his hand. When I entered, he looked up, and said:

"You have neglected me. My strength is waning. Give me more of
the cordial, for we have work before us tonight, and I need
support."

He took for granted my assent to his wild experiment; and he was
right.

I administered the cordial. I placed food before him, and this
time he did not eat with repugnance. I poured out wine, and he
drank it sparingly, but with ready compliance, saying, "In perfect
health, I looked upon wine as poison; now it is like a foretaste of
the glorious elixir."

After he had thus recruited himself, he seemed to acquire an energy
that startlingly contrasted with his languor the day before; the
effort of breathing was scarcely perceptible; the color came back
to his cheeks; his bended frame rose elastic and erect.

"If I understood you rightly," said I, "the experiment you ask me
to aid can be accomplished in a single night?"

"In a single night--this night."

"Command me. Why not begin at once? What apparatus or chemical
agencies do you need?"

"Ah!" said Margrave. "Formerly, how I was misled! Formerly, how
my conjectures blundered! I thought, when I asked you to give a