"Alas!" said my tutor, "I begin to regret your father's cookshop,
where we ate such good morsels while explaining Quintilian."

After having scaled the first flight of large stone stairs, we were
introduced into a saloon, where M. d'Asterac was occupied with
writing near a big fire, in the midst of Egyptian coffins of human
form raised against the walls, their lids painted with sacred
figures and golden faces with long glossy eyes.

Politely M. d'Asterac invited us to be seated and said:

"Gentlemen, I expected you. And as you have both kindly consented to
do me the favour of staying with me, I beg of you to consider this
house as your own. You'll be occupied in translating Greek texts I
have brought back with me from Egypt. I have no doubt you will do
your best to accomplish this task when you know that it is connected
with the work I have undertaken, to discover the lost science by
which man will be re-established in his original power over the
elements. I have no intention of raising the veil of nature and
showing you Isis in her dazzling nudity; but I will entrust you with
the object of my studies without fear that you'll betray the
mystery, because I have confidence in your integrity and also in the
power I have to guess and to forestall all that may be attempted
against me and to dispose for my vengeance of secret and terrible
forces. From the defaults of a fidelity, of which I do not doubt; my
power, gentlemen, assures me of your silence.

"Know then that man came out of Jehovah's hands with that perfect
knowledge he has since lost. He was very powerful and very wise when