"So have I. The man seems changed. Where is he?"

"He is in bed, ill of a disease which I dare not so much as name to you."

"That is a very extraordinary circumstance; I have never heard of such a
thing before. It must be the work of an evil genius."

"I have never heard of such a thing, either; but now let us dine. We
shall have to work hard to-day at the consecration of the tin."

"All the better. We must offer an expiatory sacrifice to Oromasis, for,
awful thought! in three days he would have to regenerate me, and the
operation would be performed in that condition."

"Let us eat now," I repeated; "I fear lest the hour of Jupiter be
over-past."

"Fear nothing, I will see that all goes well."

After the consecration of the tin had been performed, I transferred that
of Oromasis to another day, while I consulted the oracle assiduously, the
marchioness translating the figures into letters. The oracle declared
that seven salamanders had transported the true Querilinthos to the Milky
Way, and that the man in the next room was the evil genius, St. Germain,
who had been put in that fearful condition by a female gnome, who had
intended to make him the executioner of Semiramis, who was to die of the
dreadful malady before her term had expired. The oracle also said that
Semiramis should leave to Payaliseus Galtinardus (myself) all the charge
of getting rid of the evil genius, St. Germain; and that she was not to
doubt concerning her regeneration, since the word would be sent me by the