correspond to the engraved signs upon the card, nor by any word of
persuasion could he be prevailed upon to return.

Thus, without any possible reproach upon the manner in which I was
conducting the enterprise, it came about that by the time I reached
the spot indicated, all those persons who had been spoken of as
constituting a chosen band were assembled, and with them the
barbarian princess. Nevertheless, this person was irreproachably
greeted, and the maiden indicated even spoke a few words to him in an
outside tongue. Being necessarily unacquainted with the import of the
remark I spread out my hands with a sign of harmonious sympathy and
smiled agreeably, whereat she appeared to receive an added esteem from
the faces of those around (excluding those directly of the House of
Glidder), and was thereby encouraged to speak similarly at intervals,
this person each time replying in a like fashion.

"Is he then a Guide of the Way, also, princess?" said the one Pash,
who had noted the occurrence; to which the maiden replied, "To a
degree, yet lacking the Innermost Mysteries."

Presently it was announced that all things were fittingly prepared in
another chamber. Here, upon a table of polished wood, stood on the one
side a round stone with certain markings, a group of inscribed books,
and various other emblems; and on the other side a bowl of water, a
sphere of crystal, pieces of unwritten parchment, and behind all, and
at a distance away, a sheet of transparent glass, greater in height
than an ordinary person and as wide. When all were seated--the one who
had enticed me among them placing himself before the stone, the person
Pash guarding the books, the barbarian princess being surrounded by
her symbols and alone in a self-imposed solitude, and the others at