y to be after all reassuringly corporeal. Over the
threshold she fairly pushed me with the warning, 'The place is holy, we
must be silent.' For a moment I was staggered by the wide pencil of light
that shot through a porthole and cut the room in two. The little octagon,
a tower chamber I took it to be, was a prism of shadow enclosing a shaft
of flying golddust. Outside it must have been full sunset. Near the
border line of light and darkness I faintly saw the 'Zorzi,' which
borrowed a glory from the moment and from her. I felt her hand on my
shoulder and knelt, it seemed for minutes, it probably was for seconds
only. The picture, which I had not seen, much less examined, swam in the
twilight and became the most gracious that had ever met my eyes. The dusk
grew as the disc of light climbed up the wall and faded. She whispered in
my ear, 'It is enough for now. You shall come again many times.' I recall
nothing more except the Marquesa's silvery hair and the long line of her
crimson gown as she bade me 'Au revoir' at the head of the great stairs.
That night in the miserable _fonda_ below I wrote out feverishly the
notes which you have doubtless read in the 'Mihrab,' and I would give my
right hand to be able to forget."

There was a long pause, during which Anitchkoff sipped his cognac
nervously, waiting for my comment. I pressed him ruthlessly for the
bitter end of the tale.

"Your hypnotism I grant, but what about Mantovani and Brooks?" I
asked bluntly.

"For Mantovani I have no right to speak," Anitchkoff replied with
dignity. "He was my master and I can admit no imputation on his memory.
Besides, your guess is as good as mine. Whether he bought the picture
in his precritical days, keeping it as a warning and imposing it upon
his followers as a hoax--this I can merely conjecture. As for Brooks,
the case is simple; he couldn't resist a Giorgione at a bargain. But
since you will, you may as well hear the rest of the story--at least my
part of it.

"Three years later I wintered in Paris. I had run into Bing's for a chat
and a look at the Hokusais, when who should come in but Hanson Brooks in
a high state of elation. An important purchase had just arrived. He urged
us both to dine and inspect it. Bing was engaged; I glad to accept. At
dinner Brooks teased me to the top of his bent. I was to imagine
absolutely the most important old master in private possession, his for a
beggarly price. I declined to humour him by guessi