d pity; and with the next morning I was only to
comprehend more fully my enslaved position. For though he appeared with
a very tranquil countenance, he had no sooner observed the marks of
grief upon my brow than an answering darkness gathered on his own.
"Asenath," he said, "you owe me much already; with one finger I still
hold you suspended over death; my life is full of labour and anxiety;
and I choose," said he, with a remarkable accent of command, "that you
shall greet me with a pleasant face." He never needed to repeat the
recommendation: from that day forward I was always ready to receive him
with apparent cheerfulness; and he rewarded me with a good deal of his
company, and almost more than I could bear of his confidence. He had set
up a laboratory in the back part of the house, where he toiled day and
night at his elixir, and he would come thence to visit me in my parlour:
now with passing humours of discouragement; now, and far more often,
radiant with hope. It was impossible to see so much of him, and not to
recognise that the sands of his life were running low; and yet all the
time he would be laying out vast fields of future, and planning, with
all the confidence of youth, the most unbounded schemes of pleasure and
ambition. How I replied I know not; but I found a voice and words to
answer, even while I wept and raged to hear him.

A week ago the doctor entered my room with the marks of great
exhilaration contending with pitiful bodily weakness. "Asenath," said
he, "I have now obtained the last ingredient. In one week from now the
perilous moment of the last projection will draw nigh. You have once
before assisted, although unconsciously, at the failure of a similar
experiment. It was the elixir which so terribly exploded one night when
you were passing my house; and it is idle to deny that the conduct of so
delicate a process, among the million jars and trepidations of so great
a city, presents a certain element of danger. From this point of view, I
cannot but regret the perfect stillness of my house among the deserts;
but, on the other hand, I have succeeded in proving that the singularly
unstable equilibrium of the elixir, at the moment of projection, is due
rather to the impurity than to the nature of the ingredients; and as all
are now of an equal and exquisite nicety, I have little fear for the
result. In a week then from to-day, my dear Asenath, this period of
trial will be ended." And he smiled upon m