nd, addressing
myself only to the silent mask who sat alone, apart from the group, I
did not even observe that, one by one, the revellers slunk off, and that
I and the silent listener were left alone, until, pausing from my heated
and impetuous declamations, I said,--

"'And you, signor,--what is your view of this mighty era? Opinion
without persecution; brotherhood without jealousy; love without
bondage--'

"'And life without God,' added the mask as I hesitated for new images.

"The sound of that well-known voice changed the current of my thought. I
sprang forward, and cried,--

"'Imposter or Fiend, we meet at last!'

"The figure rose as I advanced, and, unmasking, showed the features of
Mejnour. His fixed eye, his majestic aspect, awed and repelled me. I
stood rooted to the ground.

"'Yes,' he said solemnly, 'we meet, and it is this meeting that I have
sought. How hast thou followed my admonitions! Are these the scenes in
which the Aspirant for the Serene Science thinks to escape the Ghastly
Enemy? Do the thoughts thou hast uttered--thoughts that would strike all
order from the universe--express the hopes of the sage who would rise to
the Harmony of the Eternal Spheres?'

"'It is thy fault,--it is thine!' I exclaimed. 'Exorcise the phantom!
Take the haunting terror from my soul!'

"Mejnour looked at me a moment with a cold and cynical disdain which
provoked at once my fear and rage, and replied,--

"'No; fool of thine own senses! No; thou must have full and entire
experience of the illusions to which the Knowledge that is without Faith
climbs its Titan way. Thou pantest for this Millennium,--thou shalt
behold it! Thou shalt be one of the agents of the era of Light and
Reason. I see, while I speak, the Phantom thou fliest, by thy side; it
marshals thy path; it has power over thee as yet,--a power that defies
my own. In the last days of that Revolution which thou hailest, amidst
the wrecks of the Order thou cursest as Oppression, seek the fulfilment
of thy destiny, and await thy cure.'

"At that instant a troop of masks, clamorous, intoxicated, reeling, and
rushing, as they reeled, poured into the room, and separated me from the
mystic. I broke through them, and sought him everywhere, but in vain.
All my researches the next day were equally fruitless. Weeks were
consumed in the same pursuit,--not a trace of Mejnour could be
discovered. Wearied with false pleasures, roused by reproaches I had
deserved, recoi