Arthur Burdon made a gesture of impatience.

’I cannot imagine that, however much I lived in Eastern countries, I could believe anything that had the whole weight of science against it.  If there were a word of truth in anything Haddo says, we should be unable to form any reasonable theory of the universe.’

‘For a scientific man you argue with singular fatuity,’ said Haddo icily, and his manner had an offensiveness which was intensely irritating.  ’You should be aware that science, dealing only with the general, leaves out of consideration the individual cases that contradict the enormous majority.  Occasionally the heart is on the right side of the body, but you would not on that account ever put your stethoscope in any other than the usual spot.  It is possible that under certain conditions the law of gravity does not apply, yet you will conduct your life under the conviction that it does so invariably.  Now, there are some of us who choose to deal only with these exceptions to the common run.  The dull man who plays at Monte Carlo puts his money on the colours, and generally black or red turns up; but now and then zero appears, and he loses.  But we, who have backed zero all the time, win many times our stake.  Here and there you will find men whose imagination raises them above the humdrum of mankind.  They are willing to lose their all if only they have chance of a great prize.  Is it nothing not only to know the future, as did the prophets of old, but by making it to force the very gates of the unknown?’

Suddenly the bantering gravity with which he spoke fell away from him.  A singular light came into his eyes, and his voice was hoarse.  Now at last they saw that he was serious.

’What should you know of that lust for great secrets which consumes me to the bottom of my soul!’

‘Anyhow, I’m perfectly delighted to meet a magician,’ cried Susie gaily.

‘Ah, call me not that,’ he said, with a flourish of his fat hands, regaining immediately his portentous flippancy.  ’I would be known rather as the Brother of the Shadow.’

’I should have thought you could be only a very distant relation of anything so unsubstantial,’ said Arthur, with a laugh.

Oliver’s face turned red with furious anger.  His strange blue eyes grew cold with hatred, and he thrust out his scarlet lips till he had the ruthless expression of a Nero.  The gibe at his obesity had caught him on the raw.  Susie feared that he would make so insulting a reply that a quarrel must ensure.

‘Well, really, if we want to go to the fair we must start,’ she said quickly.  ‘And Marie is dying to be rid of us.’

They got up, and clattered down the stairs into the street.

4

They came down to the busy, narrow street which led into the Boulevard du Montparnasse.  Electric trams passed through it with harsh ringing of bells, and people surged along the pavements.