed, it seemed such a puerile proceeding that I
have hitherto refrained from even mentioning it. To-night he seemed
ill-pleased with the results of his investigation. "You are losing
weight," he said, severely, "and you don't begin to grip within ten
pounds of what you registered a week ago."

"What does it matter?" I answered, as indifferently as I felt.

"You ought to eat more. No steam without fuel."

"I am not hungry."

"Bah!" he snorted, indignantly. "It is always the same story. Another
failure! But no, I will not suffer it. Sooner than that I will have you
penned and stuffed as though you were a Strasburg goose." But I only
laughed at his petulance and walked on to the drawing-room.

I laughed, I say, and yet I had begun vaguely to realize that something
was wrong. My head felt strangely light. I stumbled over a corner of
the rug, and would have fallen out of pure weakness if I had not caught
at the table for support. My respiration seemed more rapid than usual
and the sweat from the slight exertion beaded my forehead. Then I
forgot everything but that the Lady Allegra had begun to sing.

The desire, the impulse, they had crystallized into resolution. I would
wait no longer. This very night the walls of the fortress should fall,
unveiling the secret of this insolent loveliness, the desire of all the
world. Ah, my lady Allegra, was