sorrow!"
I took startled note of his pallid face, his twitching fingers; I said, hastily: "But of course, Ricori, you
realize that all I have been quoting is legend? Folklore. With no proven basis of scientific fact."
He thrust his chair back, violently, arose, stared at me, incredulously. He spoke, with effort: "You still
hold that the devil-work we witnessed can be explained in terms of the science you know?"
I stirred, uncomfortably: "I did not say that, Ricori. I do say that Madame Mandilip was as extraordinary
a hypnotist as she was a murderess-a mistress of illusion-"
He interrupted me, hands clenching the table's edge: "You think her dolls were illusions?"
I answered, obliquely: "You know how real was that illusion of a beautiful body. Yet we saw it dissolve
in the true reality of the flames. It had seemed as veritable as the dolls, Ricori-"