'I'm ashamed to come here so often,' said Susie, as she entered. 'Matilde
is beginning to look at me with a suspicious eye.'
'It is very good of you to entertain a tiresome old man,' he smiled,
as he held her hand. 'But I should have been disappointed if you had
forgotten your promise to come this afternoon, for I have much to tell
you.'
'Tell me at once,' she said, sitting down.
'I have discovered an MS. at the library of the Arsenal this morning that
no one knew anything about.'
He said this with an air of triumph, as though the achievement were of
national importance. Susie had a tenderness for his innocent mania; and,
though she knew the work in question was occult and incomprehensible,
congratulated him heartily.
'It is the original version of a book by Paracelsus. I have not read it
yet, for the writing is most difficult to decipher, but one point caught
my eye on turning over the pages. That is the gruesome fact that
Paracelsus fed the _homunculi_ he manufactured on human blood. One
wonders how he came by it.
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