Keyork's rolling laughter reverberated among the plants
and filled the whole wide hall with echoes.
"No danger there," he answered. "Your witchcraft is above criticism.
Nothing of that kind that you have ever undertaken has failed."
"Except against you," said Unorna, thoughtfully.
"Except against me, of course. How could you ever expect anything of the
kind to succeed against me, my dear lady?"
"And why not? After all, in spite of our jesting, you are not a
supernatural being."
"That depends entirely on the interpretation you give to the word
supernatural. But, my dear friend and colleague, let us not deceive
each other, though we are able between us to deceive other people into
believing almost anything. There is nothing in all this witchcraft of
yours but a very powerful moral influence at work--I mean apart from the
mere faculty of clairvoyance which is possessed by hundreds of common
somnambulists, and which, in you, is a mere accident. The rest, this
hypnotism, this suggestion, this direction of others' wills, is a
moral affair, a matter of direct impression produced by words. Mental
suggestion may in rare cases succeed, when the person to be influenced
is himself a natural clairvoyant. But these cases are not worth taking
into consideration. Your influence is a direct one, chiefly exercised by
means of your words and through the impression of power which you
know how to convey in them.
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