Love Eternal

ing hill, the pair were wending their way towards Lucerne. Godfrey, a fixed and vacant look upon hi

of yours must be strong that it makes yo

eel as though my inside were being drawn out, and I mu

ver snow. Well, it will be better on the down grade. Give me your hand, my boy

e. Fortunately, at this after-dinner hour few people were about,

police-station? Shall I

ur, "he goes to keep an ass

n will make a bad third at such an affair?" ejaculated

t? I do not know it

y, "but we shall come there

influence!" muttered Monsieur

art of the town with which neither of them was acquainted, till at length Godfr

this is t

ke sure," said the Pasteur,

ared into the passage beyond. Scarcely had the Pasteur time to f

r. Suddenly Godfrey stopped at a door and not waiting to ring the bell, knocked with his hand. Immediately it opened and Godfrey, with his companion, passed into a very dark hall round which were several other doors. Here

clever boy. Well, I thought you would, and last night

d, and it gave an idea of mingled magnificence and squalor. Some of the furniture was very good, as were one or two of the pictures, though all of it was of an odd and unusual m

spiritualists use, on which gleamed a ball of glass or crystal. On this couch was seated Madame clad in a kind of black dressing-gown and a wide gold scarf tied about her ample waist. Her fat, massive face was painted and powdered; on her head she wore a kind of mantill

our hand while you tell me all that you have been doing and if you have been thinking much of me and that beautiful

shadow. Staring at him with her fierce, prominent eyes, she started vi

ht with you? Is it a scarecrow from the fields? Or is it a speerit of your own? If so, I shoul

a large umbrella, which had come partly unfolded in his hurried walk. "It is a scarecrow-one that

strange tongue, and sprang to her feet wi

she ejaculated in Fr

ho accompany my ward to pa

ve your fortune told. Shall I look in the crystal for you and tell you nice things about-what shall we say? About the past of that handsome Madame of yours, for instance? O

ne are altogether wise? If you do not wish to visit the police cell, you will do well to leave her alone. As for your tricks of chicanery, I want none of th

you old paid a

you His mind about you. It is that unless you change your ways and repent, soon you will go to hell. Yes, quite soon, I think, for one so fat cannot be very strong in the

have spirits at my command and who, as you admit, can lay

will not deny it. Well, let them advance, and we will see who is on the top of the mountain, I, the old paid advocate of God, or you and your

red some invocation,

have gone to bed so early," remar

holar, could scarcely follow save for certain holy names, he cursed Madame Riennes in some archaic but most effective fashion. He consigned, this much Godfrey made out, her soul to hell and her body to a number of the most uncomfortable experiences. He trailed her in the dust at the rear of his theological chariot; he

curse even of a malignant and disappointed beggar, or of the venomous gipsy angered by this or that, and much less that of a righteous man inspired by just and holy indignation. Mad

, she desired to keep in her grip this boy Godfrey, who had shown himself to be so wonderful a medium or clairvoyant. To her he meant strength and fortune; a

evived; she sprang up; notwithstanding her bulk she leapt into the air like a ballet-dancer. She tore the golden mantilla from her head, letting down a flood of raven hair, streaked with grey, and

hat boy's soul is mine, not yours. I am the greatest mes

elled, almost naked mummy in

old world in whom once my spirit dwelt, send forth your Ka, your everlasti

ly, that he saw the mummy move, lifting its stiff legs and champing its iron jaws so that the yellow, ancient teeth caught the

mummy of yours, Madame. Let

Godfrey. Then he bent himself and pulled. Out flew the age-withered corpse. The head came off, the body broke above the hips and fell upon the floor, leaving the legs standing in the case, a ghastly spectacle. On to this severed trunk the

at next? This la

hands, and bent forward as though she were about to fly at the Pasteur like a wild cat. Still poised upon the fragments of the mummy he l

heard much of you-oh! the quiet old Pasteur hears many things, especially if he has members of the secret police among his flock. I think that yonder in an office there is a dossier, yes, an offi

a bow at a venture, evidently that chance arrow had

e me do?" she asked

m your influence, as

bald skull of yours by now have been shattered like

Madame. The Police Offic

she g

sullenly to Godfrey, s

dust of the smashed mummy, which the Pasteur still gr

e, little fool,

nd organic matter would not allow him to do so. She stared at him very evi

rtained to breakfast, stop to luncheon and to dinner; yes, and pass the night when they are merriest. I think you will see many spirits before you die,

ice. If Madame will take my advice she will try change of air. Lucerne is cold in

interfering humbug, I do not know.

so that he nearly fell. It was the head of the mummy, which Madame had hurled at him. It fell to the floor, and striking against a chair leg, recoiled through the doorway. Godfrey

ed the battered remnant of humanity upon the table beside the black bottle. As he did so,

pened to me. I am quite changed. Not for all the world would I go near Madam

to deal with such witches. But not too fast, not too fast, my Godfrey. I wonder

his tutor, which Isobel and he had acquired in the course of their miscellaneous reading at Monk's Acre. Indeed, as he had sai

re in the background, but she ceased to obscure the landscape as she had done before, and was to do in his after life. Had she been a girl of the common type, attractive only because she was a young and vivacious woman, doubtless the eclipse would have been complete. Occasionally, indeed, men do love fools in an enduring fashion, which is perhaps the most evil fate that can be laid upon them. For what can be worse than to waste wh

n utterly neglected him whose pride she had outraged, by not even taking the trouble to write him a letter, and finally, had vanished away. And he was young, with manhood advancing in his veins, like the pulse of spring, and women are many in the world, some of whom have pretty faces and pro

t once, that he never cared in the least for Juliette, except as a male creature cares for a pretty female creature, and that Juliette never cared in the least for him, except as a young woman cares

an accidental touch of poetry, she said to her mother, when at his side she felt as though she were walking over a snow-covered crevasse in the surrounding Alps. All seemed firm beneath her feet, but she never knew when the crust would break, and he would vanish into un

ther way, and that with such a home waiting to receive her, it was worth while to take a little risk. Thereon Juliette shrugged her white shoulders, and in the intervals of one of the French chansonettes which she was very fond of w

ut it quite so neatly. Then, as though by an afterthought, she asked when

ring this time. To begin with, the place suited him. He was very well now, and grew enormously in that pure and trenchant a

this was owing to the character and natural tendencies of his mind, partly also, without doubt, to the fact that his recent experiences had, as it were, opened a door to him between the Seen and the Hidden, or rather burst a breach in the dividing wall that never was bu

ompany of the talkative Madame and the sprightly Juliette. Nor did he want for relaxation. There were great woods on the hills behind the Maison Blanche, and in these he obtained leav

hare, though these in that land of poaching were not common, or occasionally a great, red, stealthy fox. At first, with his English traditions, God

ing a baby if he found that innocent alone. So it came about next time the excited yapping of the cur-dog was heard on the slopes above them, followed by stealthy movements among the fallen p

e gun, an old-fashioned, single-

bit, and made dreadful noises in its agony, its beautiful fur all stained with blood. Godfrey did not know what to do; it was too big and strong to kill wi

?" he asked fain

it again," replied tha

cap among the pine needles, he obeyed. At last the poor beast lay dead, a very disagree

tree, whence presently he emerged, looking ver

I like shooting

. Now my Cousin Jules, there is nothing that he loves better. Go

d Godfrey stil

e the knife,

she

upon her family, for with it departed from the world a