All this was very exciting, and I waited breathlessly till the Wizard should appear.
He came at last; but not, surely, our dapper little visitor of yesterday! A majestic beard of ashen gray fell in patriarchal locks almost to his knees.

Upon his head he wore a high cap of some dark fur; upon his feet embroidered slippers; and round his waist a glittering belt patterned with hieroglyphics.

A long woollen robe of chocolate and orange fell about him in heavy folds, and swept behind him, like a train.

I could scarcely believe, at first, that it was the same person; but, when he spoke, despite the pomp and obscurity of his language.

I recognised the plaintive voice of the little Chevalier.
"_Messieurs et Mesdames_," he began, and took up the wand to emphasize his discourse; "to read in the stars the events of the future--to transform into gold the metals inferior--to discover the composition of that Elixir who, by himself, would perpetuate life, was in past ages the aim and aspiration of the natural philosopher.