His greatest and most
special gift was that of curing cancer. Like writing-masters, who hang
out specimens of how people wrote when they came to them, and of their
caligraphy after they had benefited by their instruction, he had his
cancer patients photographed before and after his treatment, looking
ghastly the first time, and as fresh as a flower the second, and these
pictures hung on view in his house. No wonder, therefore, that Napoleon
III--so Vries said--had his portrait in an album containing, besides,
only portraits of European sovereigns.
He pretended that he had made many important prophecies. This was a bond
between him and Hello, who claimed the same extraordinary power, and had
foretold all sorts of singular events. He performed miraculous cures;
this appealed to Hello, who was suspicious of all rational Science and
ready to believe any mortal thing. He could read everybody's characters
in their faces. This was a pretext for the most barefaced flattery of
Hello, his wife, and their friends of both sexes, and of course
everything was swallowed with alacrity. To me he said: "Monsieur is
gentle, very calm, very indulgent, and readily forgives an injury."
Hideous though he was, his powerful brutality had a great effect on the
ladies of the circle. They literally hung upon his words.
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