"Not later? That is well; my time is precious."

"Compose yourself, and eat."

I placed the food before him, and he partook of it, though sparingly, and
as if with effort. He then dozed for a short time, again woke up, and
impatiently demanded the cordial, which I had prepared in the mean while.
Its effect was greater and more immediate than I could have anticipated,
proving, perhaps, how much of youth there was still left in his system,
however undermined and ravaged by disease. Colour came back to his cheek,
his voice grew perceptibly stronger. And as I lighted the lamp on the
table near us--for it was growing dark--he gathered himself up, and spoke
thus,--

"You remember that I once pressed on you certain experiments. My object
then was to discover the materials from which is extracted the specific
that enables the organs of life to expel disease and regain vigour. In
that hope I sought your intimacy,--an intimacy you gave, but withdrew."

"Dare you complain? Who and what was the being from whose intimacy I
shrank appalled?"

"Ask what questions you please," cried Margrave, impatiently, "later--if I
have strength left to answer them; but do not interrupt me, while I
husband my force to say what alone is important to me and to you.
Disappointed in the hopes I had placed in you, I resolved to repair to
Paris,--that great furnace of all bold ideas. I questioned learned
formalists; I listened to audacious empirics. The first, with all their
boasted knowledge, were too timid to concede my premises; the second, with