Byron would, of course, never have been heard: one brief egoistic
"lament" on Taygetus, and so an end. It is not, however, certain that
the world could not have managed very well without Lord Byron. The one
thing that admits of no contradiction is that it cannot manage without
the holy citizen, and that disease, to men and to nations, can have but
one meaning, annihilation near or ultimate. At any rate, from these
remarks, you will now very likely be able to arrive at some
understanding of the wording of the advertisements which I sent to the
papers.'

Zaleski, having delivered himself of this singular _tirade_, paused:
replaced the sepulchral relief in its niche: drew a drapery of silver
cloth over his bare feet and the hem of his antique garment of Babylon:
and then continued:

'After some time the answer to the advertisement at length arrived; but
what was my disgust to find that it was perfectly unintelligible to me.
I had asked for a date and an address: the reply came giving a date,
and an address, too--but an address wrapped up in cypher, which, of
course, I, as a supposed member of the society, was expected to be able
to read. At any rate, I now knew the significance of the incongruous
circumstance that the Latin proverb _mens sana etc._ should be adopted
as the motto of a Greek society; the significance lay in this, that the
motto _contained an address_--the address of their meeting-place, or at
least, of their chief meeting-place. I was now confronted with the task
of solving--and of solving quickly, without the loss of an hour--this
enigma; and I confess that it was only by the most violent and
extraordinary concentration of what I may call the dissecting faculty,
that I was able to do so in good time. And yet there was no special
difficulty in the matter. For looking at the motto as it stood in