him a masterful mind and an eccentric nature. And who knows--he has
sometimes heard of mysterious fluids, of subtle forces which attract arid
repel, of dominating influences, of marvels of magnetism; and although he
has never given a great deal of thought to any of those matters, he thinks
about them since he has felt himself dominated by this singular personage,
and Adrian Baker has become, in fact, his fixed idea, his absorbing
thought, his unceasing preoccupation, his constant monomania. Berta's
father and the housekeeper may very well attribute to him marvellous
powers, suggested by their own excited imaginations; but we must not share
in those hallucinations, nor are we to conclude from them that Adrian
Baker is outside the common law to which ordinary mortals are subject.

This is evident; but, still, who is Adrian Baker?

We shall present here all the information that we have been able to gather
about him, and let each one draw from it the conclusion he pleases.

It is not yet quite two years since one of the carriages which transport
passengers from the railway station to the city which is the scene of our
story, drove rapidly from the station; the energy with which the coachman
whipped up his horses showed the haste or the importance of the travellers
it carried.

This carriage entered the city and stopped before the door of the best
hotel of the place; there the solitary traveller it carried alighted from
it, and this traveller was Adrian Baker. He was enveloped in a travelling
great-coat lined with costly fur. The eagerness with which the waiters of
the hotel hastened to meet him showed that they had discovered in the new
guest a mine of tips. The coachman took his leave of him, hat in hand, and
as he turned away looked around at the bystanders, displaying to them a