“The Sâr Peladan surrounded by Rosicrucians took possession of the studio. One smelled incense and the candles’ waxen tears; a lectern held an old Bible. On the dark grey walls I had written Arab proverbs in chalk and quotations from Shakespeare, profundities from Plato. Ladies with their hair in precise braids and their waists thin as stalks sighed and palpitated. Men smoked enormous pipes. Their velveteen suits, stained with ink, paint or clay, carried the signature of their profession. I was happy.”

Georgette Leblanc, 1911