umed
fantastic and ghastly shapes. His mocking voice rang in her ears, and she
seemed still to see that vast bulk and the savage, sensual face. It was
like a spirit of evil in her path, and she was curiously alarmed. Only
her reliance on Arthur's common sense prevented her from giving way to
ridiculous terrors.

'I've written to Frank Hurrell and asked him to tell me all he knows
about him,' said Arthur. 'I should get an answer very soon.'

'I wish we'd never come across him,' cried Margaret vehemently. 'I feel
that he will bring us misfortune.'

'You're all of you absurdly prejudiced,' answered Susie gaily. 'He
interests me enormously, and I mean to ask him to tea at the studio.'

'I'm sure I shall be delighted to come.'

Margaret cried out, for she recognized Oliver Haddo's deep bantering
tones; and she turned round quickly. They were all so taken aback that
for a moment no one spoke. They were gathered round the window and had
not heard him come in. They wondered guiltily how long he had been there
and how much he had heard.

'How on earth did you get here?' cried Susie lightly, recovering herself
first.

'No well-bred sorcerer is so dead to the finer feelings as to enter a
room by the door,' he answered, with his puzzling smile. 'You were
standing round the window, and I thought it would startle you if I chose
that mode of ingress, so I descended with incredible skill down the
chimney.'

'I see a little soot on your left elbow,' returned Susie. 'I hope you
weren't at all burned.'

'Not at all, thanks,' he answered, gravely brushing his coat.

'In whatever way you came, you are very welcome,' said Dr Porhoet,
genially holding out his hand.

But Arthur impatiently turned to his host.

'I wish I knew what made you engage upon these studies,' he said. 'I
should have thought your medical profession protected you from any
tenderness towards superstition.'

Dr Porhoet shrugged his shoulders.

'I have always been interested in the oddities of mankind. At one time
I read a good deal of philosophy and a good deal of science, and I
learned in that way that nothing was certain. Some people, by the pursuit
of science, are impressed with the dignity of man, but I was only made
conscious of his insignificance. The greatest questions of all have been
threshed out since he acquired the beginnings of civilization and he
is as far from a solution as ever. Man can know nothing, for his senses
are his only means of kn