“A man would attempt to become my rival,” he answered at once. “And he would not submit to coercion without a struggle. It is woman’s nature instinctively to bend under the male influence,--one cannot controvert natural law. Woman does not _naturally_ resist; she yields. I told you I wanted obedience and loyalty from you,--I knew you would give them. You have done so, and now that you partially know my aims I know you will do so still.” “I shall not fail you,” said Diana, quietly. “But,--if I may know as much,--suppose you succeed in your idea of recharging the ‘cells’ which make up Me, what will be the result to Myself?” “The result to yourself?” he repeated. “Little can you imagine it!--little will you believe it even if I attempt to describe it! What will it mean to you, I wonder, to feel the warmth and vigour of early youth once more tingling in your veins?--the elasticity and suppleness of youth in your limbs?--to watch the delicate and heavenly magic of a perfect beauty transfiguring your face to such fairness that it shall enchant all beholders!----” “Stop,--stop!” cried Diana, almost angrily, springing up from her chair and putting her hands to her ears. “This is mere folly, Dr. Dimitrius! You talk wildly,--and unreasonably! You must be mad!” “Of course I am mad!” he answered, rising at the same moment and confronting her--“As mad as all original discoverers are! As mad as Galileo, Newton, George Stephenson or Madame Curie! And I am one with them in the madness that makes for a world’s higher sanity! Come, look at me!” and he took both her hands firmly in his own--“Honestly, can you say I am mad?” His eyes, dark and luminous, were steadfast and frank as the eyes of a faithful animal,--his expression serious,--even noble. As she met his calm gaze the colour flushed her cheeks suddenly, then as quickly faded, leaving her very pale. “No--I cannot!” she said, swiftly and humbly. “Forgive me! But you deal with the impossible!” He loosened her hands. “Nothing is impossible!” he said. “Whatsoever the brain of a man conceives in thought can be born in deed. Otherwise there would be a flaw in the mathematics of the Universe, which is a thing utterly inconceivable.” He paused,--then went on. “I have told you all that you wished to know. Are you satisfied?” She looked at him, and a faint smile lifted the corners of her mouth. “If you are satisfied, I am,” she replied. “What I seem to understand is this,--if you succeed in your experiment I shall feel and look younger than I do now,--we will leave the ‘beauty’ part out of it,--and if you fail, the ‘cells’ you have begun to charge with your mysterious compound, will disintegrate, and there’ll be an end of me?” “You have put the case with perfect accuracy,” he said. “That is so.” “Very well! I am prepared!”--and she went to the table desk where she usually worked--“and now I’ll go on deciphering Latin script.”