But Elizabeth! Everything now revolved about her. Now that she had
grown so dear--that she had come to smile on him in his new
character--how could he let her know that this Eugene Brassfield whom
she so admired and loved, was no more for ever; and that Florian Amidon
had never seen her, never loved her, never wooed her until these past
few days! Would she ever see him again? Could she regard him as
anything else than an interloper and an impostor? His right to
Brassfield's clothes and Brassfield's fortune might be as clear as
Judge Blodgett said; but would not Elizabeth feel that as to her he had
attempted the very deed of which he had first suspected himself--fraud
and robbery? And her "perfect lover," whom Amidon habitually thought
of as "that fellow Brassfield"--all the perfections which Elizabeth had
learned to attribute to him, would no longer be credited to Amidon. It
was tragic!

As a matter of fact, beloved, any man would have been a perfect lover,
or none at all, to Elizabeth. A perfect lover is the noblest work of
woman.

"Te autience," went on the professor, "vill haf te eggstreme gourtesy
to assist in a temonstration of Madame le Claire's power as a
hypnotist. Not effery vun gan pe hypnoticed te fairst dime; bud ve
vill try. Vill te autience bleace suchest te name of a laty or
shentleman as a supchect?"

"Doctor Brown!" said many voices. "Alvord!" said others, but most of
the votes appeared to be for Brassfield--a name which the professor
hailed joyfully as insuring against failure. It is not often that the
audience will hit on the only practised sensitive in the room.

Madame le Claire started, as there was thus presented to her the
thought of bringing her power to bear on Amidon. The serious results
of her last exercise of it came vividly to her mind. Yet, here she was
openly hypnotizing him. Here she could keep him under control. She
could limit his Brassfield state as to time, or she could keep him in a
state of automatism.

"Mr. Brassfield vill greatly obliche by goming forvart," said the
professor; and, as he had learned to do, Amidon obeyed his request.

Elizabeth, standing near Mrs. Hunter, heard an agitated exclamation
from that lady as Mr. Amidon went forward.

"For heaven's sake," said she, "it's Florian Amidon!"

"Who?" inquired Mrs. Pumphrey, "that? Why, that's our chief citizen,
soon to be our chief magistrate, Mr. Eugene Brassfield."

Elizabeth heard no more, but