
A crisp winter morning finds the well‑heeled Mr. Eustace Charliewood strolling down Bond Street, his polished appearance belying a night of excess. He pauses at an upscale hairdresser’s and perfumer’s, exchanging polite banter with Miss Carling before making his way up to the exclusive “toilette salon” where the city’s most indulgent gentlemen seek a peculiar kind of refreshment. The salon’s atmosphere is a blend of opulence and secrecy, its modern “vibro‑massage” apparatus humming behind polished mahogany panels.
Inside, Charliewood is attended by a discreet, sharply dressed assistant who prepares him for a treatment that promises more than a simple facelift. As the electric device whirs to life, the air thickens with an unsettling promise that something deeper than skin may be at stake. Listeners are drawn into a world of high society’s hidden cravings, where pleasure and danger intertwine, leaving Charliewood—and the audience—wondering what price the “soul stealer” truly demands.
Language
en
Duration
~6 hours (373K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Mark C. Orton, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Release date
2012-08-17
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1875–1923
Best known for sensational early 20th-century popular fiction, this prolific British writer mixed adventure, religion, and conspiracy in books that aimed squarely at a mass audience. His work captures a vivid strain of Edwardian and wartime storytelling that once reached a huge readership.
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