for the services she had pledged herself to render. Then, as she had taken the whole thing on trust had she any cause to complain of the nature of those services? No!--and in truth she did not complain,--she only _felt_--felt, to the core of her soul the callous indifference which Dimitrius had plainly expressed as to her fate in the dangerous “experiment” he had already commenced upon her. Hot tears sprang to her eyes,--she struggled with them, ashamed and humiliated. “Children and girls cry!” she said, with self-contempt. “I, being a woman ‘of mature years,’ ought to know better! But, oh, it is hard!--hard!” Her thoughts flew to Madame Dimitrius,--had she followed her first feminine impulse, she would have run to that kind old lady and asked for a little pity, sympathy and affection!--but she knew such an act would seem weak and absurd. Still walking up and down, her steps gradually became more measured and even,--with one hand against her eyes, she pressed away the tear drops that hung on her lashes--then, pausing, looked again, as she so often looked at the never stopping steel instrument that struck off its little fiery sparks with an almost wearisome exactitude and monotony. Stretching out her hand, she tried to catch one of the flying dots of flame as one would catch a midge or a moth,--she at last succeeded, and the glowing mote shone on her open palm like a ruby for about half a minute--then vanished, leaving no trace but a slight tingling sensation on the flesh it had touched. “A mystery!” she said--“as involved and difficult to understand as my ‘master’ himself!” She looked through the window at the grey-cold winter landscape, and let her eyes travel along the distant peaks of the Alpine ranges, where just now the faintest gleam of sunshine fell. The world,--the natural world--was beautiful!--but how much more beautiful it would seem if one had the full heart and vigour to enjoy its beauty! If, with youth to buoy up the senses, one had the trained eye and mind to perceive and appreciate the lovely things of life!--could one ask for greater happiness? “When we are quite young we hardly see Nature,” she mused. “It is only in later years that we begin to find out how much we have missed. Now, if I, with my love of beauty, were young----” Here her meditations came to an abrupt halt. Had not Dimitrius promised that if he succeeded in his experiment, youth would be hers again?--youth, united to experience?--but would that be a desirable result? She wondered. “The old, old story!” she sighed. “The old legend of Faust and the devil!--the thirst of mankind for a longer extension of youth and life!--only, in my case, I have not asked for these things, nor have I tried to summon up the devil. I am just an unwanted woman,--unwanted so far as the world is concerned, but useful just now as a ‘subject’ for the recharging of cells!”