"You are at my mercy now!" said I.
He moved his head as in sign of deprecating submission.
"You hear and understand me? Speak!"
His lips faintly muttered, "Yes."
"I command you to answer truly the questions I shall address to you."
"I must, while yet sensible of the power that has passed to your hand."
"Is it by some occult magnetic property in this wand that you have exercised so demoniac an influence over a creature so pure as Lilian Ashleigh?"
"By that wand and by other arts which you could not comprehend."
"And for what infamous object,—her seduction, her dishonour?"
"No! I sought in her the aid of a gift which would cease did she cease to be pure. At first I but cast my influence upon her that through her I might influence yourself. I needed your help to discover a secret. Circumstances steeled your mind against me. I could no longer hope that you would voluntarily lend yourself to my will. Meanwhile, I had found in her the light of a loftier knowledge than that of your science; through that knowledge, duly heeded and cultivated, I hoped to divine what I cannot of myself discover. Therefore I deepened over her mind the spells I command; therefore I have drawn her hither as the loadstone draws the steel, and therefore I would have borne her with me to the shores to which I was about this night to sail. I had cast the inmates of the house and all around it into slumber, in order that none might witness her departure; had I not done so, I should have summoned others to my aid, in spite of your threat."