"Nonsense!" said the Doctor sharply. "If he does commit such a
folly, it will be no use. The woman is NOT HUMAN!"

"Not human?" echoed Gervase, his black eyes dilating with a sudden
amazement--"What do you mean?"

The little Doctor rubbed his nose impatiently and seemed sorry he
had spoken.

"I mean--let me see! What do I mean?" he said at last
meditatively--"Oh, well, it is easy enough of explanation. There
are plenty of people like the Princess Ziska to whom I would apply
the words 'not human.' She is all beauty and no heart. Again--if
you follow me--she is all desire and no passion, which is a
character 'like unto the beasts which perish.' A large majority of
men are made so, and some women,--though the women are
comparatively few. Now, so far as the Princess Ziska is
concerned," continued the Doctor, fixing his keen, penetrative
glance on Gervase as he spoke, "I frankly admit to you that I find
in her material for a very curious and complex study. That is why
I have come after her here. I have said she is all desire and no
passion. That of itself is inhuman; but what I am busy about now
is to try and analyze the nature of the particular desire that
moves her, controls her, keeps her alive,--in short. It is not
love; of that I feel confident; and it is not hate,--though it is
more like hate than love. It is something indefinable, something
that is almost occult, so deep-seated and bewildering is the
riddle. You look upon me as a madman--yes! I know you do! But mad
or sane, I emphatically repeat, the Princess is NOT HUMAN, and by
this expression I wish to imply that though she has the outward