im with allusions to certain matters mentioned in their
interviews with Lucifer, with which they naturally but erroneously
supposed him to be conversant, and worried him by continual nods and
titterings as they glanced at his nether extremities. To abolish this
nuisance, and at the same time silence sundry unpleasant rumours which
had somehow got abroad, Gerbert devised the ceremony of kissing the
Pope's feet, which, in a grievously mutilated form, endures to this
day. The stupefaction of the Cardinals on discovering that the Holy
Father had lost his hoof surpasses all description, and they went to
their graves without having obtained the least insight into the
mystery.

MADAM LUCIFER[27]

BY RICHARD GARNETT

[27] Taken by permission from _The Twilight of the Gods_, by
Richard Garnett. Published by John Lane Co., New York.

Lucifer sat playing chess with Man for his soul.

The game was evidently going ill for Man. He had but pawns left, few
and struggling. Lucifer had rooks, knights, and, of course, bishops.

It was but natural under such circumstances that Man should be in no
great hurry to move. Lucifer grew impatient.

"It is a pity," said he at last, "that we did not fix some period
within which the player must move, or resign."

"Oh, Lucifer," returned the young man, in heart-rending accents, "it
is not the impending loss of my soul that thus unmans me, but the loss
of my betrothed. When I think of the grief of the Lady Adeliza, the
paragon of terrestrial loveliness!" Tears choked his utterance;
Lucifer was touched.

"Is the Lady Adeliza's loveliness in sooth so transcendent?" he
inquired.

"She is a rose, a lily, a diamond, a morning star!"

"If that is the case," rejoined Lucifer, "thou mayest reassure
thyself. The Lady Adeliza shall not want for consolation. I will
assume thy shape and woo her in thy stead."

The young man hardly seemed to receive all the comfort from this
promise which Lucifer no doubt designed. He made a desperate move. In
an instant the Devil checkmated him, and he disappeared.

* * * * *

"Upon my word, if I had known what a business this was going to be, I
don't think I should have gone in for it," soliloquized the Devil as,
wearing his captive's semblance and installed in his apartments, he
surveyed the effects to which he now had to administer. They included
coats, shirts, collars, neckties, foils, cigars, and the like _ad