A CALL ON LADY MARRABEL
Saton, after the reading of his paper before the members of the London
Psychical Society, established a certain vogue of which he was not
slow to avail himself. His picture appeared in several illustrated
papers. His name was freely mentioned as being one of the most
brilliant apostles of the younger school of occultism. He subscribed
to a newspaper cutting agency, and he read every word that was written
about himself. Whenever he got a chance, he made friends with the
press. Everything that he could possibly do to obtain a certain
position in a certain place, he sedulously attempted. He was always
carefully dressed, and he was quite conscious of the fact that his
clothes were of correct pattern and cut. His ties were properly
subdued in tone. His gloves and hat were immaculate.
Yet all the time he lacked confidence in himself. The word charlatan
clung to him like a pestilential memory. His hair was cropped close
to his head. He had shaved off his moustache. He imitated almost
slavishly the attire and bearing of those young men of fashion with
whom he was brought into contact. Yet he was somehow conscious of a
difference. The women seemed never to notice it--the men always.
Was it jealousy, he wondered, which made them, even the most
unintelligent, treat him with a certain tolerance, as though he were
a person not quite of themselves, whom they scarcely understood, but
were willing to make the best of?
With women it was different always. His encounter with Pauline
Marrabel at the conversazione had given him the keenest pleasure. He
had at once fixed a day sometime ahead upon which he would take to her
the books he had spoken of. The day had arrived at last, but he had
first another engagement. Early in the afternoon he turned into
Kensington Gardens, and walked up and down the broad path, glancing
every now and then toward one of the entrances. He saw at last the
person for whom he was waiting.
Lois, in a plain white muslin gown, and a big hat gay with flowers,
came blithely towards him, a little Pomeranian under one arm, and a
parasol in the other hand.
"I do hope I'm not too dreadfully late!" she exclaimed, setting the
dog down, and taking his hand a little shyly. "It seems such an age
since I saw you last. Where can we go and talk?"
"You are not frightened at me any more, then?"
"Of course not," she answered. "We spoke about that at Beauleys. I do
not want to think any more of that evening. It is over and done with.
What a clever person you are becoming!" she went on. "I saw your name
one day last week in the _Morning Post_. You read a paper before no
end of clever men. And do you know that your photograph is in two or
three of the illustrated papers this week?"
His cheeks flushed with pleasure. He was unreasonably glad that she
appreciated these things. His vanity, which had been a trifle ruffled
by some incident earlier in the day, was effectually soothed.
"These things," he said, "are absolutely valueless to me except so far
as they testify to the importance of my work. Before long," he went
on, "I think that there will be many other people like you, Miss Lois.
They will believe that there is a little more in life than their dull
eyes can see. You were one of those who understood from the first. But
there are not many."
She sighed.
"I don't think I am a bit clever," she admitted.
"Cleverness," he answered, "is not a matter of erudition. It is a
matter of instinct, of capacity for grasping new truths. You have that
capacity, dear Lois, and I am glad that you are here. It is good to be
with you again."
"You really are the most wonderful person," she declared, poking at
her little dog with the end of her fluffy parasol. "You make me feel
as though I were something quite important, and you know I am really a
very unformed, very unintelligent young person. That is what my last
governess said."
"Cat!" he answered laughing. "I can see her now. She wore a
_pince-nez_ and a bicycling skirt. I am sure of it. Come and sit down
here, and I will prove to you how much cleverer I am than that ancient
relic." ...
They parted at the gates, an hour or so later. Saton resented a little
her evident desire to leave him there, and her half frightened
refusal of his invitation to lunch, but he consoled himself by taking
his mid-day meal alone at _Prince's_, where several people pointed him
out to others, and he was aware that he was the object of a good deal
of respectful interest.
Later in the day, with several books under his arm, he rang the bell
at 17, Cadogan Street. He was committed now to the enterprise, which
had never been out of his thoughts since the night of the
conversazione.
Pauline kept him waiting for nearly a quarter of an hour. When at last
she entered, he found himself lost in admiration of the marvelous
simplicity of her muslin gown and her perfect figure. There was about
her some sort of exquisite perfection, a delicacy of outline and
detail almost cameolike, and impossible of reproduction.
She welcomed him kindly, but without any enthusiasm. He felt from the
first that he still had prejudices to conquer. He sat down by her side
and commenced his task. Very wisely, he eliminated altogether the
personal note from his talk. He showed her the books which he had
brought, and he talked of them fluently and well. She became more and
more interested. It was scarcely possible that she could refrain from
showing it, for he spoke of the things which he knew, and things which
the citizens of the world in every age have found fascinating. He
seemed to her to have gone a little further into the great mysterious
shadowland than anyone else--to have come a little nearer reading the
great riddle. She was a good listener, and she interrupted him only
once.
"But tell me this," she asked, towards the close of one of his
arguments. "This apprehension which you say one must cultivate, to be
able--how is it you put it?--to throw out feelers for the things which
our ordinary senses cannot grasp--isn't it a matter largely of
temperament?"
"One finds it difficult or easy to acquire," he answered, "according
to one's temperament. A nervous, magnetic person, who is not afraid of
solitude, of solitary thought, of taking the truth to his heart and
wrestling with it--that person is, of course, always nearer the truth
than the person of phlegmatic temperament, who has to struggle ever so
hard to be conscious of anything not actually within the sphere of his
physical apprehension. These things in our generation will have a
great effect. In centuries to come, they will become less and less
apparent. We move rapidly," he went on, "and I am still a young man.
Before I die, it is my ambition to leave behind me the first text-book
on this new science, the first real and logical attempt to enunciate
absolute laws."
"It is all very wonderful," she said, sighing gently. "Do you think
that I shall understand any more about it when I have read these
books?"
"I am sure that you will," he answered. "You have intelligence. You
have sensibility. You are not afraid to believe--that is the trouble
with most people."
"Answer me one question," she begged. "All these fortune-telling
people who have sprung up round Bond Street--I mean the palmists and
crystal-gazers, and people like that--do they proceed upon any
knowledge whatever, or are they all absolute humbugs?"
"To the best of my belief," he answered fervently, "every one of them.
Personally, I haven't very much information, but it has not come under
my notice that there is a single one of these people who even attempts
to probe the future scientifically or even intelligently, according to
the demands made upon them. They impose as much as they can upon the
credulity of their clients. I consider that their existence is
absolutely the worst possible thing for us who are endeavouring to
gain a foothold in the scientific world. Your friend Mr. Rochester,
you know, called me a charlatan."
"Mr. Rochester is never unjust," she answered quietly. "Some day,
perhaps, he will take that word back."
He tried to give their conversation a more personal note, but he found
her elusive. She accepted an invitation, however, to be present at a
lecture which he was giving before another learned society during the
following week. With that he felt that he ought to be content.
Nevertheless, he left her a little dissatisfied. He was perfectly well
aware that the magnetism which he was usually able to exert over her
sex had so far availed him nothing with her. Her eyes met his freely,
but without any response to the things which he was striving to
express. She had seemed interested all the time, but she had dismissed
him without regret. He walked homewards a little thoughtfully. If only
she were a little like Lois!
As he passed the entrance to the Park, an electric brougham was
suddenly pulled up, and a lady leaned forward towards him. He stepped
up to her side, hat in hand. It was Lady Mary Rochester. She was
exquisitely gowned and hatted, with a great white veil which floated
gracefully around her picture-hat, and she welcomed him with a
brilliant smile.
"My dear Mr. Saton," she exclaimed, "what a fortunate meeting! Only a
few minutes ago I was thinking of you."
"I am very much flattered," he answered.
"I mean it," she declared. "I wonder whether you could spare me a few
minutes. I don't mean here," she added. "One can scarcely talk,
driving. Come in after dinner, if you have nothing to do, just for
half-an-hour. My husband is down in the country, and I am not going
out until eleven."
"I shall be very pleased," he answered, a little mechanically, for he
found the situation not altogether an easy one to grasp.
"Don't forget," she said. "Number 10, Berkeley Square," with a look of
relief.
The electric brougham rolled on, and Saton crossed the road
thoughtfully. Then a sudden smile lightened his features. He realized
all at once what it was that Lady Mary wanted from him.
* * * * *
Rachael was waiting for him when he returned. She was seated before
the table, her head resting upon her hands, her eyes fixed upon the
little piles of gold and notes which she had arranged in front of her.
She watched him come in and take off his hat and coat, in silence.
"Well?" she asked. "How do things go to-day?"
"I have not the reports yet," he answered. "It is too early. I shall
have them later."
"What have you been doing?" she asked.
"I walked with a girl, Lois Champneyes, in Kensington Gardens most of
the morning, and I called upon a woman--Lady Marrabel--this
afternoon," he answered.
Rachael nodded.
"Safe companions for you," she muttered. "Remember what I always tell
you. You are of the breed that can make fools of women. A man might
find you out."
He turned an angry face upon her.
"What is there to find out?" he demanded. "I am not an impostor. I am
a man of science. I have proved it. Your fortune-telling temples are
all very well, and the money they bring is welcome enough. But
nevertheless, I am not the vulgar adventurer that you sometimes
suggest."
The woman laughed, laughed silently and yet heartily, but she never
spoke. She looked away from him presently, and drawing the pile of
gold and notes nearer to her, began to recount them with her left
hand. Her right she held out to him, slowly drawing him towards her.