ter she was as beautiful and
imperious as a queen, with a supercilious, almost coarse, expression of
countenance. She seemed much mortified at the somber simpleness of her
dress, and I judge went immediately to make changes.

"I did not see her again until a week later, when she came to my office,
apparently restored to her true character. She had a vague
semi-recollection of what had been her experience in the other state and
desired a second trial, to which I somewhat reluctantly consented,
though I must confess I was by this time deeply interested in the case.

"These transformations were frequently repeated, during the next few
months; then her visits ceased and I did not see her until a year later,
when I was astounded one day to meet her riding in Forest Park _in her
assumed character_, evidently having taken on the condition unaided,
either unconsciously or of her own volition.

"I never saw her again, and as I had mislaid the memorandum of her
address and the number had slipped my memory, I lost trace of her
entirely. I have always felt a great and somewhat guilty curiosity as to
the final result of this strange experiment."

THE MYSTERY
OF
EVELIN DELORME.

PROLOGUE.

Julian Paul Goetze died December 21st, 1885. This event removed the
final reason for concealment of that strange story whose dark reality
flung a shadow about his later years.

At his death Goetze was in his thirty-fifth year, and for more than a
decade previous had been considered one of the foremost portrait
painters of the younger school. I knew him intimately--was a frequent
visitor at his studio, and, I believe, the only confidant he was ever
known to have.

As I recall those years there is an unreality about them that I am
unable to dispel. The problems discussed--the theories maintained of
life, death, art, poetry, and any number of other unfathomed subjects,
appear to me now so preternatural--the conceptions of his wonderful
brain so startling, that I can hardly realize having ever been a part,
even though but a faint reflex, of that dazzling and unsated life.

In appearance he was no less remarkable. His figure was rather slight
than otherwise, and of medium height. His features, though greatly
modified, were distinctly those of the American Indian. High cheek
bones, slightly aquiline nose, dark olive skin. His eyes and hair were a
blue black. You would hardly have called him handsome, but there was
something in