The second hour passed like the first. I had taken my stand by the
side of Margrave, watching with him the process at work in the
caldron, when I felt the ground slightly vibrate beneath my feet,
and looking up, it seemed as if all the plains beyond the circle
were heaving like the swell of the sea, and as if in the air itself
there was a perceptible tremor.

I placed my hand on Margrave's shoulder and whispered, "To me earth
and air seem to vibrate. Do they seem to vibrate to you?"

"I know not, I care not," he answered impetuously. "The essence is
bursting the shell that confined it. Here are my air and my earth!
Trouble me not. Look to the circle--feed the lamps if they fail!"

I passed by the Veiled Woman as I walked toward a place in the ring
in which the flame was waning dim; and I whispered to her the same
question which I had whispered to Margrave. She looked slowly
around and answered, "So is it before the Invisible make themselves
visible! Did I not bid him forbear?" Her head again drooped on
her breast, and her watch was again fixed on the fire.

I advanced to the circle and stooped to replenish the light where
it waned. As I did so, on my arm, which stretched somewhat beyond
the line of the ring, I felt a shock like that of electricity. The
arm fell to my side numbed and nerveless, and from my hand dropped,
but within the ring, the vessel that contained the fluid.
Recovering my surprise or my stun, hastily with the other hand I
caught up the vessel, but some of the scanty liquid was already
spilled on the sward; and I saw with a thrill of dismay, that