"Aye, look long," said the Devil. "You will never be able to describe it, and the next time you come you won't have the chance. Look long, and look at"--Good's passing with a maiden of the Zu-Vendi must have suggested the idea--"look at their legs." I looked, and for the second time noticed the lameness that seemed to be almost universal in the Limbo of Lost Endeavour. Brave men and stalwart to all appearance had one leg shorter than the other; some paced a few inches above the floor, never touching it, and others found the greatest difficulty in preserving their feet at all. The stiffness and laboured gait of these thousands was pitiful to witness. I was sorry for them. I told the Devil as much. "H'm," said he reflectively, "that's the world's work. Rather cockeye, ain't it? They do everything but stand on their feet. _You_ could improve them, I suppose?" There was an unpleasant sneer in his tone, and I hastened to change the subject. "I'm tired of walking," I said. "I want to see some of my own Characters, and go on to the Master, whoever he may be, afterwards." "Reflect," said the Devil. "Are you certain--do you know how many they be?" "No--but I want to see them. That's what I came for." "Very well. Don't abuse me if you don't like the view. There are one-and-fifty of your make up to date, and--it's rather an appalling thing to be confronted with fifty-one children. However, here's a special favourite of yours. Go and shake hands with her!" A limp-jointed, staring-eyed doll was hirpling towards me with a strained smile of recognition. I felt that I knew her only too well--if indeed she were she. "Keep her off, Devil!" I cried, stepping back. "I never made _that_!" "'She began to weep and she began to cry, Lord ha' mercy on me, this is none of I!' You're very rude to--Mrs. Hauksbee, and she wants to speak to you," said the Devil. My face must have betrayed my dismay, for the Devil went on soothingly: "That's as she _is_, remember. I _knew_ you wouldn't like it. Now what will you give if I make her as she ought to be? No, I don't want your soul, thanks. I have it already, and many others of better quality. Will you, when you write your story, own that I am the best and greatest of all the Devils?" The doll was creeping nearer. "Yes," I said hurriedly. "Anything you like. Only I can't stand her in that state." "You'll _have_ to when you come next again. Look! No connection with Jekyll and Hyde!" The Devil pointed a lean and inky finger towards the doll, and lo! radiant, bewitching, with a smile of dainty malice, her high heels clicking on the floor like castanets, advanced Mrs. Hauksbee as I had imagined her in the beginning. "Ah!" she said. "You are here so soon? Not dead yet? That will come. Meantime, a thousand congratulations. And now, what do you think of me?" She put her hands on her hips, revealed a glimpse of the smallest foot in Simla and hummed: "'Just look at that--just look at this! And then you'll see I'm not amiss.'"