able; he was straining forward, his hands
gripping the arms of his chair. His eyes and every tense instinct of the
man were concentrated on the fireplace. The red light of the embers was
in the room. I could see him clearly, and the table beyond him with the
calculations; but the fireplace seemed strangely out of perspective--it
extended above me.

"My gift to the Master, not more than four handbreaths in length,
including the base, stood now like an immense bronze on an extended
marble slab beside a gigantic fireplace. This effect of extension put
the top of the fireplace and the enlarged andiron, above its pedestal,
out of my line of vision. Everything else in the chamber, holding its
normal dimensions, was visible to me.

"The Master's face was a little lifted. He was looking at the elevated
portions of the andiron which were invisible to me. He did not move. The
steady light threw half of his face into shadow. But in the other half
every feature stood out sharply as in a delicate etching. It had that
refined sharpness and distinction which intense moments of stress stamp
on the human face. He did not move, and there was no sound.

"I have said, Excellency, that my angle of vision along the crevice of
the doorsill was sharply cut midway of this now enlarged fireplace. From
the direction and lift of the Master's face, he was watching something
above this line and directly over the pedestal of the andiron. I
watched, also, flattening my face against the sill, for the thing to
appear.

"And it did appear.

"A naked foot became slowly visible, as though some one were descending
with extreme care from the elevation of the andiron to the great marble
hearth, under this strange enlargement, now some distance below."

The big Oriental paused, and looked down at me.

"I knew then, Excellency, that the Master was lost! The creative
energies of the Spirit suffer no division of worship; those of the
body must be wholly denied. I had warned the Master. And in travail,
Excellency, I turned over with my face to the floor.

"But there is always hope, hope over the certainties of experience, over
the certainties of knowledge. Perhaps the Master, even now, sustained in
the spirit, would put away the devocation.... No, Excellency, I was not
misled. I knew the Master was beyond hope! But the will to hope moved
me, and I turned back to the crevice at the doorsill."

He paused.

"There was now a delicate odor, everywhere, fain