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Suddenly he started. His eyes grew strangely bright, and he

gnawed nervously at his underlip. Between two of the windows

stood a large Florentine cabinet, made out of ebony and inlaid

with ivory and blue lapis. He watched it as though it were a

thing that could fascinate and make afraid, as though it held

something that he longed for and yet almost loathed. His breath

quickened. A mad craving came over him. He lit a cigarette and

then threw it away. His eyelids drooped till the long fringed

lashes almost touched his cheek. But he still watched the

cabinet. At last he got up from the sofa on which he had been

lying, went over to it, and having unlocked it, touched some

hidden spring. A triangular drawer passed slowly out. His fingers

moved instinctively towards it, dipped in, and closed on

something.