I came through Marr to Valentine. I was Marr."
"Marr!" Julian said slowly. "You!"
"And Marr, too, was my prey. Like Valentine he was not content with
himself. His weakness of discontent was my opportunity. I expelled his
will, for mine was stronger than his. I lived in his body until the time
came for me to be with you. Have you ever read of vampires?"
Julian muttered a hoarse assent. He seemed bound by a strange spell,
inert, paralysed almost.
"There are vampires in the modern world who feed, not upon bodies, but
upon souls, wills. And each soul they feed upon gives to them greater
strength, a longer reign upon the earth. Who knows? One of them in
time may compass eternity."
He seemed to tower up in the little room, to blaze with triumph.
"When you see a man go down, sink into the mire, and you say, 'He is
weak--he has come under a bad influence'--it is a vampire who feeds upon
his soul, who sucks the blood of his will. Sometimes the vampire comes in
his own form, sometimes he wears a mask--the mask of a friend's form and
face. The influences that wreck men are the vampires of the soul at work,
Julian, at work."
His face was terrible. Julian shrank from it. He turned to Cuckoo.
"They feed on women too," he said.
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