have made us see that false show, which faded from those people's minds
as soon as they recovered from the spell, for as they went away they
were talking only of the fireworks, and not one of them mentioned a
magic egg, or a chicken, or anything of the kind. Answer me this: did
you not intend that I should come and be put under that spell?"

Loring smiled. "Yes," he said, "of course I did. But then your case
would have been different from that of the other spectators: I should
have explained the whole thing to you, and I am sure we would have had
a great deal of pleasure, and profit too, in discussing your
experiences. The subject is extremely--"

"Explain to me!" she cried. "You would not have dared to do it! I do
not know how brave you may be, but I know you would not have had the
courage to come here and tell me that you had taken away my reason and
my judgment, as you took them away from all those people, and that you
had made me a mere tool of your will--glaring and panting with
excitement at the wonderful things you told me to see where nothing
existed. I have nothing to say about the others. They can speak for
themselves if they ever come to know what you did to them. I speak for
myself. I stood up with the rest of the people. I gazed with all my
power, and over and over again I asked myself if it could be possible
that anything was the matter with my eyes or my brain, and if I could
be the only person there who could not see the marvellous spectacle
that you were describing. But now I know that nothing was real, not
even the little pine table--not even the man!"

"Not even me!" exclaimed Loring. "Surely I was real enough!"

"On that stage, yes," she said. "But you there proved you were not the
Herbert Loring to whom I promised myself. He was an unreal being. If
he had existed he would not have been a man who would have brought me
to that public place, all ignorant of his intentions, to cloud my
perceptions, to subject my intellect to his own, and make me believe a
lie. If a man should treat me in that way once he would treat me so at
other times, and in other ways, if he had the chance. You have treated
me in the past as to-day you treated those people who glared at the
magic egg. In the days gone by you made me see an unreal man, but you
will never do it again! Good-by."

"Edith," cried Loring, "you don't--"

But she had disappeared through a side door, and he never spoke to her
again.