It's
Latin.... Well then!--it means you've hit it. The whole gist of the
matter lies in my being neither good nor conscientious. I am a mass of
double-dyed selfishness. I would not give you up--it's very sad, but
it's true!--even for your own sake. I would not lose a word from your
lips, a touch of your hand, an hour of your presence, to have back my
eyesight and with it all else the world has to give, all else than this
dear self that I may never see...."

"I'm glad you said _may_."

"Yes, of course it's _may_. We mustn't forget that. But, dearest, I tell
you this, that if I were to get my sight again, and your august mammy's
impression were to turn out true after all, and you come to be aware
that, pity apart, your humble servant was not such a very...."

"What should you do if I did?"

"Shall I tell you? I should show the cloven foot. I should betray the
unreasoning greed of my soul. I should never let you go, even if I had
to resort to the brutality of keeping you to your word. I should simply
hold on like grim death. Would you hate me for it?"

"N-no! I'm not sure that I should. We should see." Certainly the
beautiful face that looked down at the eyes that could not see it showed
no visible displeasure--quite the reverse. "But suppose I did! _Suppose_
is a game that two can play at."

"Very proper, and shows you understand the nature of an hypothesis. What
should I do?... What _should_ I do?"

Gwen offered help to his perplexity. "And suppose that when _you_ came
to see _your_ bargain you had found out your mistake! Suppose that
Arthur's Bridge turned out all an Arabian Night! Suppose that the ...
well--satisfactory _personnel_ your imagination has concocted turned
out to be that of a beldam, crone, hag, or dowdy! How then?"

Instead of replying, Adrian drew his hands gently over the face above
him, caressingly over the glorious mass of golden hair and round the
columnar throat Bronzino would have left reluctantly alone. Said Irene,
from the other end of the room:--"Are you trying Mesmeric experiments,
you two?"

"He's only doing it to make sure I'm not a beldam," said Gwen
innocently. But to Adrian she added under her breath:--"It's only Irene,
so it doesn't matter. Only it shows how cautious one has to be." The
Baronet, attracted for one moment from his fascinating dice, contributed
a fragment to the conversation, and died away into backgammon.
"Hey--eh!--what's that?" said he. "Mesmerism--Mesmerism--w