"In repose he looks like an old owl, and when he speaks he makes me think of a melancholy and discursive schoolmaster."
"Only one," said Des Hermies to Carhaix, who was holding a lump of sugar over Des Hermies's coffee cup.
"I hear, monsieur, that you are occupied with a history of Gilles de Rais," said Gévingey to Durtal.
"Yes, for the time being I am up to my eyes in Satanism with that man."
"And," said Des Hermies, "we were just going to appeal to your extensive knowledge. You only can enlighten my friend on one of the most obscure questions of Diabolism."
"Which one?"
"That of incubacy and succubacy."
Gévingey did not answer at once. "That is a much graver question than Spiritism," he said at last, "and grave in a different way. But monsieur already knows something about it?"
"Only that opinions differ. Del Rio and Bodin, for instance, consider the incubi as masculine demons which couple with women and the succubi as demons who consummate the carnal act with men.
"According to their theories the incubi take the semen lost by men in dream and make use of it. So that two questions arise: first, can a child be born of such a union? The possibility of this kind of procreation has been upheld by the Church doctors, who affirm, even, that children of such commerce are heavier than others and can drain three nurses without taking on flesh. The second question is whether the demon who copulates with the mother or the man whose semen has been taken is the father of the child.