holiday,--high spirits, youth, health, beauty, wealth. Happy boy!"

At that moment my heart was heavy within me.

Margrave resumed,--

"Among the secrets which your knowledge places at the command of your art,
what would you give for one which would enable you to defy and to deride a
rival where you place your affections, which could lock to yourself, and
imperiously control, the will of the being whom you desire to fascinate,
by an influence paramount, transcendent?"

"Love has that secret," said I,--"and love alone."

"A power stronger than love can suspend, can change love itself. But if
love be the object or dream of your life, love is the rosy associate of
youth and beauty. Beauty soon fades, youth soon departs. What if in
nature there were means by which beauty and youth can be fixed into
blooming duration,--means that could arrest the course, nay, repair the
effects, of time on the elements that make up the human frame?"

"Silly boy! Have the Rosicrucians bequeathed to you a prescription for
the elixir of life?"

"If I had the prescription I should not ask your aid to discover its
ingredients."

"And is it in the hope of that notable discovery you have studied
chemistry, electricity, and magnetism? Again I say, Silly boy!"