Suffer me
to touch thy body.'
Oliver Haddo ceased to play. Neither of them stirred. At last Margaret
sought by an effort to regain her self-control.
'I shall begin to think that you really are a magician,' she said,
lightly.
'I could show you strange things if you cared to see them,' he answered,
again raising his eyes to hers.
'I don't think you will ever get me to believe in occult philosophy,'
she laughed.
'Yet it reigned in Persia with the magi, it endowed India with wonderful
traditions, it civilised Greece to the sounds of Orpheus's lyre.'
He stood before Margaret, towering over her in his huge bulk; and there
was a singular fascination in his gaze. It seemed that he spoke only to
conceal from her that he was putting forth now all the power that was in
him.
'It concealed the first principles of science in the calculations of
Pythagoras. It established empires by its oracles, and at its voice
tyrants grew pale upon their thrones. It governed the minds of some by
curiosity, and others it ruled by fear.
Pages:
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179