CHAPTER VI

“WORMWOOD” AND “THE SOUL OF LILITH”

Pauline de Charmilles: a Character Sketch--Her Engagement to Beauvais and the Arrival of Silvion Guidèl--“First Impressions”--Pauline’s Confession and Beauvais’ First Bout of Absinthe-drinking--The Exposure on the Wedding-Day--More Absinthe, and the Murder of Guidèl--The Meeting between Beauvais and Pauline, and the Suicide of the Latter--Pauline’s Corpse at the Morgue--A Denunciation of Absinthe--A Suggestion to Marie Corelli Concerning the Drink Question in this Country.

“The Soul of Lilith” an Attempt to Prove the Apparently Unprovable--A Reason for Marie Corelli’s Immense Popularity--El-Râmi and the Dead Egyptian Girl--His Experiment--Heliobas again--“The Two Governing Forces of the Universe”--“Poets are often the Best Scientists”--“The Why, Why, Why of Everything”--A Solution of Life’s Problems 112