irreparable loss. There is no action without reaction. Even I--even
we--must have received from you some compensation for what you have
taken away."

"In the ordinary processes of life the law of action and reaction is
indeed potent. But no law is without exception. Think of radium, for
instance, with its constant and seemingly inexhaustible outflow of
energy. It is a difficult thing to imagine, but our scientific men have
accepted it as a fact. Why should we find it more difficult to conceive
of a tremendous and infinite absorptive element? I feel sure that it
must somewhere exist. But every phenomenon in the physical world finds
its counterpart in the psychical universe. There are radium-souls that
radiate without loss of energy, but also without increase. And there are
souls, the reverse of radium, with unlimited absorptive capacities."

"Vampire-souls," she observed, with a shudder, and her face blanched.

"No," he said, "don't say that." And then he suddenly seemed to grow in
stature. His face was ablaze, like the face of a god.

"In every age," he replied, with solemnity, "there are giants who attain
to a greatness which by natural growth no men could ever have reached.
But in their youth a vision came to them, which they set out to seek.
They take the stones of fancy to build them a palace in the kingdom of
truth, projecting into reality dreams, monstrous and impossible. Often
they fail and, tumbling from their airy heights, end a quixotic career.
Some succeed. They are the chosen. Carpenter's sons they are, who have
laid down the Law of a World for milleniums to come; or simple
Corsicans, before whose eagle eye have quaked the kingdoms of the earth.
But to accomplish their mission they need a will of iron and the wit of