On a crisp, cold afternoon, one week after her interview with the
Prophet, Enid Witcherley sat in the drawing-room of her London flat. The
early portion of the day had been pleasantly warmed and brightened by
the pale March sunshine; but at three o'clock a searching wind had begun
to blow across the city from the east; and now, as the small gold clock
on her bureau chimed the hour of five, she rose from the couch where she
had been sitting, and, crossing the room with a little shiver, drew a
chair to the fire and pressed the electric bell.
As the maid appeared, in answer to her summons, she gave her order
without looking round.
"Tea, Norris!" she said, in an unusually curt and laconic voice.
For a considerable time after the maid's departure she sat motionless,
her hands stretched out towards the blazing logs, her large eyes
absently watching the firelight on her many and beautiful rings. When
the woman reappeared, and, noiselessly arranging the tea-table, moved it
to her side, she scarcely glanced up; and to the most superficial
observer it would have been patent that her own thoughts and
speculations fully absorbed her mind.
She retained her contemplative attitude after the servant had withdrawn
for the second time, and it is doubtful how long she would have remained
sunk in apparent lethargy had not the unexpected sound of the hall-door
bell caused her to start into an upright position with a little
exclamation of surprise and impatience.
As she sat listening with nervous intentness, the door opened, and once
more Norris appeared. After a second's hesitation she crossed to her
mistress.
"There's a gentleman at the door, ma'am," she said, deprecatingly.
Enid looked up, a frown still darkening her forehead.
"I told you I was not at home."
"I know, ma'am, but--" Norris hesitated.
"But what? I told you I was not to be disturbed. I _won't_ be
disturbed." With a gesture plainly indicative of high-strung nerves, she
turned to the table and poured herself out a cup of tea.
The maid glanced behind her towards the door. "But the gentleman won't
go, ma'am--"
"Won't go!" In her surprise Enid laid down the cup she had been about to
raise to her lips. "Who is he?" she demanded.
Norris looked down. "I don't know, ma'am. I told him you were not at
home, but he won't go. He's the sort of gentleman who won't take no for
an answer."
"I don't understand you. Who is he? What is he like?" Unconsciously and
involuntarily Enid's tone quickened. Something in the woman's
words--something undefined and yet suggestive--stirred and agitated her.
Norris seemed to choose her words. "Well, ma'am," she answered, slowly,
"he's very tall--and not like any other gentleman that comes here. I
can't rightly explain it, miss, he seems used to having his own way--"
As she halted, uncertain how to choose her words, Enid rose nervously.
She could not have defined her emotions, but some feeling at once vague
and portentous was working in her mind.
"Did he give no name?"
"No, ma'am. I was to say that he was some one that must be seen. He'd
give no name."
For a further instant Enid was silent, conscious of nothing but her own
unsteady pulses; then suddenly she turned almost angrily upon the
servant.
"Show him in!" she cried. "Show him in at once! Don't keep him standing
at the door."
In some confusion Norris turned and walked across the room. At the
doorway she paused and looked back.
"Will you have the lights on, ma'am?"
"No. No; the fire makes light enough. I like twilight and a fire. Don't
stand waiting!"
The woman departed; and for a space that seemed to her interminable,
Enid stood beside the fireplace, motionless with hope, dread, and an
almost uncontrollable nervousness. At last, as in a dream, she saw the
door open and the tall, characteristic figure of the Prophet move into
the room.
She was vaguely aware that he halted for a moment, as if undecided as
to his action, while Norris retired, softly closing the door. Then, with
a sudden leap of the heart, she was conscious that he was coming towards
her across the shadowed room.
He moved straight forward until he was close beside her; and, with one
of his decisive, imperious gestures, he put out both hands and caught
hers.
"It was a case of Mohammed and the mountain!" he said, in his grave
voice. "You wouldn't come to me; I _had_ to come to you."
No sound escaped her. She stood before him mutely, her face paling and
flushing, her hands fluttering in his.
There was a slight pause; and again he bent towards her.
"Why have you stayed away?"
She hesitated for a moment, spellbound by her emotion; then, making a
sudden effort, she looked up. "I--I was afraid." Her voice was so low
and shaken that the words were a mere whisper.
"Afraid? Afraid of what?"
She made no answer.
"Of what? Of Bale-Corphew?" He gave a slight, sarcastic laugh.
"No!" She looked up sharply. "Oh no!"
"Then of what? Of me?" His voice suddenly sank, and the pressure of his
fingers tightened.
"No! Oh, I don't know! I don't know!" With a tremulous gesture she tried
to withdraw her hands.
At the movement, he suddenly drew her towards him. "Tell me!" he said.
"I want to know. I must know!"
For the first time since he had entered the room, her glance rested
fully on his face. The light was uncertain, but as her gaze concentrated
itself, a new look--a look of wonder and alarm--sprang across her eyes.
In the seven days since they had spoken together, a change had fallen
on him. Some alteration she could not define had grown into his
expression; the cold mastery of himself and others was still visible;
but a new emotion had insensibly been created--something powerful and
even dominant--for which she could find no name. With a sharp,
instinctive alarm, her lips parted.
"What is it?" she said, apprehensively. "Why are you here? The time has
not come for you to go out into the world?"
A faintly ironic smile flitted across his lips.
"Surely, if one is a Prophet, one can alter even prophecies."
He said the words deliberately, looking down into her face.
The tone, the intentional flippancy of the words, came to her with a
shock. It was as if, by considered action, he had set about jeopardizing
his own dignity. A chill of undefined apprehension blew across her mind
like a cold wind.
"I--I don't understand," she stammered. "How did you get here? How did
you get away?"
Again his keen eyes searched hers.
"As for getting away," he said, slowly, "when a Prophet has a Precursor,
he should be able to arrange these things. Five o'clock is a dull hour
at Hellier Crescent. The Arch-Mystics are perusing the Scitsym; the
Precursor is guarding the sacred threshold of the Prophet; the Prophet
is--presumably--communing with his Soul. The routine of this evening
differs in no way from the routine of any other evening--except that the
Precursor is rather more than usually vigilant in his watch." Again the
forced flippancy was apparent; and to Enid, staring at him with wide,
perplexed eyes, there was something inexplicable and alarming in this
new and unfamiliar attitude. With a tremor of foreboding, her glance
travelled over his face.
"Has anything happened?" she asked. "Have the People done wrong? Have
you--have you been called elsewhere?" At the last dread possibility her
voice faltered.
But the Prophet stood cold and almost rigid. At last, by an immense
effort, he seemed to gather himself together for some tremendous end.
"Enid," he said, gravely, "I don't know how much you know of life, but I
presume you know very little. I presume that--and shall act on the
presumption. I shall not expect--even ask--any leniency of you.
"I came here this evening to tell you something that will alter your
opinion of me so effectually that nothing hereafter can reinstate me in
your mind." He spoke slowly and deliberately, without tremor or falter.
Whatever of struggle lay behind his words, it lay with the past. It was
evident as he stood there in the pretty, luxurious room, that he
possessed a purpose, and that he held to it without thought of a
retrograde step.
"I have come to make a confession," he said, quietly. "Not because I
believe in the habit of unburdening one's conscience, but because there
is something you have a right to know--"
"I--? A right to know?" Her lips paled.
"Yes. A right to know." With a sudden access of feeling he dropped her
hands and turned towards the window, where the last glimmer of the
wintry twilight showed through the soft silk curtains.
"I am putting myself in your hands," he said, steadily. "I am
jeopardizing myself utterly by what I am going to say; but it seems to
me the only way by which I can make--well, can patch up some poor
amends--
"I may be presumptuous, but I believe--I think--that I have stood for
something in your eyes." He turned and looked at her. But in the mingled
dusk and firelight only the pale outline of her face was visible.
"Enid!" he cried, with sudden resolution, "it must be faced. It must be
said. I'm not what you think me. I'm a fraud--a lie--an impostor. No
more a Prophet--no more inspired than you--or Bale-Corphew!" He stopped
abruptly and drew a slow, deep breath.
The pause that followed was long and strained. In the grip of strong
emotions, each stood rigid, striving vainly to read the other's face. At
last, goaded by the silence, he spoke again.
"You have done this!" he cried. "You have compelled me to tell you! I
came to these people; I duped them--and gloried in duping them. I
despised them, understood them, traded on them without a scruple. Then
you came. You came--and the scheme was shattered. The whole thing, that
had bubbled and sparkled, became suddenly like flat champagne. That is a
common simile, but it is descriptive. The acting of an actor depends
upon his audience. While my audience was composed of fools, I fooled
them; but when you came--you with your scepticism, your curiosity, your
feminine dependency--I lost my cue. I became conscious of the footlights
and the make-up." Again he paused; and again he endeavored to read her
face. His manner was still restrained, but below his calm were the
stirrings of a deep agitation. There was tense anxiety in the set of his
lips, an inordinate anticipation in the keenness of his eyes. For a
space he stood waiting; then, as she made no effort towards response, he
stepped to her side.
"Say something!" he exclaimed. "Speak to me! I am waiting for you to
speak."
With a low, frightened murmur she drew back, extending her hands, as if
to ward him off.
The sound and the movement stung him to action. With a speed that might
have been construed into fear, he came still nearer.
"Enid!" he said. "Enid!"
But again she retreated involuntarily.
"Oh, why did you do it?" she exclaimed, suddenly, in a faint, shaken
voice. "Oh, why did you do it? Why did you do it?"
For an instant her tone and her manner daunted him; then he straightened
his body and raised his head.
"I did it for what is reckoned the most sordid motive in the world," he
said, in a level voice. "I did it for money!"
"For money?" With a scared movement she turned upon him, and for the
first time since he had made his revelation, he saw her pale, alarmed,
incredulous face in the full light of the fire.
"I was wronged!" he said, sharply. "These people had defrauded me. I
wanted what was justly mine."
"Wanted?" The word formed itself almost inarticulately.
"Yes; wanted. Wanted with all my might. I have worked, schemed, suffered
for this in ways you could never imagine. I thought myself invincible.
I believed that if the devil himself stood in my way it would not deter
me. And now you--a frail girl--have wrecked the scheme!" He paused
again, leaning towards her in sudden unconscious appeal for
comprehension.
"I won't say it hasn't been a struggle to come to you like this--to make
my confession. It has. My conscience and I have been struggling night
and day. I have held out to the last. It was only to-day--this very
day--when I woke to face the crisis of my plans, that I knew I was
beaten--knew the fight was over.
"And do you understand why this has happened? Do you know why I am going
away as empty-handed as I came? It is because I have seen you--because I
love you--"
He put out his hands. But as his fingers touched her, she thrust him
away, freeing herself with fierce resentment.
"Don't! don't! don't!" she cried. "You call yourself an impostor--You
are worse than that. Much worse. You are a thief!"
He stepped back as though she had struck him, and his hands dropped to
his sides.
"Yes, you are a thief!" she said again, hysterically; "a thief!"
The repetition of the word goaded him.
"Wait! Let me defend myself!"
But with a broken sound of protest she flung her hands over her ears.
"No! no! no!" she cried, vehemently. "There is no defence to make. There
is no defence. You may leave the money of the sect, but you have stolen
things that can never be replaced. Faith--hopes--ideals--" Her voice
failed her.
"Mistaken faith--mistaken ideals--" He caught her wrists, drawing her
hands downward.
But again she freed herself and confronted him with blazing eyes and a
face marred by tears and emotion.
"Nothing is mistaken that lifts one up--that helps one to live. Oh, you
don't knew what you have done! You don't know! I thought you so
noble--so great--and now--"
"Now I am condemned unheard."
"Unheard? Do you think words could change anything? There is only one
thing I wish for now--never, never to see you again as long as either of
us live!" With each word her voice rose, and on the last it broke with
an excited sob.
While she had been speaking the Prophet's face had become very pale. He
turned to her now with a manner that was preternaturally quiet.
"Very well!" he said. "I understand! But there is no need for you to
trouble. All our arrangements are made--have been made for months. We
attend the Gathering to-night; and afterwards, when Hellier Crescent is
quiet, we go--as unobtrusively as we came. You see I give you the key to
our plans; you are free to frustrate them, if you think fit. I don't
believe I had any real hope of merciful judgment when I came here--women
are not merciful when they are robbed of their illusions. But I confess
I hoped for justice. I thought that you might hate me--"
"Hate you?" she cried. "Hate you? We only hate what we respect. I don't
hate you. I only despise you with all my heart. I want you to go before
I despise myself as well!" Her own cruel disillusioning--her own
unbearable sense of loss--swept over her afresh; her voice rose again,
and again broke hysterically. With an uncontrolled movement of grief and
mortification she turned away from him and threw herself upon a couch,
burying her face in the pillows.
For several minutes she cried tempestuously; then through the storm of
her angry tears she caught the sound of a closing door. With a start
she sat up and looked about her.
The faint relic of daylight still showed through the curtains of the
window; the firelight still played pleasantly on the untouched tea-table
and the fragile furniture; but the room was empty. The Prophet was
gone.