Afterwards, the doctor smoked cigarettes, while
Susie sat at the open window and looked at the stars. She thought of
Margaret, of her beauty and her charming frankness, of her fall and of
her miserable end; and she began to cry quietly. She knew enough of the
facts now to be aware that the wretched girl was not to blame for
anything that had happened. A cruel fate had fallen upon her, and she had
been as powerless as in the old tales Phaedra, the daughter of Minos, or
Myrrha of the beautiful hair. The hours passed, and still Arthur did not
return. Susie thought now only of him, and she was frightfully anxious.
But at last he came in. The night was far advanced. He put down his hat
and sat down. For a long while he looked silently at Dr. Porhoet.
'What is it, my friend?' asked the good doctor at length.
'Do you remember that you told us once of an experiment you made in
Alexandria?' he said, after some hesitation.
He spoke in a curious voice.
'You told us that you took a boy, and when he looked in a magic mirror,
he saw things which he could not possibly have known.
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