buy in the street for a trifle, and a few brown drops of some stuff which
no one knows the use of, now that the directions are burned."

As Zeno, surprised at these shrill notes which he now heard for the first
time, in his wife's voice, tried to pacify her, saying that no doubt the
liquid possessed marvellous properties, and that they could not blame his
sainted father because an unlucky accident had destroyed his elucidation
of them, and sought to draw her to him, she pushed him away roughly, and
answered with angry scorn: "Sainted, you call the old man! As if I
didn't know that he was a master of all sorts of hellish arts and black
magic! A fig for such saintship!"

They were bitter words, and, like one who has been wandering in sunshine
and suddenly finds himself overwhelmed by blackest night, Zeno felt
himself deprived of strength, the floor seemed to rise, and his knees
trembled.

He grasped the phial, hoping to recover himself by aid of the pungent
odour that escaped from it, and even as he inhaled the contents, light
seemed once more to flood the darkness, and very erect, and with a
dignity of which he had not hitherto thought himself capable, he listened
to Rosalie's further words.

He grew very pale, and it was with difficulty that he restrained himself,
but he did not interrupt her as, forced by the power of the elixir, she
went on to declare, that she had accepted his offer of marriage merely
because he was sufficiently presentable, notwithstanding his humble
origin, to enable her to walk or ride with him about the city without
feeling humiliated; that she had hoped and expected to find great wealth
by means of which as his wife, she could lead the life that she enjoyed,