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"Your soul, what else?"

"I'h my teeth "But I don't believe you're what you clai like me for which there aren't scientific explanations, but behind it all, there's a cheap little core of facts that will eventually lay bare everything, even the texture of each black feather of your wings "

He frowned slightly, but he wasn't angry

"We won't continue at this pace," he said "I assure you But for now, I'll let you think about Dora Dora's on her way ho, with regular footsteps, the way I caive you one piece of advice, for both of us "

"Which is what?" I demanded

He turned his back on me and started down the stairway, as quick and spry as he had co I had already caught Dora's scent

"What advice?" I demanded

"That you leave Dora alone completely Turn her affairs over to worldly lawyers Get away fros to discuss This is all so distracting "

Then he was gone with a clatter down the lower stairs, and presumably out a side door I heard it open and close

And alh the , the way I had entered, and the way he had entered, and she began her progress down the hall

She sang to herself as she came, or hummed, I should say The sweet aroly, it a towards me

I slipped back into the shadows of the vestibule She wouldn't see e of me as she went by and on up the next stairway to her third-floor room

She was skipping steps when she reached the second floor She had a backpack slung over her shoulders and wore a pretty, loose old-fashioned dress of flowered cotton with long, white lace-trimmed sleeves

She swung round to go up when she suddenly stopped She turned in my direction I froze She could not possibly see ht

Then she caers touch soht switch A siht switch, and suddenly a flood came from the bulb above