weak and unstrung.  He could neither rise from his seat, nor lift his hand, nor close the lids of his eyes.  It was as though an irresistible force were drawing him into the depths of a fathomless whirlpool, down, down, by its endless giddy spirals, robbing him of a portion of his consciousness at every gyration, so that he left behind him at every instant something of his individuality, something of the central faculty of self-recognition.  He felt no pain, but he did not feel that inexpressible delight of peace which already twice had descended upon him.  He experienced a rapid diminution of all perception, of all feeling, of all intelligence.  Thought, and the memory of thought, ebbed from his brain and left it vacant, as the waters of a lock subside when the gates are opened, leaving emptiness in their place.

Unorna’s eyes turned from him, and she raised her hand a moment, letting it fall again upon her knee.  Instantly the strong man was restored to himself; his weakness vanished, his sight was clear, his intelligence was awake.  Instantly the certainty flashed upon him that Unorna possessed the power of imposing the hypnotic sleep and had exercised that gift upon him, unexpectedly and against his will.  He would have more willingly supposed that he had been the victim of a momentary physical faintness, for the idea of having been thus subjected to the influence of a woman, and of a woman whom he hardly knew, was repugnant to him, and had in it something humiliating to his pride, or at least to his vanity.  But he could not escape the conviction forced upon him by the circumstances.

“Do not go far, for I may yet help you,” said Unorna, quietly.  “Let us talk of this matter and consult what is best to be done.  Will you accept a woman’s help?”

“Readily.  But I cannot accept her will as mine, nor resign my consciousness into her keeping.”

“Not for the sake of seeing her whom you say you love?”

The Wanderer was silent, being yet undetermined how to act, and still unsteadied by what he had experienced.  But he was able to reason, and he asked of his judgment what he should do, wondering what manner of woman Unorna might prove to be, and whether she was anything more than one of those who live and even enrich themselves by the exercise of the unusual faculties of powers nature has given them.  He had seen many of that class, and he considered most of them to be but half fanatics, half charlatans, worshipping in themselves as something almost divine that which was but a physical power, or weakness, beyond their own limited comprehension.  Though a whole school of wise and thoughtful men had already produced remarkable results and elicited astounding facts by sifting the truth through a fine web of closely logical experiment, it did not follow that either Unorna, or any other self-convinced, self-taught operator could do more than grope blindly towards the light, guided by intuition alone amongst the varied and misleading