Under her regard the goblin sphere took on with bewildering rapidity changing guises.  Its rotundity was first lost, it assumed the semblance of a featureless disk of pallid light, which swiftly widened till it obscured all else, then seemed to advance upon and envelope her bodily, so that she became spiritually a part of it, an atom of identity engulfed in a limpid world of glareless light, light that had had no rays and issued from no source but was circumambient and universal.  Then in its remote heart a weird glow of rose began to burn and grow, pulsing through all the colours of the spectrum and beyond.  Toward this she felt herself being drawn swiftly, attracted by an irresistible magnetism, riding the wings of a great wind, whose voice boomed without ceasing, like a heavy surf thunderously reiterating one syllable, “Sleep!” ...  And in this flight through illimitable space toward a goal unattainable, consciousness grew faint and flickered out like a candle in the wind.

Behind her chair the placid yellow face of Shaik Tsin appeared, as if materialized bodily out of the shadows.  With folded arms he waited, dispassionately observant.  Presently Prince Victor nodded to him over the head of the girl.  Immediately the Chinaman moved round her chair and, employing both hands, in one instant switched off the hooded bulb and reilluminated the lamp of brass.

As the light died out in the crystal Sofia sighed heavily, and relaxed.  Leaden eyelids closed down over her staring eyes, she sank back into the chair, simultaneously into plumbless depths....

Victor made a sound of gratification.  Shaik Tsin enquired briefly: 

“It is accomplished, then?”

Victor nodded.  “She yielded more quickly than I had hoped—­worn out emotionally, of course.”

“She sleeps—­”

“In hypnosis, in absolute suspense of every faculty and function save those concerned solely with the maintenance of existence—­in a state, that is, comparable only to the pre-natal life of a child.”

“It is most interesting,” Shaik Tsin admitted.  “But what is the use?  That is what interests me.”

“Wait and see.”

Bending close to the girl, Victor called in a strong voice of command:  “Sofia!  Sofia!  It is I, Prince Victor, your father.  Waken and attend!”

A slight spasm shook the slender body, the lips parted, respiration became hurried and broken, the long lashes fluttered on the cheeks.

“Do you hear me?  I, Victor, command you:  Waken and attend!”

Another struggle, more brief and sharp, ended with the opening of the eyes, which sought and remained steadfast to Victor’s, yet without intelligence or animation.

“Do you hear me, Sofia?”

A voice like a sigh rustled on the parted lips, whose stir was imperceptible: 

“I hear you....”

“Then heed what I say.  My will is your law.  You know that?”