table and unalterable, to those who have studied the mysteries
of electric science."

"And do you base all your medical treatment on this principle?" pursued
the Colonel.

"Certainly. Your young friend here, who came to me from Cannes, looking
as if she had but a few months to live, can bear witness to the
efficacy of my method."

Every eye was now turned upon me, and I looked up and laughed.

"Do you remember, Amy," I said, addressing Mrs. Everard, "how you told
me I looked like a sick nun at Cannes? What do I look like now?"

"You look as if you had never been ill in your life," she replied.

"I was going to say," remarked Mr. Challoner in his deliberate manner,
"that you remind me very much of a small painting of Diana that I saw
in the Louvre the other day. You have the same sort of elasticity in
your movements, and the same bright healthy eyes."

I bowed, still smiling. "I did not know you were such a flatterer, Mr.
Challoner! Diana thanks you!"

The conversation now became general, and turned, among other subjects,
upon the growing reputation of Raffaello Cellini.

"What surprises me in that young man," said Colonel Everard, "is his
colouring. It is simply marvellous. He was amiable enough to present me
with a little landscape scene; and the effect of light upon it is so
powerfully done that you would swear the sun was actually shining
through it."

The fine sensitive mouth of Heliobas curved in a somewhat sarcastic
smile.

"Mere trickery, my dear sir--a piece of clap-trap," he said lightly.
"That is what would be said of such pictures--in England at least. And
it WILL be said by many oracular, long-established newspapers, while
Cellini lives. As soon as he is dead--ah! c'est autre chose!--he will
then most probably be acknowledged the greatest master of the age.
There may even be a Cellini 'School of Colouring,' where a select
company of daubers will profess to know the secret that has died with
him. It is the way of the world!"

Mr. Challoner's rugged face showed signs of satisfaction, and his
shrewd eyes twinkled.

"Right you are, sir!" he said, holding up his glass of wine. "I drink
to you! Sir, I agree with you! I calculate there's a good many worlds
flying round in space, but a more ridiculous, feeble-minded, contrary
sort of world than this one, I defy any archangel to find!"

Heliobas laughed, nodded, and after a slight pause resumed:

"It is astonishing to me that people do not see to w