Page:Marie Corelli - the writer and the woman (IA mariecorelliwrit00coat).pdf/196

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this Prince of Darkness, finding that Mavis Clare could not be tempted, begging for her prayers—"you believe God hears you. . . . Only a pure woman can make faith possible to man. Pray for me, then, as one who has fallen from his higher and better self; who strives, but who may not attain; who labors under heavy punishment; who would fain reach Heaven, but who by the cursed will of man, and man alone, is kept in hell! Pray for me, Mavis Clare; promise it; and so shall you lift me a step nearer the glory I have lost."

Rimânez and Tempest go on a long yachting cruise together,—to Egypt,—and during this journey the discourses of the Prince are numerous and of intense interest. In one he states that if men were true to their immortal instincts and to the God that made them,—if they were generous, honest, fearless, faithful, reverent, unselfish, . . . if women were pure, brave, tender, and loving,—then "Lucifer, Son of the Morning," lifted towards his Creator on the prayers of pure lives, would wear again his Angel's crown. There is for a brief period after this a vision of the devil,—"one who, proud and rebellious, like you, errs less, in that he owns God as his Master"—as an Angel. And then the yacht, steered by the demon Amiel, crashes on through ice with a noise like thunder, to the world's