The new and remarkable personality of Hyder Ben Raaba, however, left an ineradicable impression upon her mind, so much as at times to divert her thoughts from dwelling upon Aurora and concentrate upon the strange visage of Hyder Ben Raaba. After a repose of a few days in New York, having made all the preparations for the intended journey, she left the metropolis and arrived in due time at her paternal home in Wyoming. Hardly a month had elapsed after her return when there was another crisis in her life. Her father was taken suddenly ill and died, and she was left an heiress to a large fortune consisting principally of lands, mines and cattle. Being without any relatives to guide her, Margaret was compelled to settle matters for herself, and daily she was confronted by hundreds of annoying details. These consisted of many entangling affairs of her lamented father, who had left her sole legatee, prospective aspirants who sought her hand in marriage, her solemn and binding oath to Aurora, and, strange as it may seem, the grotesquely hideous face of Ben Raaba began to flit before her mind's eye, perplexing and haunting her incessantly. One evening when she was thus absorbed in deep meditation, the postman brought her a letter. It was mailed from B----. Excitedly she tore open the envelope and from it fell the professional card of Dr. Hyder Ben Raaba. The same weird and ominous words were printed under his name: "The Vivisectionist and Re-incarnator"! On the other side were scribbled a few lines, making inquiry about the state of her health. The card, ah! the strange and significant words, vivisection and re-incarnation began to assume a deep meaning. She placed the card tremblingly upon the table and fell into a profound study. Her quivering frame, the rise and fall of her heaving breast and the change of color of her face alternatively from pallor to a feverish flush, indicated that there was a revolution going on within her immaculate bosom. At last she seemed to come to some determination; tremblingly she grasped a pen and wrote a letter to Ben Raaba, the contents of which never became known to any but herself and the Hindoo doctor. Within a fortnight she received an answer which seemed to satisfy her. Within two months she had managed hastily to dispose of all her personal property and real estate without any reserve, and then she disappeared from her Western home and surroundings and was lost forever to her former friends. CHAPTER X THE TRANSFORMATION It was near the end of September. The seaside resorts on Long Island were deserted by the gay health-seekers from the adjacent cities, and the inhabitants of the villages along the South Shore, from Rockaway to Montauk, had dwindled to their normal number of rural residents except the city of B---- which, on account of its shipping interests, still retained a lively activity.