curious yet disdainful, as one who watches the mummeries of an enchanter
on the stage.

"If," thought I, "these are but artful devices to inebriate and fool my
own imagination, my imagination is on its guard, and reason shall not,
this time, sleep at her post!"

"And now," said Margrave, "I consign to you the easy task by which you are
to merit your share of the elixir. It is my task to feed and replenish
the caldron; it is Ayesha's to heed the fire, which must not for a moment
relax in its measured and steady heat. Your task is the lightest of all
it is but to renew from this vessel the fluid that burns in the lamps, and
on the ring. Observe, the contents of the vessel must be thriftily
husbanded; there is enough, but not more than enough, to sustain the light
in the lamps, on the lines traced round the caldron, and on the farther
ring, for six hours. The compounds dissolved in this fluid are
scarce,--only obtainable in the East, and even in the East months might
have passed before I could have increased my supply.

"I had no months to waste. Replenish, then, the light only when it begins
to flicker or fade. Take heed, above all, that no part of the outer
ring--no, not an inch--and no lamp of the twelve, that are to its zodiac
like stars, fade for one moment in darkness."

I took the crystal vessel from his hand.

"The vessel is small," said I, "and what is yet left of its contents is
but scanty; whether its drops suffice to replenish the lights I cannot
guess,--I can but obey your instructions. But, more important by far than
the light to the lamps and the circle, which in Asia or Africa might scare