"
"I have found it interesting of late years. The subject is connected
with one of my inventions. Did you ever embalm a body? No? I could tell
you something singular about the newest process."
"What is the connection?"
"I am embalming myself, body and mind. It is but an experiment,
and unless it succeeds it must be the last. Embalming, as it is now
understood, means substituting one thing for another. Very good. I
am trying to purge from my mind its old circulating medium; the new
thoughts must all be selected from a class which admits of no decay.
Nothing could be simpler."
"It seems to me that nothing could be more vague."
"You were not formerly so slow to understand me," said the strange
little man with some impatience.
"Do you know a lady of Prague who calls herself Unorna?" the Wanderer
asked, paying no attention to his friend's last remark.
"I do. What of her?" Keyork Arabian glanced keenly at his companion.
"What is she? She has an odd name."
"As for her name, it is easily accounted for. She was born on the
twenty-ninth day of February, the year of her birth being bisextile.
Unor means February, Unorna, derivative adjective, 'belonging to
February.' Some one gave her the name to commemorate the circumstance."
"Her parents, I suppose."
"Most probably--whoever they may have been."
"And what is she?" the Wanderer asked.
"She calls herself a witch," answered Keyork with considerable scorn.
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