And I was helpless. For the next two hours I was rehearsed rigorously in all the Mysteries of the Cabinet, until my head was reeling and my arms were aching; and it was only when I could stand up no longer that he allowed me to stop and ordered some food and wine to be brought in. I had not had an opportunity to tell him that I was hungry, somehow; he had a very forceful Character.

He allowed me to rest for ten minutes or so, and then it was back to work. I tried to tell him about Charlotte and the trouble we were in, but although he listened, I could tell that his mind was on the coming performance. He would suddenly leap to his feet and describe an Effect that he had just thought of, and insist that I try it there and then, and repeat it constantly until I had it perfect; and gradually, as the evening (and the performance) drew nearer, I came to realize that I had fallen into the hands of the most disconcerting of all specimens of Humanity, viz. the Genius.

Time swept past in a Phantasmagoria of Skulls and crystal balls and Flying Devils and Spiritual Bells and playing cards and the Illusion of the Broken Watch, and more knobs and handles and switches and levers than I would have thought it possible to fit into a single Cabinet, until I began to feel that if I had not been Magnetized before, I was truly Magnetized now; and then the clock on the wall struck the hour of nine—the doctor hastily draped the robe around me, set the crown on my head, whispered a last instruction, thrust me into the Cabinet, and closed the door.

Darkness surrounded me. I could hear the audience assembling. The performance was about to begin.

Hildi’s Narrative

Since there was no point in even beginning to look for Lucy, I stayed on the road (for all that the wind tried to blow me off it) and made my way back to the village and the warm kitchen of the Jolly Huntsman. Ma welcomed me, and clucked and fussed over the weal the count’s whip had made on my neck, and sat me down with a bowl of soup and some wine, and then turned back to her work; for she was nearly distracted by busyness.