was thus that she had
pictured to herself the high-priest of some terrible and mysterious
religion, demanding a human sacrifice to appease the hunger of his god.
She was fascinated by the spell of his personality, and listened with a
feeling not far removed from awe. But Reginald suddenly changed his tone
and proceeded in a more conversational manner.

"The first friend I ever cared for was a boy marvellously endowed for
the study of mathematics. At the time of our first meeting at school, I
was unable to solve even the simplest algebraical problem. But we had
been together only for half a month, when we exchanged parts. It was I
who was the mathematical genius now, whereas he became hopelessly dull
and stuttered through his recitations only with a struggle that brought
the tears to his eyes. Then I discarded him. Heartless, you say? I have
come to know better. Have you ever tasted a bottle of wine that had been
uncorked for a long time? If you have, you have probably found it
flat--the essence was gone, evaporated. Thus it is when we care for
people. Probably--no, assuredly--there is some principle prisoned in
their souls, or in the windings of their brains, which, when escaped,
leaves them insipid, unprofitable and devoid of interest to us.
Sometimes this essence--not necessarily the finest element in a man's or
a woman's nature, but soul-stuff that we lack--disappears. In fact, it
invariably disappears. It may be that it has been transformed in the
processes of their growth; it may also be that it has utterly vanished
by some inadvertence, or that we ourselves have absorbed it."

"Then we throw them away?" Ethel asked, pale, but dry-eyed. A shudder
passed through her body and she clinched her glass nervously. At that
moment Reginald resembled a veritable Prince of Darkness, sinister and
beautiful, painted by the hand of a modern master. Then, for a space, he
again became the man of the world. Smiling and self-possessed, he filled
the glasses, took a long sip of the wine and resumed his narrative.

"That boy was followed by others. I absorbed many useless things and
some that were evil. I realised that I must direct my absorptive
propensities. This I did. I selected, selected well. And all the time
the terrible power of which I was only half conscious grew within me."

"It is indeed a terrible power," she cried; "all the more terrible for
its subtlety. Had I not myself been its victim, I should not now find it
poss