been arranged for her on the Terrace of the Moon; and most of her waking
hours were spent there, drinking milk, and munching creams flavoured with
angelica. Her soul seemed utterly attracted to the moon. She held out her
body to it like an offering.
Just before the new moon of February, Abdul Bey, before leaving Naples,
determined to seek a last sight of his adored Lisa. He had found her easily,
and was amazed at the physical changes in her. They increased his passion
beyond all measure, for she was now the very ideal of any Turkish lover. She
appeared hardly conscious of his presence upon the wall beyond the little
lane that wound below the Terrace of the Moon, but in reality she absorbed
his devotion with a lazy hunger, like a sponge. For her activity and resistance
had been reduced to zero; she reflected any impression, feeling it to the
utmost, but incapable of response He understood that she could not have
repulsed him, yet could have taken no step towards him; and he cursed the
vigilance of the patrol. Help he must have; and though it was agony to drag
himself from Naples, he knew that without Douglas he could do nothing
more.
From the new moon of February, the invocations of Artemis had become
continuous. Brother Onofrio and his two henchmen devoted their time and
energy to the rituals which banish all other ideas than the one desired; but the
boys had joined Sister Clara and her maidens in an elaborate ceremony in
which the four represented the four phases of the moon. This ceremony was
performed thrice daily; but the intervals were fully occupied. During the
whole of the twenty-five hours one or the other of the enchanters kept up
their conjurations by spells, by music, and by dances. Every day witnessed
some new [219] phenomenon, ever more vivid and persistent, as the
imminence of the lunar world increased, and as the natures of the celebrants
became more and more capable of appreciating those silvern vibrations.
Cyril Grey alone took no active part. He represented the solar force, the
final energy creatrix of all subordinate orbs; his work had been done when he
had set the system in motion. But since Brother Onofrio represented so active
a force as Mars, he made himself a silent partner to the Italian, an elasticity to
buffer the reactions of his vehemence. Thus he became a shadow to the
warrior, giving him the graceful ease which was the due reward of fatigues so
exhausting as were involved in the Keeping of the Circle. For the labour of
banishing became daily more arduous; the preponderance of lunar force
within the circle created a high potential. All the other forces of Nature