II
THE GREY HOUR
"To resume," observed Rolles as he removed the tea-tray,
”since you have done no prescribed practices (wicked little
sister !) you cannot banish the body by bidding it keep silence.
So it must be
banished
by
exhaustion, and
the spirit
awakened by a sevenfold dose of the Elixir.”
“ Have you the Elixir?" she asked, rather awed.
“It is entrusted to me,“ he answered simply.
”To this
laudable end I have appointed a sufficiency of Bisque Kadosh
at the Cafe Riche, followed by Homard Cardinal and Truffes
au champagne
With a savoury of my own invention.
The
truffes au champagne of the Cafe Riche are more to be desired
than all the hashish dreams of all the wicked, and than all the
divine dreams
01 all the good.
We shall walk there, and
drive back.
This incense shall be kindled, and this lamp
left burning.”
He took a strange object from a locked cabinet.
It had
flowered chased pipes of gold, copper and platinum, coiling
about an egg of crystal.
The three snakes met just above the
egg, as if to bite or to kiss.
Rolles filled the egg with a pale
blue liquid from a Venetian flask, then pressed the heads of
the serpents just a little closer together.
Instantly a coruscat-
ing flame leapt between them, minute, dazzling, radiant.
It
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