room which had thus been placed at my disposal, a curious feeling
came over me that these luxurious surroundings were, after all, not
new to my experience. I had been accustomed to them for a great part
of my life. Stay!--how foolish of me!--'a great part of my life'?--
then what part of it? I briefly reviewed my own career,--a difficult
and solitary childhood,--the hard and uphill work which became my
lot as soon as I was old enough to work at all,--incessant study,
and certainly no surplus of riches. Then where had I known luxury? I
sank into a chair, dreamily considering. The floating scent of
sandal-wood and the perfume of lilies commingled was like the breath
of an odorous garden in the East, familiar to me long ago, and as I
sat musing I became conscious of a sudden inrush of power and sense
of dominance which lifted me as it were above myself, as though I
had, without any warning, been given the full control of a great
kingdom and its people. Catching sight of my own reflection in an
opposite mirror, I was startled and almost afraid at the expression
of my face, the proud light in my eyes, the smile on my lips.

"What am I thinking of!" I said, half aloud--"I am not my true self
to-day,--some remnant of a cast-off pride has arisen in me and made
me less of a humble student. I must not yield to this overpowering
demand on my soul,--it is surely an evil suggestion which asserts
itself like the warning pain or fever of an impending disease. Can
it be the influence of Santoris? No!--I will never believe it!"

And yet a vague uneasiness beset me, and I rose and paced about
restlessly,--then pausing where the lovely Madonna lilies lay on the
ivory table, I remembered they had been put there for me. I raised
them gently, inhaling their delicious fragrance, and as I did so,
saw, lying immediately underneath them, a golden Cross of a mystic