ftly:

"I will intrude no longer on your privacy, Casimir. Farewell! I shall
leave Paris to-night."

For all answer Heliobas beckoned him and me also out of the chapel. As
soon as its doors closed behind us, and we stood in the centre hall, he
spoke with affectionate and grave earnestness:

"Ivan, something tells me that you and I shall not meet again for many
years, if ever. Therefore, when you say 'farewell,' the word falls upon
my ears with double meaning. We are friends--our friendship is
sanctified by the dead presence of one whom we both loved, in different
ways; therefore you will take in good part what I now say to you. You
know, you cannot disguise from yourself that the science I study is
fraught with terrible truth and marvellous discoveries; the theories I
deduce from it you disbelieve, because you are nearly a materialist. I
say NEARLY--not quite. That 'not quite' makes me love you, Ivan: I
would save the small bright spark that flickers within you from both
escape and extinction. But I cannot--at least, not as yet. Still, in
order that you may know that there is a power in me higher than
ordinary human reason, before you go from me to-night hear my prophecy
of your career. The world waits for you, Ivan--the world, all agape and
glittering with a thousand sparkling toys; it waits greedy for your
presence, ready to fawn upon you for a smile, willing to cringe to you
for a nod of approval. And why? Because wealth is yours--vast,
illimitable wealth. Aye--you need not start or look incredulous--you
will find it as I say. You, whose fortune up to now has barely reached
a poor four thousand per annum--you are at this moment the possessor of
millions. Only last night a relative of yours, whose name you scarcely
know, expired, leaving all his hoarded treasures to you. Before the
close of this present day, on whose threshold we now stand, you will
have the news. When you receive it remember me, and acknowledge that at
least for once I knew and spoke the truth. Follow the broad road, Ivan,
laid out before you--a road wide enough not only for you to walk in,
but for the crowd of toadies and flatterers also, who will push on
swiftly after you and jostle you on all sides; be strong of heart and
merry of countenance! Gather the roses; press the luscious grapes into
warm, red wine that, as you quaff it, shall make your blood dance a mad
waltz in your veins, and fair women's faces shall seem fairer to you
than ever, the