I was about to interrupt by an eager question—­but he silenced me by a gesture.

“Your position,” he went on—­“from a psychic standard,—­which is the only necessary, because the only lasting attitude,—­is that of being brought into connection with the other half of your spiritual and immortal Ego,—­which means the possession of perfect love, and with it perfect life.  And because this is so great a gift, and so entirely Divine, influences are bound to offer opposition in order that the Soul may make its choice voluntarily.  Therefore, when I, and the other brains acting with me, placed you under our power, we impressed you with all that most readily shakes the feminine mind—­ doubt, jealousy, suspicion, and all the wretched terrors these wretched emotions engender.  We suggested the death of Rafel Santoris as well as his treachery,—­you heard, as you thought, voices behind a wall—­but there were no voices—­only the suggestion of voices in your mind.  You saw strange phantoms and shadows,—­they had no existence except in so far as we made them exist and present themselves to your mental vision.  You wandered away into unknown places, so you imagined,—­but as a matter of fact you never left your room!”

“Never left my room!” I echoed—­“Oh, that cannot be!”

“It can be, because it is!” he answered me, smiling gravely—­“The only thing in your experience that was real was the finding of the book ’The Secret of Life’—­in the purple-draped shrine.  Here it is"- -and he took it up from the table on which it lay—­“and if you had turned it over a little more, you would have found this”—­and he read aloud—­

“’All action is the material result of Thought.  Suffering is the result of thinking into pain—­disease the result of thinking into weakness.  Every emotion is the result of wrong or right thinking, with one exception—­Love.  Love is not an Emotion but a Principle, and as the generator of Life pervades all things, and is all things.  Thought, working within this Principle, creates the things of beauty and lastingness,—­Thought, working outside this Principle, equally creates the things of terror, doubt, confusion, and destruction.  There is no other Secret of Life—­no other Elixir of Youth—­no other Immortality!’”

He pronounced the last words with gentle and impressive emphasis, and a great sweetness and calm filled my mind as I listened.

“I—­or I should say we—­for four of my Brethren were deeply interested in you on account of the courage you had shown—­we took you up to the utmost height of endurance in the way of mental terror—­and, to our great joy, found your Soul strong enough to baffle and conquer the ultimate suggestion of Death itself.  You held firmly to the truth that there is no death, and with that spiritual certainty risked all for Love.  Now we have released you from our spells!”—­and his eyes were full of kindness as he looked at me—­ “and I want to know if you thoroughly realise the importance of the lesson we have taught?”