Chapter 6 chapter Five

Dr. Bojoy sent Arthur to take Margaret and Miss Boyd to him on Sunday.He lived in an apartment on the Ile Saint-Louis, so the lovers decided to stop by the Louvre first.They invited Susie to come with them, but Susie liked to go to the art gallery alone and meditate by herself. The art gallery on Sunday is always crowded enough, in order to avoid the crowd, they went to the ancient sculpture exhibition room.The number of tourists there is much less than that of the gallery, and the long corridor is filled with the unique tranquility of a place where artworks are displayed.Margaret felt a real emotion in her heart, although she couldn't analyze what kind of emotion it was like that Susie who likes to analyze her mood, but this emotion made her feel indescribably happy .Her heart left the filthy ground, and she felt a sense of freedom, joy beyond words.In the past, Arthur never cared about art. It wasn't until Margaret's enthusiasm infected him that he realized that there was another side of life that he never realized.Beauty was no great matter to such a practical nature as Arthur's, yet he loved Margaret passionately, and therefore endeavored to appreciate those works which aroused such intense delight in her.He walked beside her, listening meekly and, of course, respectfully to her outbursts of emotion.He greatly admired the accuracy of Greek anatomy.There was a sculpture of an athlete whose muscular lines were as precise as illustrations in a surgery textbook, and Arthur couldn't help but stop and watch.Arthur found it amusing when Margaret spoke of the godlike composure of the Greeks and their carelessness in the world, but he would have been impatient if a man had said the same thing.

That's when they saw a fascinating work called Diana of Gabey.Arthur seemed to have been greatly touched, and insisted on going to the sculpture for a closer look.Margaret protested with a smile, but she was not unhappy in her heart, because she knew that the reason why Arthur was so obsessed with this sculpture was not because of the beauty of the sculpture itself.It's just that he found her shadow in it. It stands in this spacious art gallery, and in the same room with it are the faun with a mocking look—his inhuman existence conveys a sense of the sacredness of the earth—and the blind lotus. horse.This sculpture of the goddess does not have the arrogance of the huntress who fell in love with Endymion, nor does it reveal the cold majesty of the goddess who rules the universe. It is more like a young girl, calmly tightening her robes.There is nothing sacred about her, only incredible innocence.The ancient Greeks who sacrificed to her must have mistakenly thought that they were worshiping a young, chaste and beautiful earthly maiden, not a goddess.In Arthur's eyes, Margaret possessed all the beauty of this sculpture, even the inadvertent composure and the indescribable pure smell on her body were exactly the same.Marguerite's features were as clear and perfect as those of a well-carved Greek woman; her ears were as small as a work of art; The brilliance of the setting sun, the darkness of the night, the pistil of the rose and the depth of the running water.The goddess put her hand on her right shoulder, and Marguerite's hand was also small, delicate, and white.

"Don't be silly," Margaret said to Arthur, who was silently looking at the sculpture. He slowly shifted his gaze to Margaret.She saw his eyes clouded with tears. "what happened to you?" "I wish you weren't so beautiful." He said coyly, as if he could hardly get the stupid words out of his mouth. "I'm afraid that our happy life will be hindered. I really can't expect myself to be so beautiful." Good luck!" She could imagine how difficult it was for this pragmatic man to say these words.His love for her made him unlike himself, and although he couldn't resist it, he didn't like the effect love had on him.She couldn't find the right words to say, so she just took his hand.

"My life has been going pretty well so far," he said, as if to himself, "whenever I want something, I can find ways to get it, and I don't see anything going wrong right now. " He comforted his uneasy heart and his intuition that he felt the danger of the surrounding environment, and then suddenly he pulled himself together and straightened his back. "What a fool to think so!" he murmured. Margaret laughed, and they walked out of the art gallery and towards the pier together.They had to cross the bridge and walk down the river to Dr. Bojoy's house.

At this moment, Susie was walking along the Boulevard Saint-Michel towards the place that fascinated her most in Paris.As she walked, she was wary of the Sunday crowd.The British always like to look for the charm of France on those tacky avenues, but in Susie's mind, the Ile Saint-Louis is the comprehensive embodiment of the French spirit.This tiny island on the Seine has a pocket-sized beauty.The narrow streets are full of small and exquisite food, which is quite like a town street.Quaint and peaceful, these streets always capture the imagination.The street name is quaint, which makes people think of the era of kings that have long since disappeared in the slaughter and rouge.The plane trees on both sides of the road are more solemn than other places, as if they know that they are standing on a land that is still in the past.In front is the muddy Seine River, and below are the twin towers of Notre Dame Cathedral.Susie could hardly resist the urge to kiss the hard paving stones of the pier.However, when she noticed the scenery in front of her that made her happy, that gentle and plain face suddenly overflowed with brilliance.She thought of all kinds of characters and stories mentioned in history and novels, and couldn't help feeling a slight pain in her heart.With this feeling in mind, she turned and walked towards Dr. Bojoy's house.

The way to the doctor's house was also very old-fashioned, which suited Susie's mind very well, which pleased her.Susie walked up a few steps of wide, dark but spacious stairs, and under the guidance of the porter, she rang the crisp doorbell on the porch in front of her.Dr. Bojoy himself opened the door. "Arthur and Miss Margaret have arrived." He led her into the room as he spoke. They passed through a dull French dining room, with a lot of woodwork and heavy scarlet hangings, and came to the study.The study room is actually very spacious, but the bookshelves along the wall and the large writing desk full of books make the whole room look much smaller.The room was full of books, some lying on the floor, some piled on chairs, and there was hardly any room for people to walk around.Susie cried out in delight.

"Don't talk to me now, I'm going to read all these books." "That's very comforting to me," said Dr. Bojoy, "but I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. Although I have books of all kinds here, I'm afraid there's nothing that young English ladies would like to read." He groped around on the desk for a while, found a pack of cigarettes, and solemnly handed one to each guest.Susie basked in the musty smell of old books and scanned them roughly: the books stood in a dense and disorganized arrangement on the shelves, most of them paperbacks, some neat, but many more were It's torn, the spine is torn, and the edges are dirty.There are also many ancient books bound with calfskin and pigskin, all of which are treasures found in bookstores in half of Europe.There were also gigantic folios, as neat as those of the Prussian infantry, and the little volumes of the Elsevier prints, which were favored by the ladies of Venice.Just as Arthur became another person on the operating table, Dr. Bojoy was very different from usual when he was with the book. Although he still maintained his charming amiability, he was not as calm as before. Compared with other doctors, his words and deeds are obviously more interesting and rude.

"When you came in, I was telling them about this ancient copy, which was given to me by a very learned man in Alexandria. I operated on him for cataracts." He handed her a very well written book. A fine Arabic book with gilded capitals and titles, "Know that it is almost impossible for an infidel to acquire the Holy Book, and this is an especially rare copy , because its author, Gabey, was the greatest sultan of the Mamluk dynasty." The doctor held the delicate pages as carefully as someone who loves roses handles rose leaves. "Do you have any books on the occult?" asked Susie.

Dr. Bojoe smiled. "I dare say no private library can surpass me in this area. But I dare not show it to you in front of Arthur. Although he would not accuse me of stupidity out of politeness, his mocking smile would have betrayed me." killed him." The doctor waved his hand vaguely, and Susie walked towards the bookshelf in that direction, scanning the pile of mysterious books one by one with extreme excitement, as if stepping into an unknown mysterious country.She felt like an adventurous princess riding a pony through a mysterious forest.This forest is full of huge bare trees, and it is very quiet, and you will always encounter all kinds of pale and bizarre ghosts along the way.

"I once wanted to write a book about the wonderful and pompous life of Phillips Orioles d'Ophrast Bombasz von Hohenheim," said Dr. Bojoer, " So I collected a lot of his books." He took down a small twelve-folio volume from the bookshelf.It is a seventeenth-century publication inlaid with strange iron plates inscribed with various symbols of Jewish mystic philosophy.The pages of the book are speckled with rust, giving off a special musty smell. "This "Grimoire of Honorius" is the most interesting magic book, and it is the most important textbook for all warlocks who study dark science."

Then he ran his fingers over the leather backs of Toquemada's Six Days of Creation, Delancre's An Account of the Mutable Divinity, and Del Rio's Treatise on Magic.He erected Verus's "Hierarchy of Demons", stared at Hauber's "Magical Documents" for a while, and then gently blew the dust off Sprenger's "Hammer of Witches" .This is the most famous of these books, and at the same time the most notorious. "This is my best collection. I have enough reasons to believe that this "Key of Solomon" is the book of Jacques Casanova, the greatest explorer of the eighteenth century. You see, although the owner's name has been wiped Lost, but seen from the end of the letters that have not been erased, it is exactly the same as the signature of Casanova that I found in the National Library of France. He said in his memoirs that when he was in Venice on suspicion of using witchcraft to engage in illegal transactions When I was arrested, this book was confiscated along with other belongings. I often traveled in Alexandria, and once I saw this book, I bought it back.” He put the precious book back on the shelf, and then his eyes rested on a thick book bound with kraft paper. "Almost forgot this one! It's the most wonderful and mysterious book of all the occult books. You've heard of Kabbalah, but I guess you only know the name." "I don't know anything about it," laughs Susie, "except that it's quirky and special and ridiculous at the same time." "The legend goes like this. Moses, the master of Egyptian wisdom, first accepted the knowledge of Kabbalah in Egypt, and became an expert in Kabbalah during the 40 years of hard trek. He not only contributed to this mystery He made a great contribution, and gained wisdom from it under the guidance of angels. Therefore, even though the country that was the most difficult to control was in flames and suffered many tragedies, Moses still succeeded in rescuing the Jews. Moses implicitly wrote the teachings of Kabbalah in " In the first four volumes of the Pentateuch, "Deuteronomy" does not contain the relevant content of Kabbalah teachings. At first, seventy elders participated in Kabbalah, and then Kabbalah was passed on from generation to generation. King David And King Solomon is considered the most proficient disciple of Kabbalah. No one dared to write down the teaching until now, and finally Simeon ben Jocha, who lived in the time of the destruction of Jerusalem, wrote down the knowledge of Kabbalah After his death, his son, priest Eleazar, and his secretary, priest Abba, collected his manuscripts and finally compiled them into the famous "Zumura." "Do you believe this wonderful story?" asked Arthur Borden. "I don't believe a word of it," said Dr. Bojoet, smiling. "The Canzur has been proven to be a modern product. It is a brazen falsification. It quotes an eleventh-century writer and mentions the Crusades." and 1264 A.D. 1264. Prior to 1291, a copy of the Canaah circulated from a Hispanic Jew named Moses de Leon. He claimed to have the famous Manuscript of Simeon ben Yocha. After his death, Joseph de Avila, a wealthy Hebrew, approached the impoverished widow of the scribe's scribe and offered his son to marry her and will pay a handsome bride price if she gives him the original manuscript of the Zohar in the hands of her deceased husband. As a result, the widow (it is not difficult to imagine her gnashing of teeth) has to admit that there are no original manuscripts at all. No, the Zohar was written by Moses de Leon himself." Arthur stood up, stretched his legs, and smiled. "I never know how much you believe in these stories you tell. When you say it so seriously, we all believe it. In the end, you are just entertaining us." "I don't know how much I believe, my dear friend," replied Dr. Bojoy. "I wonder if that's why Mr. Hadow is confusing us so much," Susie said. "Oh, that's interesting to talk about," said the doctor, "and I can assure you that, although I knew him very well, I have never been able to tell whether he was a prankster or really believed that he had what he claimed to have." Fantastic ability." "We all saw what happened last night. It's absolutely extraordinary," said Susie. "Why didn't the snake kill him right away? And how do you explain the trembling of the horse, Burden?" gentlemen?" "I can't explain it," Borden said, grimacing, "but I don't think the first time something I can't understand is supernatural." "I don't know why, but he scares me so much," Margaret said. "I've never hated someone so quickly." Margaret was too reticent to express her feelings often, but Hadow's words and deeds had a strange effect on her.She woke up from nightmares more than once last night.In the dream Haddo had turned into a huge and terrifying ghost, and his mocking voice echoed in her ears.She also seemed to see his huge body and that ferocious face full of savage sensuality.Margaret fell into panic as if possessed by an evil spirit. Only by relying on Arthur's reason could she barely surrender to the absurd fear. "I've written to Frank Herrier to ask what he knows about Haddo," said Arthur, "and should hear back shortly." "I wish we had never met him," said Marguerite passionately, "I think he will bring misfortune to us." "You are stupid prejudice." Susie said disdainfully, "I am very interested in him, and I want to invite him to the studio for tea." "It's a great honor." Margaret cried out in fright, it was clearly Hadona's teasing tone.She turned quickly to look at him.The others were also taken aback and fell silent for a while.At this time, they were gathered in front of the window, and they didn't even notice that Hadow came in.Everyone looked ashamed, wondering how much he had heard of their conversation. "How did you get in?" Susie was the first to recover, and asked sharply. "There is nothing more numb to a well-bred magician than entering a house through the front door," he said, with a bewildering smile on his face. "You stand at the window, I want to be It must have disturbed you to come in through the window, so with a little trick, I came in down the chimney." "There's still soot on your left elbow," Susie said, "I hope you're not scorched." "No, no, thank you for your concern." He seriously brushed the soot off his clothes. "No matter how you got in, we welcome you," said Dr. Bojoy, extending his hand kindly. Arthur then turned impatiently to the doctor. "I don't understand how you like these things," he said. "You're a doctor, and you're not supposed to believe such unfounded things." Dr. Bojoy shrugged. "I've always been interested in all sorts of queer things about humans. I've studied philosophy and science, and I've found that nothing is certain. Some people learn the nobility of man through the pursuit of science, but I only see The insignificance of man. Since the beginning of civilization, people have pondered many great and profound questions, but have not yet come up with any answers. Man can really understand nothing, because the only means for man to acquire knowledge is his own senses, and senses is unreliable. The only thing one can claim to be authoritative about is one's own mind, and even about one's own mind one knows very little. I believe we should ignore things we should know. I can't spend time on them , because since knowledge is unobtainable, it is better to put it aside and spend time studying nonsense." "I don't agree with that point of view," Arthur said. "But I'm not sure if these things are all nonsense." The doctor continued thoughtfully, looking at Arthur seriously, with a hint of sarcasm on his face, "You believe that when I promise to tell the truth Are you actually lying to me when you are here?" "of course not." "Then I'll tell you about an experience I had in Alexandria. As far as I know, there's no scientific explanation for that. So I hope you believe I didn't deliberately deceive you." The doctor's serious and solemn expression added a little more convincing force to his words.Even Arthur would have had no doubts that what he was telling had really happened. "I've been hearing stories of a sheikh who used a magic mirror to illuminate missing or dead people for seekers. A friend of mine in Egypt has been trying to take me to him. I never thought it would work, but there are Once I was really distraught because I hadn't heard from my mother for weeks. She was widowed, old and infirm, and although I wrote to her over and over again, there was no response. I was very sad I was restless and unhappy all the time. Then I thought it wouldn't do any harm to have the magician, and maybe he had some magical powers. My friend, who was an interpreter at the French consulate, brought the sheik over for me one evening. The chief was tall and strong, with a fair complexion and a dark brown beard. He was dressed in rags and wore a green turban to indicate his identity as a descendant of the prophet. From his conversation, he was friendly and unaffected. I asked What conditions does he need for the magic mirror. He said that only boys, virgins, female slaves and pregnant women can see the magic mirror. In order to prevent him from cheating, I sent my servant to a close friend's house to invite his son. After the servant left, I prepared frankincense and coriander seeds according to the magician's request, then lit charcoal, and set a hot pot on the charcoal fire. While I was busy, he wrote six talismans. When the child came , the warlock poured some frankincense and one of the charms into the hot pot, then grabbed the boy's right hand, drew a square magic symbol on the palm, and dipped a little ink in the center of the symbol. The mirror was finished. Then he told the boy to look at his palms and not look up. The whole room was smoky with frankincense. Then the magician began to speak vaguely in Arabic, and after a while he asked that child: "'Is there something in the ink?' "'No,' said the boy. "Unexpectedly, after a while, the child trembled all over and looked very frightened. "'I saw a man sweeping the floor,' he said. "'Let me know when he's done sweeping,' said the Chief. "'He's done,' said the boy. "The sorcerer turned to me and asked who I wanted to see. "'I wish he would show me the widow Jeanne-Marie Bojoet'. "The magician added two more talismans to the hot pot, and added a little frankincense. The choking smoke made my eyes hurt. Then the boy spoke. "'I saw an old woman lying on the bed. She was wearing a black dress and a little white cap on her head. Her face was wrinkled, her eyes were closed, and there was a band around her chin. Her bed was embedded in the In the wall, like in a hole, with a screen outside.' "The kid was talking about a Breton bed, and the white hat was what my mother usually wears. If she's really lying there in a black dress with a strap around her chin, that's just one thing. "'What else did he see?' I asked the warlock. "He repeated my question and after a while the boy spoke again. "'I saw four men come in carrying a large box. There were many women crying. They all wore little white caps and black skirts. A man in a white robe held a large cross in his hand, and there was A little boy in a red robe. Then the men took off their hats and all fell to their knees.' "'Don't say any more,' I said, 'that's enough.' "I had a premonition that my mother was gone. "A few days later, I received a letter from the priest in the village where my mother lived. They buried my mother on the same day as the boy saw it in the magic mirror. It's the same day." Dr. Bojoe buried his face in his palms, and everyone fell into silence for a while. "Have you anything to say about that?" said Oliver Hadow at last. "I have nothing to say," Arthur replied. Haddo stared at Arthur for a moment, those strange eyes seemed to be looking at the wall behind Arthur. "Have you ever heard of Eliphas Levi?" he asked. "He is the most famous occultist of these years. He is said to be the most accomplished occultist since the great Paracelsus." Warlock." "I saw him once," Dr. Bojoe interrupted Hadow, "and there was no one who looked less like a magician than he. He was short and fat, with a smile on his face. Just a good temper, and a beautiful gray beard that reaches to his chest." "It seems that people who study magic will inevitably gain weight." Arthur said coldly. This time, Susie noticed, Haddo was not agitated by the teasing, and the whole time he kept looking straight at Arthur without blinking. "Levi's real name was Alphonse Louis Constant, but he changed it to his present name for love. His father was a bootmaker, and he was destined to be a priest, but he fell in love with a beautiful maiden, and married her and her. Their union was not a happy one. Then the same fate befell him that had befallen many greater men than he—his wife found another, and before long she He left him. In order to comfort his wounded heart, he began to delve into occultism, and at the right time published many works on occultism, which involved all aspects of occultism." "Mr. Hadow, please tell me a story about this man," said Susie. "Then I will tell you a story about how he awakened the spirit of Apollonius of Tyana in London." Susie moved into a more comfortable position and lit a cigarette. "In order to get away from his inner restlessness and to devote himself to the study of the occult, he went to London in the spring of 1856. He visited all kinds of people who studied the mysteries of the world, and found them all mediocre , so he devoted himself to studying the supreme Kabbalah alone. One day when he returned to the hotel, he found that someone had left him a note and a card torn down the middle. He saw at a glance that half of the card was drawn A broken six-pointed star. A line of words was written in pencil on the note: I will give you another half card at the gate of Westminster Abbey at three o'clock tomorrow afternoon. The next day he took the half card to the appointed place He saw a baronial carriage parked there. The groom, gesturing to him as he went towards him, opened the door of the carriage. Inside sat a lady, dressed in black satin and heavily veiled. She beckoned him to sit next to her and showed the other half of the card. He got in and the door slammed shut. The carriage drove away in dust. The lady lifted her veil. Beneath her brows were bright black eyes, staring strangely ahead." Susie Boyd clapped happily. "Wonderful, I'm sure every word of yours is true," said Susie aloud, "mysterious mid-Victorian meeting at the door of Westminster Abbey--I'm absolutely captivated! You Can you imagine the scene? The older lady wore a huge crinoline and a black sombrero, and the magician wore a dark green man's coat with a flowing He was wearing a black silk tie and an exaggerated hat on his head." "Eliphas said that the lady spoke French with a distinctly British accent." Hadow continued calmly, "she said to him: 'Sir, I know that the law of strict secrecy is strictly enforced among magicians. And I also know that you have been asked to perform wonderful magic, but refused the frivolous curiosity of the other party. You may lack some necessary props to perform magic. I can take you to a secret room with a full set of magic Supplies. But first of all, please maintain absolute silence on this matter. If you cannot guarantee this on your reputation, I will order you to be deported.'” When everyone heard Oliver Hadow's story, they didn't have any obvious reaction. It wasn't that the story wasn't exciting enough, but his pretentious seriousness made people wonder how to deal with the story. "Eliphas Levi made his promise and was taken to a room filled with all kinds of sacrificial clothes and magic tools. The lady lent him a few books that he could use, and talked with him After talking many times, it was finally decided to let him try the complete spiritualism in her home. He strictly followed the steps handed down from the spiritualism ceremony, and prepared for twenty-one days. Finally, everything was ready. They planned to evoke the divine the apparition of Apollonius, and questioned him about two things, one about Eliphas Levi and the other about the lady in the crinoline. The friend of my friend assisted in the summoning, but that person flinched at the last moment. Since the number of casters was strictly recorded in the ceremony, there were either three people or only one person, so Eliphas left alone. The secret room for the ceremony was set up In one of the towers. In the secret chamber hung a four-sided concave lens and placed a white marble altar surrounded by a circle of magnets. Pentagrams were engraved on the altar and painted on the new white sheepskin under the altar. On the altar stood a brass brazier with alder and laurel charcoal. In front of the altar was a triangular table with a brazier on it. Eliphas Levi wore a white , longer and more voluminous than the priest's vestment. On his head he wears a wreath made of verbena tightly wound on a gold chain. In one hand he holds an unopened sword and in the other scriptures for ceremonies." At this time, Susie's passion for caricature suddenly appeared, and the figure appeared in her mind: a plump, round body with a round blush face, but so solemn and well-dressed.Susie thought, and laughed to herself. "He lit the two fires with the prepared materials and then began to recite the mantras in the scriptures. The voice was very low at first, and then gradually increased. The whole room was shrouded in the flickering fire. After a while, the fire When it was extinguished, he added some twigs and spices to the brazier. When the flames sprang up again, he clearly saw a figure taller than the average person standing in front of the altar, and then disappeared. He stood The call had already been drawn in the circle between the altar and the triangular table. The reflection on the mirror opposite him gradually became brighter, and at this moment a pale figure appeared, and seemed to be walking slowly towards him. He He closed his eyes and called Apollonius three times. When he opened his eyes, a man stood in front of him. The man was tightly wrapped in what looked more gray than black. Sheets, thin, very melancholy, and no beard. Eli Fast suddenly felt a gust of wind blowing in his face. He wanted to ask the man in front of him a few questions, but found that he couldn't open his mouth. So he will Putting his hand on the pentagram and pointing at the man with the tip of his sword, he silently begged that this gesture would make the ghost obey him instead of intimidating him. The figure suddenly became hazy, and soon disappeared strangely. He He ordered the ghost to come back, and then felt a gust of wind blowing around him, and something grabbed his hand holding the sword. Immediately, his arms and shoulders were numb. He guessed that the sword in his hand probably annoyed the ghost, So it was placed in a circle on the ground. Finally, the figure reappeared. However, Eliphas suddenly felt exhausted in his limbs. He collapsed, fell into a deep coma, and had some very strange dreams .After he woke up, he only vaguely remembered the outline of the matter. His arm was numb and painful for several days. Although the ghost did not speak, to Eliphas Levi, he All his doubts seemed to have been answered, for there was always a voice circling inside him, and to every question he had, that voice repeated one dreadful word: DEATH." "It appears that your friend is no more afraid of ghosts than you are of lions," said Burden. "It seems to me that the matter is very simple. Tools, scents, mirrors, and pentagrams put together, Very hallucinating. My only surprise is how little your magician sees." "Eliphas Levi also told me about the evocation." Dr. Bojoy said, "He said that the ceremony had a great impact on him, and he was no longer the same person, because it seemed that the world Something entered his soul." "It astonishes me that you haven't tried such an interesting experiment," Arthur said to Oliver Hadow. "I tried," said Hadow calmly. "My father was speechless before he died, but I could see that he was clearly trying to tell me something. I wondered what his last words were. What, so a year after his death called his dead soul out of the grave. I summoned the same scene as I just said, and you will be bored if you repeat it. The only difference is that my father I have spoken." "What did he say?" Susie asked. "He said very seriously, 'Buy Ashanti stocks, they're going to go up.' I did as he said. My father was always unlucky in speculative business, and sure enough, the stock went down all the way. I sold it. I lost a lot of money when I dropped it. So I came to the conclusion that the people of that world are as ignorant of the direction of stocks as the people of us who live in the valley of lament.” Susie couldn't help laughing.Arthur shrugged impatiently.He would never know when Haddo was serious and when he was entertaining them like he was doing now, and it disturbed the pragmatic man.