’Having given the required promise Eliphas Levi was shown a collection of vestments and of magical instruments.  The lady lent him certain books of which he was in need; and at last, as a result of many conversations, determined him to attempt at her house the experience of a complete evocation.  He prepared himself for twenty-one days, scrupulously observing the rules laid down by the Ritual.  At length everything was ready.  It was proposed to call forth the phantom of the divine Apollonius, and to question it upon two matters, one of which concerned Eliphas Levi and the other, the lady of the crinoline.  She had at first counted on assisting at the evocation with a trustworthy person, but at the last moment her friend drew back; and as the triad or unity is rigorously prescribed in magical rites, Eliphas was left alone.  The cabinet prepared for the experiment was situated in a turret.  Four concave mirrors were hung within it, and there was an altar of white marble, surrounded by a chain of magnetic iron.  On it was engraved the sign of the Pentagram, and this symbol was drawn on the new, white sheepskin which was stretched beneath.  A copper brazier stood on the altar, with charcoal of alder and of laurel wood, and in front a second brazier was placed upon a tripod.  Eliphas Levi was clothed in a white robe, longer and more ample than the surplice of a priest, and he wore upon his head a chaplet of vervain leaves entwined about a golden chain.  In one hand he held a new sword and in the other the Ritual.’

Susie’s passion for caricature at once asserted itself, and she laughed as she saw in fancy the portly little Frenchman, with his round, red face, thus wonderfully attired.

’He set alight the two fires with the prepared materials, and began, at first in a low voice, but rising by degrees, the invocations of the Ritual.  The flames invested every object with a wavering light.  Presently they went out.  He set more twigs and perfumes on the brazier, and when the flame started up once more, he saw distinctly before the altar a human figure larger than life, which dissolved and disappeared.  He began the invocations again and placed himself in a circle, which he had already traced between the altar and the tripod.  Then the depth of the mirror which was in front of him grew brighter by degrees, and a pale form arose, and it seemed gradually to approach.  He closed his eyes, and called three times upon Apollonius.  When he opened them, a man stood before him, wholly enveloped in a winding sheet, which seemed more grey than black.  His form was lean, melancholy, and beardless.  Eliphas felt an intense cold, and when he sought to ask his questions found it impossible to speak.  Thereupon, he placed his hand on the Pentagram, and directed the point of his sword toward the figure, adjuring it mentally by that sign not to terrify, but to obey him.  The form suddenly grew indistinct and soon it strangely vanished.  He commanded it to return,