I shall not tell all the romantic events which followed the nuptials of Florian de Puysange with the fairy Melior. Florian was a _roué_. Born during the reign of Louis XIV, his imaginary life took place by anticipation during the Regency. No sooner was he married than he forgot Melior. The only vestige of loyalty remaining in him was that due to his caste. In order to obtain Melior, he had, like Faust, to give something to the Devil and he had promised his first-born child. To the Devil, who in this instance was Mr. Jennicot, he had also dedicated as a sort of bonus into the bargain, the not very valuable soul of Cardinal Dubois, but the Cardinal cheated the Devil. As a compensation the Marquis de Puysange poisoned the Duke of Orleans in the course of an orgy most dramatically narrated in the book. Florian now started on his career. A sort of Don Juan with a Bluebeard complex, he got rid of a long string of women, and would have disposed of Melior herself had not Saint Hoprig protected her. This protection, as Florian soon found out, was of so intimate a nature that it allowed him to forfeit his promise to the Devil without committing perjury. But all these incidents are merely a pretext. I should do injustice to the author by dwelling upon the anecdotic side of his book. “The High Place” is essentially notable for the philosophic fancy playing through the background of incident. The sub-title, “a comedy of disenchantement,” tells the moral to be drawn from it. Disenchanted by reality, disenchanted by dreams, Florian is a typical Cabellian hero. He is double within himself. No sooner has he satisfied his wishes than he wishes something else. On this point he is no exception to the rule of Dom Manuel and Jurgen. And yet he had married a fairy, though one who had come down to earth to become his wife and was soon to be with child. How could he help being tired of her? At the end of his trail, Florian tried to build a moral system based on the conciliation of contrary elements. Just as there were two gods in “Jurgen” (Satan and Koshchei), there are two in “The High Place.” Melior went back to Fairyland whence she had been drawn by Florian’s courting. Mr. Jennicot, the Devil, and St. Michael give us the key to the whole story, and it is rather disconcerting. Florian’s two patrons, the Devil and St. Michael, agree unanimously, in way of conclusion, that life is worth only what our dreams make of it, and that all dreams are rather inane. What then? _In vino veritas_, proclaims the Devil, quoting his Rabelais, and the Archangel Michael does not disapprove. Finally, Michael and Satan come so close to each other that their faces are confused and that they end up by becoming one. Let us listen to the Devil as Professor of Philosophy: