“Are you well, Mr. Blake?” she asked again.  “You look strange.”

“Well, well,” I remember saying.  Then we caught sight of three people riding.

“Hurrah!” I cried, “there they are.”

I could see I was surprising Miss Forrest more and more, but she did not speak again.  Pride and vexation seemed to overcome her other feelings, and so silently we rode on together until we rejoined our companions.

“Ha, Justin!” cried Tom, “we did not expect to see you just yet Surely something’s the matter?”

“Oh no,” I replied, when, looking at Herod Voltaire, I saw a ghastly smile wreathe his lips, and then I felt my burden gone.  Evidently by some strange power, at which I had laughed, he had again made me obey his will, and when he had got me where he wanted me, he allowed me to be free.  No sooner did I feel my freedom than I was nearly mad with rage.  I had been with the woman I wanted, more than anything else, to accompany, we had been engaged in a conversation which was getting more and more interesting for me, and then, for no reason save this man’s accursed power, I had come back where I had no desire to be.

I set my teeth together and vowed to be free, but, looking again at Voltaire’s eyes, my feelings underwent another revulsion.  I trembled like an aspen leaf.  I began to dread some terrible calamity.  Before me stretched a dark future.  I seemed to see rivers of blood, and over them floated awful creatures.  For a time I thought I was disembodied, and in my new existence I did deeds too terrible to relate.  Then I realized a new experience.  I feared Voltaire with a terrible fear.  Strange forms appeared to be emitted from his eyes, while to me his form expanded and became terrible in its mien.

I knew I was there in a Yorkshire road, riding on a high-blooded horse; I knew the woman I loved was near me; and yet I was living a dual life.  It was not Justin Blake who was there, but something else which was called Justin Blake, and the feelings that possessed me were such as I had never dreamed of.  And yet I was able to think; I was able to connect cause and effect.  Indeed, my brain was very active, and I began to reason out why I should be so influenced, and why I should act so strangely.

The truth was, and I felt sure of it as I rode along, I was partly mesmerized or hypnotized, whatever men may please to call it.  Partly I was master over my actions, and partly I was under an influence which I could not resist.  Strange it may appear, but it is still true, and so while one part of my being or self was realizing to a certain extent the circumstances by which I was surrounded, the other enslaved part trembled and feared at some dreadful future, and felt bound to do what it would fain resist.

This feeling possessed me till we arrived at Temple Hall, when I felt free, and, as if by the wave of some magical wand, Justin Blake was himself again.