CHAPTER XVIITHE MATERIALIZING SÉANCEFLORA FLINT'S Marvelous Spirit Messages and Grand Materializing Test Séance To-night. 50c. 5203 Van Ness Ave. Come, Skeptics.Dougal pointed to this notice in theCallone night at Fulda's. There were six at table; he and Mabel and Elsie, Maxim, Starr and Benton.Benton took up the paper, with a gleam in his eyes, as one who smelled the battle from afar. Starr was for going, most enthusiastically for it; he wanted another chance of seeing Benton in action. Maxim was always to be depended upon; he never refused to go with the others. Elsie smiled and did not commit herself to an opinion. She was a fatalist. If things went well, she smiled. If they went wrong, she was equally, perhaps even a little more, amused, and smiled as enigmatically. Mabel giggled hysterically; her eyes shone; she held up two fingers, the sign of acquiescence. No project was too mad for her to accept and welcome; the madder it was, the more enthusiastic she grew. In her the spirit of adventure still breathed. She was one to whom things always happened, for she never refused Fate's invitations. Fate, having invited her, usually saw her through the affair with gallantry. She always escaped unscathed, preserving all the freshness of her enthusiasm and ingenuousness. No one credited her with a history.Their plan had been talked over and perfected for some time. Mindful of Fancy's warning, it had been decided to enter the place in two groups and find seats near together, being careful to hold no communication with each other.Dougal was captain of the proposed exposure. He carried an electric torch and was to choose the proper moment for attack. When he flashed the light upon the spirit form and rushed forward to seize the actor, Maxim was to follow at his heels and help, while Starr and Benton "interfered" for him as in a foot-ball game. The girls were to take care of themselves and watch everything that went on so as to report the affair.There was no adjournment to Champoreau's that night, for it was necessary to be at Flora Flint's early and attempt to get front seats. Half-past seven found them at the house on Van Ness Avenue, where they divided, Mabel going in with Dougal and Maxim, Elsie with Starr and Benton.They went up a narrow staircase covered with yellow oil-cloth and encountered, at the top, a long, pale, tow-headed youth with two front teeth missing. He was slouching in the hall, by a little table, as if attempting to hide the tallness and awkwardness of his figure. Collecting the entrance fees without a word, he pointed to a door and the seats inside.The room was square, and had two windows upon the street; it was lighted dimly from a chandelier in the center, and was crowded with chairs arranged on each side of a central aisle. There were already a score of visitors, and prominent in the second row was Mr. Payson, solemnly calm, impassive, his hands upon the top of his cane. Vixley sat in front and was conversing over the back of his chair with Lulu Ellis. Dougal and his companions found seats on the end of the fourth row; the others had to go farther back.Hung about were the usual mottoes, worked in colored yarn on perforated cardboard, and, in addition, a notice warning visitors against disorder. It was evident that the materializing business was not unattended with risks. The air was stuffy and smelt of kerosene oil. A curtain of black cambric was stretched across one corner of the room, between the folding doors and the mantelpiece, opposite the windows. The hangings parted in the center, and were now draped up to each side, revealing the interior of the "cabinet."Professor Vixley rose to announce that any one wishing to examine the cabinet might do so, but nobody seemed to think the investigation worth while. He then went on with an audible conversation with the plump Miss Ellis. He described, first, the wonderful willingness of Little Starlight, who was frequently sent by Flora with astral messages to her mother in Alaska. Lulu played up to him. She saw spirits in the room already—an old man was standing by the door, looking for some one. Another spirit was sitting down beside that young lady in green. Vixley regretted that he couldn't "get" materializing himself, though he had tried all his life. He had occasionally "got" clairvoyance, but it couldn't be depended upon. Clairaudience, of course, was easier. It could be developed in any one who had patience. With his revolving mirrors he could guarantee it in a month. He handed one of his business cards to a woman in black who seemed interested.Flora Flint, pretty, dressed all in black, came in and joined the conversation. She complained of being tired and headachey, she had worked so hard that day. She stroked her forehead and rubbed her hands, but her eyes were busy with her audience.She hoped that Stella wouldn't come to-night; Stella always "took it out of her." That was always the way with spirits who had lately "passed out," and who were not yet reconciled to their condition. Stella insisted upon coming back all the time to communicate with her mother—she was not only hindering her own "progression" but worrying her mother by so doing. Stella, moreover, had not yet learned the Laws of Being on the spirit-plane, and had not accustomed herself to the principles of control. Why, it was sometimes positive agony to be taken possession of by Stella. She came in with a bounce like, and it racked the medium all over; and she didn't know how to withdraw her force gradually and easily the way older spirits did. If Wampum, Flora's Indian control, weren't always ready to assist her it would be something terrible. Indians had special power over physical conditions. They were Children of Nature, nearer to earth conditions than others. They had more magnetism, and knew the secrets of natural medicine. Being simple creatures, they were more easily summoned from the spirit sphere—they hadn't "progressed" so far, and they were apt to be still actuated by the motives and desires of the flesh-plane. Oh, yes, they were often coarse and vulgar, but they meant well, indeed they did. Wampum was a great help.As Flora Flint talked, her eyes ran over the room, looking carefully at her audience. Some she bowed to smilingly; on others her glance rested with more deliberation. She came back again and again to Dougal and Maxim, and to Starr and Benton, in the rear of the room. She whispered to Vixley, after this scrutiny, and he went out to hold a colloquy with Ringa in the hall. Soon after, Mr. Spoll came in and took a seat between the two groups of Pintos. He sat rigidly erect, his thin, bony face impassive, with only his wild eyes moving.The Pintos listened with delight to Flora's jargon. Starr, placing his note-book under his hat, on his knees, made copious notes. Maxim was most impressed, almost persuaded by the seriousness of the dialogue. Mabel was all ready to believe at the first promise of a marvel. Elsie smiled, Benton yawned, Dougal hugged his electric torch fondly inside his coat.Madam Spoll soon came in and seated herself between the two windows, under a box containing a lighted kerosene lamp. Her face, usually so complacent, was showing signs of perturbation. She was nervous, looking round every little while suddenly, running her fingers through her short cropped curly hair, throwing her head back as if she found it hard to breathe. She was without a hat, and wore, instead of her professional costume of silk and beads, a black cotton crape gown.Shortly after eight o'clock, Flora took a chair in front of the cabinet. Vixley rose, fastened black shutters in front of the windows, closed the door, put out the gas and turned down the lamp in the box, shading it with a cloth curtain. The room was now so dark that one could scarcely distinguish anything, until, when eyes became somewhat accustomed to it, figures indistinct and shadowy could be vaguely recognized. Flora Flint spoke:"I must ask you all to keep perfect silence, please. The spirits won't manifest themselves unless the conditions are favorable and the circle is in a receptive state. We can't do anything unless there's harmony, and if there's any antagonistic vibrations present there's no use attempting anything in the way of demonstration."After this prologue, she began, accompanied by the faithful, the dreariest tune in the world:"We arewaiting, we arewaiting, we arewaiting, just now,Just now we arewaiting, we arewaitingjust now;Toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou just now,Just now toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou just now.Show yourfaces, show yourfaces, show yourfaces, just now,Just now show yourfaces, show yourfacesjust now!Come andblessus, come andblessus, come——"The fourth stanza was here interrupted by three sharp knocks."Is that you, Starlight?" the medium asked. Two raps signified assent. "Are you happy, to-night?" Two more knocks."Starlight's always happy!" Vixley remarked aloud."Yes, sheisa bright little thing," the medium assented. "She passed out when she was only twelve; they say she's very pretty. Are there any spirits with you, Starlight?"Two more raps."Who's there—Wampum?"Two raps were given with terrific force. Everybody laughed."Wampum's feeling pretty good, to-night," said Vixley."Anybody else?" Flora asked.Yes, some one else."Who? Is it Mr. Torkins?"Yes.The voice of a little old dried-up lady on the front row was heard, saying, "Oh, that's Willie! I'msoglad he's come. Are you happy, Willie?"Yes, Willie was happy. Had he seen Nelly? Yes, he had seen Nelly, and Nelly was also happy. And so, for a time, it went on, like an Ollendorf lesson.Starlight was then asked if she could not control the medium, orally. She consented, and soon, in a chirping voice the medium twittered forth:"Hello! Good evenin', folkses! Oh, I'se so glad to see you all, I is! Hello, Mis' Brickett, you's got a new bonnet, isn't you? It's awfully nice! Oh, I'se so happy. I got some candy, too. It'sspiritcandy; it's lots better'n yours." Here she laughed shrilly and the company snickered.Mabel could scarcely hold herself in check and had to be pinched. Starlight resumed her artless prattle, with Vixley as interlocutor. The two exchanged homely badinage and pretended to flirt desperately. But she refused this time to sit upon his knee. Finally an old man asked if Walter were there."Well, I justguess!" said Starlight. "He's my beau, he is! He giv'd me this candy. Want some?" A chocolate drop flew into the middle of the room."That's real materialized candy!" Vixley explained. "We're liable to have a good séance, to-night!"Starlight, after giving a few messages, announced that the spirits had consented to materialize, and requested the company to sing. Flora went into the cabinet, Madam Spoll turned the light still lower, and Vixley, stating that the medium would now go into a dead trance, took the chair in front of the cabinet. A doleful air was started by the believers on the front seats:"I have a father in the spirit land,I have a father in the spirit land,My father calls me, I must goTo meet him in the spirit land!"then,"I have a mother in the spirit land,"and so on, through the whole family, brother, sister and friend.The darkness was now thick and velvety. The sitters could not see what they touched, and, gazing intently into the void, their eyes filled it with shifting colors and spots of light conjured up by the reflex action of the retina, as if their eyes were shut. As the song ended, there came an awed silence to add to the stifling darkness as they waited for the first manifestation from the cabinet.Then the hush was broken by excited whispers, and a tall form, dimly luminous, was seen in the opening of the curtains."Why, here's the Professor!" said Vixley, shattering the solemnity, and making of this advent a friendly visitation. "Good evening, Professor, we're glad to see you. It's good to have you here again!"A deep, slow voice replied, articulating its words painfully, "Good eve-ning, friends, I'm ver-y glad to be here to-night!" Every word was chopped into distinct syllables. The figure moved forward a little. It was a typical ghost, a vague, unearthly, draped figure, wavering, indistinct. The face melted into amorphous shadows. It glided here and there noiselessly.The Professor was an affable celebrity, but somewhat verbose. He spoke to several of the company by name, and interspersed his greetings with jocular remarks to Little Starlight who was supposed to be flitting invisibly about the room. "She's a lit-tul darlink, ev-ery-bod-y loves lit-tul Star-light," he said, in answer to Vixley's comment.He retreated silently to the cabinet, and the curtains closed upon him. Some one asked if they couldn't see the "Egyptian Hand" and Starlight's voice from the cabinet gave assent. Forthwith it appeared and made a hurried circle of the front part of the room, shedding a ghostly, phosphorescent glow, and, on its way, patting the heads of the faithful."Oh, I feel something so nice and soft!" cried Mrs. Brickett. "It's perfectly 'eavenly—right on top of my head—what is it?""That'shair!" Starlight called out.The Professor bellowed from the cabinet, "Oh, ho, ho, ho! You must-unt mind lit-tul Star-light! She's so love-ly we don't mind her, do we?"Vixley gave the cue for another song to cover the next entrance. This time it wasMy Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean, its special appositeness seeming to lie in the line, "Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me!"Another shorter form appeared and stood wavering in front of the curtains, then, without a word, withdrew."That's Stella," said Vixley. "She's only come to get progression. She ain't very strong yet, so she can't stay but a minute, but we're always glad to see her and help her along all we can with our thought."A woman, with a sob, rose to go forward."No, not to-night, Mrs. Seeley; the medium ain't strong enough!" said Vixley.How he recognized these spectral visitors nobody asked. They looked just alike, except, perhaps, for height; all were wavering, white and mysterious, without distinguishable faces. At the entrance of another, like all the rest, Professor Vixley startled the company by saying, suavely and patronizingly:"This is Mr. McKinley, friends. It's good to see you, Mr. McKinley. I'm glad you come. We'realwaysglad to see you. Come again, come any time you feel like it." He explained, after the spirit vanished, that Mr. McKinley had had great difficulty in finding any medium sympathetic enough for him to control, and he wandered from circle to circle, hoping to establish communication with the earth-plane.The next visitor was no less than Queen Victoria. "That's good!" said Vixley, "we're awful glad to see you, sure!" It now transpired that the spirits whispered their names to him in entering. His conversation became a bit dreary and monotonous and he failed to rise to his obvious opportunities.A few forms, after this, came farther from the cabinet, and their friends were permitted to embrace them. These favored few sat on the front seats. Whispered dialogues took place—innocuous talk of troubles and happiness, perturbed commonplaces that, had they not been sometimes accompanied with genuine tears, would have been nothing but ridiculous. The spirits were all optimistic and willing to help. Their advice, usually, consisted of the statement that "conditions would soon be more favorable." At intervals the singers broke out into new songs, There's a Land that is Fairer than Day—Nearer, My God, to Thee!—and so on. The air became oppressively close. The audience began to whisper, cough and shuffle. Mabel, desirous of excitement, had nudged Dougal again and again, but he had muttered "Not yet!" at each hint.The songOver Therehad just ended, and the hush of expectancy had fallen over the company when another form appeared and took a step towards Vixley."She says her name is Felicia," he announced. "Does anybody recognize her?""I do!" an unctuously mellow voice replied."She says she has a message for you," said Vixley, "but she don't want to give it out loud before all these people. Will you come up here?"Mr. Payson made his way with difficulty, in the dark, past those on his row and came forward."You can touch her, if you want to; she's completely materialized. Very strong indeed for one outside Flora's band. She ain't got much vitality, though, and you mustn't tax her too much."The old man reached forward and touched a cold hand."Is it you, Felicia?" he asked tremulously."Yes, dear!" was the answer, in a thick, hoarse whisper. "I'm glad to see you here. You must come often. I've tried so hard to get you. I want to help you.""You have a message for me?"She whispered, "Yes; it's about the child.""What is it?" His voice was eager."I've found him.""Oh, I'm so glad! I've longed so to find him and do what was right by him. You know, don't you?" All this was spoken so low that but few could make out the words."Yes, I know. I know you love him.""Where is he, Felicia?""He's in this city. I shall bring him to you. Then we'll be so happy, all three of us—you and I and our dear son!"Payson's voice rang out sharply in an angry exclamation:"It's all a damned fraud!" he cried. "This is not a spirit at all!" He took a step forward.On the instant, before even Vixley could move, Dougal had jumped up and run forward. As he dashed up the aisle he pressed the key of his electric torch and cast a bright light upon the group by the cabinet. The draped form had started back, Payson faced her, Vixley had risen from his chair fiercely, Flora Flint's startled face peered through the curtains."Come on, Max!" Dougal shouted, and threw himself bodily upon the person wrapped in the sheet. Maxim grappled at almost the same time, but before him Vixley sprang in and rained blow after blow upon Dougal, who fell, dropping his torch. Vixley then locked with Maxim. Starr and Benton had run up, hurtling past Spoll, who had risen to block the way. They were just too late to save Dougal, who had fallen, still holding his captive fast. It was too dark to see what was happening, but Vixley's oaths led them on, crashing over chairs, creeping and fighting through the now terrified crowd. A match was struck somewhere behind them, and, before it flared out, Starr and Benton fell on Vixley together and bore him to the floor.The room was now horrid with confusion. A racket of moving chairs told that every one had arisen in panic. Women screamed, and there was a rush for the door. It seemed hours before there was a light, then Madam Spoll reached up and turned up the light. At that moment Ringa flew past her—she was thrown down and the lamp fell crashing upon the seat of a chair beside her. There was an explosion on the instant. She was drenched with blazing oil, and the flames enveloped her.Her screams rose over the tumult so piercingly that every one turned, saw her, and fell back in fear and terror. She clambered to her feet clumsily, shrieking in agony, ran for the door, tore it open and fled down-stairs, to fall heavily at the bottom, writhing.Benton was that moment free, and the only man to keep his senses. He burst right through the room, throwing men and women to right and left and broke out the door after her, and down the stairs, tearing a table-cloth from a table as he ran through the hall. He wrapped it about her, the flames scorching his face and hands as he did so. The woman was struggling so in her blind terror and torture that it was for a moment impossible to help her. Then, in a few heroic moments he conquered the fire. At last he called to the crowd above for help, and they carried her up into a small side room and laid her upon a bed.Starr, meanwhile, still clung to Vixley while Maxim had held Ringa off. Spoll was busy extinguishing the fire on the carpet. Then some one at last lighted the chandelier, showing a score of white, frenzied faces, men and women in wild disarray, chairs broken and strewn upon the floor, a smoking, blackened place on the carpet where the remains of the lamp had fallen. The room smelled horribly.Vixley lay in a welter of ornaments that had been swept from the mantel in his struggle. He was still cursing.Dougal had held his captive fast through all that turmoil, yelling continuously for a light. Now Mabel and Elsie, who had flattened themselves against the wall, joining their screams to the din, crept trembling up to him to see what he had caught. He turned the limp figure in his arms and sought amongst the folds of the sheet, and turned them away at the face. Elsie gave a little cry.[image]He sought amongst the folds of the sheetIt was Fancy Gray.CHAPTER XVIIIA RETURN TO INSTINCTClytie Payson had come home after a two weeks' stay at Lonely with Mrs. Maxwell, poised, resolute, calm. She seemed sustained by some inward faith manifesting itself only in a higher degree of self-consciousness, as of one inspired by a purpose.At breakfast, on the morning after the materializing séance, Mr. Payson read the morning journal interestedly, so intensely absorbed in its columns that he scarcely spoke to his daughter. But he did not mention the evening's event, and was moody and morose. The affair had received an extensive notice. Madam Spoll, it seemed, still lingered at the point of death. Although Mr. Payson's name was not mentioned, he was much disturbed and apprehensive of publicity. Clytie, noticing his abstraction, did not disturb him with questions.After her father had left the house she went up to her workroom, put on her pink pinafore and commenced her bookbinding. She worked at the bench near the window where she could occasionally look out upon the shadows that swept over Mount Tamalpais. The day was alternately bright and lowering; it promised rain before night.At ten, as she was pausing from her work, with a lingering look out into her garden, she saw a young woman coming up the path. It was Fancy Gray, looking about her as if uncertain whether or not she had found the right place. Fancy wore a black-and-white shepherd's plaid suit, bright and tightly-fitted, which picked her out, in an errant glance of sunshine, against the dull green shrubbery. She stopped for a moment to look at the sun-dial, raising her white-gloved hand to her red and white hat, then passed on toward the house, out of sight.Clytie went down-stairs herself to answer the bell, and opened the door with a look of pleasure on her face.Fancy hesitated. "Are you busy, Miss Payson?""Of course not!" Clytie held out both her hands. "If I were, I'd be so glad to have you interrupt me, Miss Gray. Do come in! How charming you look! I'm so glad to see you."Fancy accepted the welcome, looking long into Clytie's eyes, as if she expected to find in them something of special significance. Her own were steady, and had in them an evidence of resolve."I've been hoping you'd come to see me, Miss Gray," Clytie began.Fancy stopped on the threshold."Fancy Gray, please!" she corrected, with an elusive smile."Fancy Gray—I'm glad to be permitted to use such a lovely name.""Make it Fancy, straight. Then I'll be more natural. I'm always stiff and stupid when people call me Miss Gray. I always feel as if they were talking about me behind my back." Fancy's smile broke out now, as if in spite of herself."I'd love to call you Fancy! It's good of you to let me!" Clytie answered.Her smile was as delicious, in this gallant interchange. Fancy's smile seemed as much a part of her natural expression as the brightness of her open eyes; it was embracing, like a baby's. Clytie's had the effect of a particularly gracious favor, almost a condescension, a special gift of the moment.Fancy stopped again at the entrance to the library."Say, this is awfully orderly," she said, "haven't you got some place that isn't so tidy and clean? I'm afraid I wouldn't be comfortable here, and I want to talk to you."Clytie looked at her amusedly. "So you're one of those persons who think dust is artistic? Come up into my workroom, then. You'll find that untidy enough."Up-stairs they went, to the workroom."My!" said Fancy. "If you call this place untidy, you ought to see my room! Why, it's as neat as a pin!" She entered, nevertheless, and looked about her with curiosity at everything."Haven't you a looking-glass here?" she asked in astonishment."No, but I'll get you one."Fancy laughed. "I couldn't live an hour without a mirror," she confessed. "You're really queer, aren't you! And you don't even wear jewelry! I'm afraid modesty isn't my favorite stunt. It's very becoming to you, though. I suppose it doesn't go with painted hair." She sighed."I don't believe that even you could improve on nature, Fancy!""I'm sure nature intended me for a blonde, and got careless. Did you ever know a brunette who didn't want to be a blonde?" She looked at Clytie's tawny hair with evident admiration.Clytie shook her head, smiling. "I'd give you my hair for your complexion.""Done!" Fancy rubbed her handkerchief across her pink cheeks, and handed the bit of cambric to Clytie. After this comedy pantomime, she took the little silver watch from her chatelaine pin, opened the back door, where, inside, was a bright and shiny surface, and regarded her face, pouting. Then she looked across at Clytie."You're so pretty, Miss Payson! You're four times and a half as pretty as I am!"Clytie ventured to touch her little finger to the dent in Fancy's upper lip. Fancy retreated a step. "My dear," Clytie asserted, "if I hadthat, I'd be sure that men would be crazy for me till I was seventy years old!"Fancy shook her head. "I guess I can't beat that. That's what Gay calls 'the pink penultimate.' And the worst of it is, I suppose it's true! But I'll never be seventy if I can help it." She turned away, suddenly grown serious. The room grew dark. It was as if Fancy's mood had turned off the sunshine."What are you doing, now?" Clytie asked."Oh, just drifting." Fancy's voice was not hopeful.Clytie took her hand. "Why don't you come here and stay with me for a while? I'd love to have you."Fancy gently released her fingers in Clytie's and did not look at her."Oh, I wish you wouldn't be quite so kind to me, Miss Payson; I can't stand it!" Her mouth trembled; her gaze was serious."But it would be so kind of you to come!" Clytie urged.Fancy smiled wanly. "I can't do it, Miss Payson, I won't explain. I never explain. It bores me. But I simply can't.""Well, you know, if you ever do want to come—""I'll come, sure!" Fancy looked at her now, with fire in her eyes, not flaming, but burning deep. "Whenever I forget what a thoroughbred is like, I'll come! Whenever I need a teaspoonful of flattery to last me over night, I'll come! Whenever I want to know how much finer and kinder women are than men, I'll come! Whenever—"She would have gone on, but Clytie interrupted her. "Whenever you want to make me very happy, whenever you want to do me the greatest favor in your power, you'll come!"Fancy's eyes narrowed and twinkled. "I'm all out of breath trying to keep up with you! I give it up. Take the pot!" She turned to the bench and examined the tools in a box."Ugh!" she commented. "They look like dentists' instruments!""I don't believeyouever had to suffer from them! It doesn't seem possible!" said Clytie.In response, Fancy engagingly showed her double row of small, white, zigzag teeth. Then, with a sudden access of frivolity, she favored Clytie with an exhibition of her little, pointed tongue, which she erected and waved sidewise. This done, she dropped into a chair again. The sun had returned and visited the room, making a brilliant object of her jaunty figure as she sat under the window. She wore the fine gold chain with the swastika that Clytie had given her. She fingered it as she spoke."Miss Payson," she said, "I'm going to ask you something that perhaps is none of my business.""Ask what you please," said Clytie, but she looked at Fancy with something like alarm."Have you seen Mr. Granthope lately?"Clytie shook her head. "No.""Could you tell me why not?""I'm afraid I can't, Fancy.""I'm terribly worried about it. I'm sure there's some trouble. Oh, Miss Payson, I know he's awfully unhappy. And I can't bear that!"Clytie walked to the window and looked out, standing there with her hands behind her back. There was a faint line come into her forehead. "I'd rather not talk about it," she said quietly."But I'm sure that if there is any misunderstanding, I might help you. Oh, Miss Payson, I don't want to be impertinent, but I can't bear it to think that he isn't happy. Can't you tell me about it?"Clytie turned slowly, a look of pain deepening on her face. "I can only tell you this, that I was mistaken in him.""Mistaken? How?""Not in quality, so much as in quantity, if you know what I mean. I know what he's capable of, what he has done, and what he can do. I don't feel any anger or resentment, for what I know, now, that he has done. I feel only pity and sorrow for him.""But whathashe done? That's just what I want to know. You mean that it was something definite?""Yes.""And—you believed it of him?" Fancy could not restrain her surprise."I had to believe it. Oh, Fancy, don't you understand? It was the sort of thing that no woman could forget. It was of no importance except as showing that he wasn't so far along as I had thought. It merely means that I'll have to wait for him. And I shall wait for him. I'm so sure of him that I can wait, though it hurt so at first that I couldn't possibly see him. That's all."Fancy bit her lip. There was a little, determined shake of her head that Clytie did not see. "Miss Payson," she said, "you must tell me what it was. I've heard Professor Vixley say a thing or two that aroused my suspicions." She went on slowly, with an effort. "I know that Frank adores you—that he has, ever since that night you came with him to his office, after his accident.""Oh, but this was after that," Clytie said wearily. "It was something he told Vixley.""After that! Why, Frank hasn't had anything to do with Vixley or Madam Spoll since then, except to try to get them to leave your father alone.""I saw his own handwriting, Fancy; the very notes of what I had talked about to him—even the little intimate things—they nearly killed me. And Professor Vixley told me himself that Frank had been giving him information right along, up to only a few weeks ago—while we had been so happy together—oh, to think of it!"Fancy's face had varied in phase, like the opening and shutting of the clouds. Now it was eager, rapt "Oh, I understand, now!" she cried, jumping up."Why, Miss Payson, Vixley can no more be trusted than a gambler! Don't you know that he's wild with Frank? Vixley's got it in for him; he is trying to ruin him! Don't you know that Frank has been trying to buy him off, just to save your father from being cheated by them? Why, Frank offered Vixley a thousand dollars to leave town, only last week. Vixley told me so himself!""A thousand dollars? That's impossible." Clytie's voice was still hopeless."I can't imagine where he got the money, but he had it with him, in cash. Vixley said so.""How long ago was that?""Two weeks ago, about."Clytie reflected. "I saw Frank on the platform at Stockton, two weeks ago. I wonder—""Yes, it was the day after he got back, I remember now.""Oh!" Clytie's face lightened as if another person had come into the room. She looked away, as if to greet an unseen visitor. Her hand was raised delicately. "I see." Her voice came suddenly, definitely. Then she stared hard at Fancy. "Oh, Fancy, I'm almost frightened at it! I don't dare to believe it. Oh, if I've made a mistake in suspecting him. If I've accused him to myself unjustly, how can I ever bear it! But I saw those notes—""And you didn't ask him to explain them?" Fancy spoke very slowly. She did not accuse, she only wondered."No." Clytie's tone had dropped low, and she went on, fluttering hurriedly. "I simply went away. Oh, think of it—it was as melodramatic as a play—that's the way women do on the stage, isn't it? But you see, Ididknow awful things about him. Fancy—he had told me, and I suspected more. There was something in the notes about my present to father, and his birthday had only just passed. That proved to me that Frank's notes had been made recently, I thought."Fancy looked at her with a quizzical expression. "I knew a fellow once who used to call me a marmoset. I guess that's what you are, you poor dear! Why, Frank told me about your binding a book for your father the day he first came here. You must have spoken of it then.""I did!" Clytie fairly threw out. "I remember it now! And that wasbefore—before he really knew me, wasn't it! Oh, what shall I do, Fancy?" Her look was, for the moment, as helpless as a child's."Do?" Fancy repeated, shrugging her shoulders. "Why, the telephone wires are still working, aren't they?" She spoke a bit dryly. She had done her work, now, and relapsed into a sort of apathy."And I prided myself on my intuition, and on my fairness!" Clytie went on, unheeding her. "I knew that I saw in him what no one else saw—not even you, who knew him so well, and who wouldn't suspect him of anything so base as that! To think of my being the victim of such a claptrap trick!"Fancy raised her eyebrows and watched her quietly. "What I can't understand now, is why you're wasting your time talking about it."Clytie stared at her, her face still shadowed by her emotion. Then her smile came rapturously. She turned and ran down-stairs to the telephone.Fancy walked to the window forlornly. There she leaned her head on her arm against the pane and shut her eyes, as if she were fatigued. It was black in the west, and the Marin shore was shrouded in the murk. The harbor was covered with dancing whitecaps. The storm was imminent. She stayed there, motionless, until Clytie's step was heard coming up, then started into life again and gave herself a shake."He's coming right up!" Clytie announced.Fancy immediately looked at the blue enameled dial of her little silver watch. "Well, I must be going.""Oh, please stay!" Clytie exclaimed, holding her tightly. "I really want you to, so! It's you who have done it all."Fancy smiled at last, and released herself. "Yes, I've spent my life in straightening out other people's snarls," she said. "Sometime I hope some one will be able to straighten mine. But I've got a date, really.""Oh, do tell me that you're as happy as I am," Clytie exclaimed. "I've been so selfish, I'm afraid! I don't know who he is, but I'm sure he must be fine, if you care for him. How I wish I could help you, dear!""The only way you could, I'm afraid, is by lending me some of your brains—and I'm afraid they wouldn't fit my noddle. He's awfully clever, and I feel like a fool when I'm with him.""But you do really love him, don't you?" Clytie asked anxiously.Fancy nodded gravely. "I guess yes. As much as I can love anybody. I'm afraid of him. That's one sign, isn't it?""And you can't tell me who he is?""Not yet.""Fancy, when you're married, I'll give you a wedding.""I accept!" said Fancy Gray.She turned to go, but hesitated a moment, as if she could hardly make up her mind to ask the question, yet couldn't go without asking it. "Miss Payson," she said finally, "did you tell Frank that I had been here?""Of course I did!""What did he say?""He said that it was like you. That you always played fair.""Good-by!" Fancy said, and suddenly breaking through the reserve that had so far constrained her, she laid her cheek for a moment to Clytie's.Clytie kissed her. The two walked down-stairs arm in arm. At the front door Fancy paused and said:"Take my advice, Miss Payson, and don't explain. Never explain. If you once get into that habit you're lost. It only wastes time. Get right down to business and stay there. Your head belongs on his shoulder, remember that. All Frank will want to know is what you're going to do next. Keep him guessing, my dear, but never explain! Now, I'm going to try and get home before it rains."She turned up her collar, gave a quick toss to her head, and walked rapidly down the garden path. At the gate she turned, gaily gave a mock-military salute, a relic of her old vaudeville manner, then ran down the steps.Clytie watched her till she had disappeared. Then she went up-stairs and changed her frock.Fancy's sage advice was wasted. There were explanations, a torrent of them, when Francis Granthope came, explanations voluble, apologetic, impetuous, half-tragic, semi-humorous. The equilibrium of Clytie's mind was completely overturned and its readjustment came only after a prolonged talk. Every trace of the priestess, the princess, the divinity was gone forever, now. She was more like a mother rejoicing at the restoration of a lost child, for whose absence she blamed her own neglect and carelessness. It was all too delightful for Granthope to wish to cut it short. He was hungry for her.He, too, had his explanations and his news. For two weeks his hands had been tied. Clytie had disappeared from his ken, and he had had no way of tracing her, for it was useless to telephone to the house or to ask of her father. There had been nothing for it but to wait in the hope that whatever had caused the interruption would come right of itself. He had never really felt sure of Clytie—her acceptance of him had seemed too wonderful to be true, a fortune to which he was not really entitled, and which he might lose any instant. Whether or not Vixley or Madam Spoll had effected the separation, he had no way of determining.He told then of his trip to Stockton where, by establishing his identity by means of the finger-prints, he had succeeded in obtaining possession of the money he had deposited there so many years ago. This had amounted, with interest, to several thousand dollars. He had gone immediately to Vixley to seal the bargain they had made, but the Professor had absolutely refused to accept any payment for leaving town. Indeed, he had hinted that he had schemes on foot which would bring him an income that Granthope could not hope to rival. How matters stood between Mr. Payson and the mediums, neither Granthope nor Clytie knew. They had not yet heard of the materializing séance, and the situation was, so far as they knew, the same as before. It was agreed that there must be another attempt to rescue Mr. Payson, and this time through Doctor Masterson, who was probably venal.Granthope, meanwhile, however, had perfected his plans. He had sufficient money, now, to warrant his devoting himself to the study of medicine, a project he had so long contemplated that, with the start he had already made, would make it possible for him to practise in two or three years. He had, therefore, abandoned all idea of going upon the stage. Clytie approved of this with considerable relief. The prospect of reviving gossip by Granthope's appearance as an actor had caused her much dread. They had already been much talked about. Society had discussed them until it had grown tired. Nothing was sensational enough to last long as an object of curiosity in San Francisco, and a half-dozen other affairs had caused them to be almost forgotten.After this first flurry of talk, in which she had come down from that lofty spiritual altitude where she had dwelt for the last two weeks, she was sheer woman, thrilling to his words and to the sense of his nearness. As they had progressed in intimacy her maternal instinct had asserted itself more and more frankly towards him. She had treated him at times almost as if he were a boy whose education she was fondly directing. She had lost some of that feeling, now, in virtue of her mistake; she was curiously humble.He, too, had somewhat changed. Before Clytie's direct gaze he had lost something of his power; he had been afraid of her. In this readjustment the normal phase of courtship was restored, and, feeling his way with her, delicately perceptive as he always was with women, he began to notice that she would willingly resign the scepter—she would gladly be mastered if he would but put forth his power. She was learning to be a woman; she would be conquered anew.He was to learn all this slowly, however; so slowly that, at every manifestation of her inclination he had a moment's pause for the wonder of it, tasting the flavor of her condescension, marveling at his own conquest. To him, as to all lovers, his sweetheart had been a woman different from all her sex. He was now to find that she was not one woman but two—that in her the subtly refined spirit of his vision shared her throne with that immemorial wild creature of primal impulse who is the essence of sex itself; who, subdued or paramount, dwells in all women, saints and sinners alike. He had, in virtue of his victory, merged those two warring elements in her soul into one. She had come into her birthright, not lost it. She seemed a little frightened by the metamorphosis, but there was a triumph of discovery, too; he reveled in its manifestation, but he was still timorous before the new, splendid, potent being he had invoked. There was an intoxicating excitement, now, as he saw in her traces of every woman he had known. It was as if, after exploring a strange land and meeting its people, he had at last come upon the queen who combined all the national characteristics and fused them with the unique distinction of royalty.They had, also, as yet, a whole lovers' language to manufacture, metaphors to weave into their talk, words to suggest phrases, phrases to stand for moods and emotions. But such idioms are untranslatable—they will never bear analysis. For love is a subjective state, whose objective manifestations are ridiculous. No one can see a kiss—it is a state of being.But into this relation they entered, as children go to play, making their own rules of the game, establishing their own sentimental traditions as lovers use. With such vivid imagination as both possessed the pastime became deliciously intricate; it had pathos and comedy, wind and dew and fire. They spoke in enigmas, one's quick intuition answering the other—there were flashes so quick with humor that a smile was inadequate in satisfying its esoteric message. An observer would have seen Clytie, her eyes alight, her pose informed with gracile eagerness, waking from her gentle languor to inspired gesture—Granthope pacing the room, erect, virile, dark, sensitive in every fiber to her presence, flinging a whimsical word at her, or with a burst of abandon pouring himself out to her to her delight. There was an intellectual stimulation as well as an emotional pressure in their intercourse that forbade any monotony of mood. There was a tensity of feeling that broke, at times, into waves of laughter; but there were moments, too, when the sudden realization of their relation, with all its doubts, its unknown paths, and secret, fatal web of circumstance, impelled them to make sure, at least, of the moment, and to defy the future with an expression of their present happiness. So they came down, and so they went up. From height to depth, from shadow to light he pursued her. He chased, but she was ready enough to be caught! She held a hand to him and helped him up; they met in delightful solitudes of thought; they walked together through the obvious. That he should so follow her, that she could understand, there was wonder enough, even without that other diviner communion. It was a lovers' play-day, now; there was time enough for the lovers' ritual and the worship at the shrine. For this day was the untellable, impossible delights of wonder. They took repossession of their kingdom, no longer jeoparded by doubt.It was Clytie, who, at last, grew more bold, more definite. She rose and put her two hands on Granthope's shoulders, smiling at him with pride in her possession."I can't wait any longer," she exclaimed. "I've suffered enough. Before anything else comes between us, let's settle it so that nothing can separate us. You see, my instinct has triumphed after all. I'm sure of you—indeed, I always have been. I must speak to father to-morrow, and, if you like—" She hesitated, in a sudden, maidenly access of timidity."We'll be married—instantly? Dare you?" He crushed her impetuously in his arms, not even this time without a wonder that she should permit him, not quite daring even yet to believe that she was more than willing.She freed herself with an expression that should have reassured him. "There's nothing, now, to be gained by waiting, is there?""Nothing, if you can live on what I can provide."She laughed at the very absurdity of it. "It may be hard, but I think I can manage father," she went on. "He's too fond of me really to oppose what I'm set on.""I only wish I could do something to assure him, to propitiate him," said Granthope. "My position has been so undignified that I've had no chance. I have been meeting you surreptitiously, and I suppose he suspects me of being after your money.""While the truth is, I'm after yours!""I wonder if, after all, itismine?" he said thoughtfully. "I have never been able to find any heirs of Madam Grant—and her last message to me seemed to be that I should have what she left.""Oh, it's yours, I'm sure!" she said."I long so to know about her! If I could once convince your father of my sincerity there's much I'd like to ask him.""Father is a strange man. He is often unreasonable and prejudiced in his judgment and treatment of people, but there's a warm vein of affection underneath it all. There's something hidden, something almost furtive, even in his attitude toward me, sometimes, that I can't understand. I happened on a queer evidence of his emotional side only a little while ago. There is a big trunk up-stairs in our garret where my mother's things are stored. It's always kept locked; I've never seen the inside of it. Well, I started to go up into the attic for something, and as I was half-way up the steps where I could just see into the loft, I heard a noise up there. Father was on his knees, in front of that trunk. He was examining something in his hand. There was a tenderness and a pathos in his posture—I got only one glimpse of him before I went down again. You know my mother died when I was about five years old—soon after that day at Madam Grant's. He never seems to want me to talk about my mother at all; he evades the subject whenever I mention her. I think that he must have been very fond of her, and it's still painful to discuss her.""Have you ever asked him about that clipping about Felicia Gerard?""Why, he's as reserved about her, too. Isn't it. strange? But I'm sure that she was Madam Grant—there's a mystery about her I can't fathom. Do tell me more about her. You don't know how queer it seems that I have actually seen her."He gave her all he knew of the strange, mad woman's life—it was not much, as he had been so young then—his straying into her rooms, her adoption of him, his education, his loneliness, his love. She warmed to him anew as he told the story."Ah, that's the part of you I know and love the best!" she exclaimed. "How good you were to her! If anything could make me love you more, it would be your devotion to that poor, lonely, ravaged soul. It seems as if you have served me in serving her, and I would like to think that I could pay you back, by my love, for all you gave her. It stirs me so to think of her pain and her despair!""Let's make a pilgrimage!" he said impulsively. "I haven't been inside the Siskiyou Hotel since I was a child, though I've passed there often enough. It's a pretty disreputable place now, I'm afraid.""Oh, yes!" Clytie caught up with his eagerness. "Think of seeing that place again, where we first met! It will be a celebration, won't it! How long is it? I don't quite dare think.""Twenty-three years!""And all that time we've been coming together—""It was a wide curve my orbit traced, my dear!""It's one of the mysteries of life that while we seem to be going away from each other, we're as really coming together. But we'll travel the rest of the course together, I'm sure!"They set out, forthwith, on their quest for what had been. It had begun to rain, but their spirits were unquenchable by the storm. The excursion was, indeed, an adventure. Granthope himself felt his fancy aroused at the thought of the revisitation of the old home. It had a double charm for him now, as the spot where the two women who had most affected his life had been.He left her under the shelter of an awning while he went into the saloon to interview the bartender who rented the rooms in the building. The man had heard of Madam Grant, though it was so long since she had lived there. There were still stories told of her wealth and her eccentricities, as well as of her occult powers. The rooms had even, at one time, been reported to be haunted, but they had always been let easily enough. At present they were occupied by some Russians. Yes, Granthope might go up; perhaps they would let him in.They ascended the narrow, dingy stairs together. The wall was grimy where many dirty elbows had rubbed the plastering; the rail was rickety and many balusters were missing. Granthope rapped at the door in the hall with a queer, sick feeling of familiarity, though it was as if he had read of the place in some story rather than a place he had used to inhabit.A Jewess opened the door, her sleeves rolled to the elbows, her face plump and good-natured. She smiled pleasantly."Would you mind our coming in to look at your rooms?" he asked."What for?" she said."Why, I used to live here when I was a child, and I'd like to show this lady the place.""If you want to, you can, I suppose. It ain't much to look at now, though. We have to take what we can get, down here."Her curiosity was appeased by the coin which Granthope slipped into her hand, and she sat down to her sewing phlegmatically, looking up occasionally with little interest.The place was, of course, much changed. The windows were washed, the floor scrubbed and partly covered with rag rugs. It was well furnished and well aired. Granthope pointed but the little chamber where Madam Grant had slept, where his own bed had been, and, finally, the closet from which he had first spied upon her. Clytie looked about silently, much moved, and trying to bring back her own recollections of the place."If I close my eyes, I can almost see it as it was," she said. "I can almost get that strange feeling I had when I came here. If I could be here for a while alone I think I could see things. I'd like to go into the closet again. Let's see if the crack is still in the door."It was still there. She asked permission to go inside, and the Jewess rather uncomfortably agreed. The place was filled with clothing; it was close and odorous; the shelves were filled with boxes, rags and household belongings. Clytie went in rather timidly."Go over where I sat in the front room, that day," she said. "I want to look through the crack, as you did. I'd like to be locked in, too, but the key is gone."She closed the door on herself while Granthope walked to the bay-window and looked idly out. It was such a strange sensation, being in the old place again, that for some moments he lost himself in a reverie; then, turning and not seeing Clytie, he walked rapidly to the door and opened it.She stood there, leaning back against the wall of clothing with a wondering, far-away expression, her eyes staring, her face white, her breath coming fast through her parted lips. He took her hand, thinking that she was fainting, and led her out. She recovered herself quickly and drew him into the front room."I saw my father while I was in there," she whispered. "He was looking about the room furtively, as if searching for something. What can it mean? I'm afraid something has happened to him—I'm alarmed about it. I must go right home and see if anything's the matter. I had a strange feeling, like a pain, at first, in the dark, and I was frightened. Then I saw him. Come, let's go away!"She went up to the Jewish woman and shook hands with her, thanking her for the courtesy. The old lady patted Clytie's hand approvingly."That's funny, what everybody wants to see my room for," she said, "but I don't care when I get a dollar every time, do I? Last week they was an old gentleman here, like you was, to see it!""What was he like?" Granthope inquired."Oh, he was bald-head, with a spectacles and some beard."Granthope and Clytie exchanged glances."He must have been down here for something," she said. "I can't make it out. I'm afraid that there's some trouble. It worries me."
CHAPTER XVII
THE MATERIALIZING SÉANCE
FLORA FLINT'S Marvelous Spirit Messages and Grand Materializing Test Séance To-night. 50c. 5203 Van Ness Ave. Come, Skeptics.
FLORA FLINT'S Marvelous Spirit Messages and Grand Materializing Test Séance To-night. 50c. 5203 Van Ness Ave. Come, Skeptics.
Dougal pointed to this notice in theCallone night at Fulda's. There were six at table; he and Mabel and Elsie, Maxim, Starr and Benton.
Benton took up the paper, with a gleam in his eyes, as one who smelled the battle from afar. Starr was for going, most enthusiastically for it; he wanted another chance of seeing Benton in action. Maxim was always to be depended upon; he never refused to go with the others. Elsie smiled and did not commit herself to an opinion. She was a fatalist. If things went well, she smiled. If they went wrong, she was equally, perhaps even a little more, amused, and smiled as enigmatically. Mabel giggled hysterically; her eyes shone; she held up two fingers, the sign of acquiescence. No project was too mad for her to accept and welcome; the madder it was, the more enthusiastic she grew. In her the spirit of adventure still breathed. She was one to whom things always happened, for she never refused Fate's invitations. Fate, having invited her, usually saw her through the affair with gallantry. She always escaped unscathed, preserving all the freshness of her enthusiasm and ingenuousness. No one credited her with a history.
Their plan had been talked over and perfected for some time. Mindful of Fancy's warning, it had been decided to enter the place in two groups and find seats near together, being careful to hold no communication with each other.
Dougal was captain of the proposed exposure. He carried an electric torch and was to choose the proper moment for attack. When he flashed the light upon the spirit form and rushed forward to seize the actor, Maxim was to follow at his heels and help, while Starr and Benton "interfered" for him as in a foot-ball game. The girls were to take care of themselves and watch everything that went on so as to report the affair.
There was no adjournment to Champoreau's that night, for it was necessary to be at Flora Flint's early and attempt to get front seats. Half-past seven found them at the house on Van Ness Avenue, where they divided, Mabel going in with Dougal and Maxim, Elsie with Starr and Benton.
They went up a narrow staircase covered with yellow oil-cloth and encountered, at the top, a long, pale, tow-headed youth with two front teeth missing. He was slouching in the hall, by a little table, as if attempting to hide the tallness and awkwardness of his figure. Collecting the entrance fees without a word, he pointed to a door and the seats inside.
The room was square, and had two windows upon the street; it was lighted dimly from a chandelier in the center, and was crowded with chairs arranged on each side of a central aisle. There were already a score of visitors, and prominent in the second row was Mr. Payson, solemnly calm, impassive, his hands upon the top of his cane. Vixley sat in front and was conversing over the back of his chair with Lulu Ellis. Dougal and his companions found seats on the end of the fourth row; the others had to go farther back.
Hung about were the usual mottoes, worked in colored yarn on perforated cardboard, and, in addition, a notice warning visitors against disorder. It was evident that the materializing business was not unattended with risks. The air was stuffy and smelt of kerosene oil. A curtain of black cambric was stretched across one corner of the room, between the folding doors and the mantelpiece, opposite the windows. The hangings parted in the center, and were now draped up to each side, revealing the interior of the "cabinet."
Professor Vixley rose to announce that any one wishing to examine the cabinet might do so, but nobody seemed to think the investigation worth while. He then went on with an audible conversation with the plump Miss Ellis. He described, first, the wonderful willingness of Little Starlight, who was frequently sent by Flora with astral messages to her mother in Alaska. Lulu played up to him. She saw spirits in the room already—an old man was standing by the door, looking for some one. Another spirit was sitting down beside that young lady in green. Vixley regretted that he couldn't "get" materializing himself, though he had tried all his life. He had occasionally "got" clairvoyance, but it couldn't be depended upon. Clairaudience, of course, was easier. It could be developed in any one who had patience. With his revolving mirrors he could guarantee it in a month. He handed one of his business cards to a woman in black who seemed interested.
Flora Flint, pretty, dressed all in black, came in and joined the conversation. She complained of being tired and headachey, she had worked so hard that day. She stroked her forehead and rubbed her hands, but her eyes were busy with her audience.
She hoped that Stella wouldn't come to-night; Stella always "took it out of her." That was always the way with spirits who had lately "passed out," and who were not yet reconciled to their condition. Stella insisted upon coming back all the time to communicate with her mother—she was not only hindering her own "progression" but worrying her mother by so doing. Stella, moreover, had not yet learned the Laws of Being on the spirit-plane, and had not accustomed herself to the principles of control. Why, it was sometimes positive agony to be taken possession of by Stella. She came in with a bounce like, and it racked the medium all over; and she didn't know how to withdraw her force gradually and easily the way older spirits did. If Wampum, Flora's Indian control, weren't always ready to assist her it would be something terrible. Indians had special power over physical conditions. They were Children of Nature, nearer to earth conditions than others. They had more magnetism, and knew the secrets of natural medicine. Being simple creatures, they were more easily summoned from the spirit sphere—they hadn't "progressed" so far, and they were apt to be still actuated by the motives and desires of the flesh-plane. Oh, yes, they were often coarse and vulgar, but they meant well, indeed they did. Wampum was a great help.
As Flora Flint talked, her eyes ran over the room, looking carefully at her audience. Some she bowed to smilingly; on others her glance rested with more deliberation. She came back again and again to Dougal and Maxim, and to Starr and Benton, in the rear of the room. She whispered to Vixley, after this scrutiny, and he went out to hold a colloquy with Ringa in the hall. Soon after, Mr. Spoll came in and took a seat between the two groups of Pintos. He sat rigidly erect, his thin, bony face impassive, with only his wild eyes moving.
The Pintos listened with delight to Flora's jargon. Starr, placing his note-book under his hat, on his knees, made copious notes. Maxim was most impressed, almost persuaded by the seriousness of the dialogue. Mabel was all ready to believe at the first promise of a marvel. Elsie smiled, Benton yawned, Dougal hugged his electric torch fondly inside his coat.
Madam Spoll soon came in and seated herself between the two windows, under a box containing a lighted kerosene lamp. Her face, usually so complacent, was showing signs of perturbation. She was nervous, looking round every little while suddenly, running her fingers through her short cropped curly hair, throwing her head back as if she found it hard to breathe. She was without a hat, and wore, instead of her professional costume of silk and beads, a black cotton crape gown.
Shortly after eight o'clock, Flora took a chair in front of the cabinet. Vixley rose, fastened black shutters in front of the windows, closed the door, put out the gas and turned down the lamp in the box, shading it with a cloth curtain. The room was now so dark that one could scarcely distinguish anything, until, when eyes became somewhat accustomed to it, figures indistinct and shadowy could be vaguely recognized. Flora Flint spoke:
"I must ask you all to keep perfect silence, please. The spirits won't manifest themselves unless the conditions are favorable and the circle is in a receptive state. We can't do anything unless there's harmony, and if there's any antagonistic vibrations present there's no use attempting anything in the way of demonstration."
After this prologue, she began, accompanied by the faithful, the dreariest tune in the world:
"We arewaiting, we arewaiting, we arewaiting, just now,Just now we arewaiting, we arewaitingjust now;Toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou just now,Just now toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou just now.Show yourfaces, show yourfaces, show yourfaces, just now,Just now show yourfaces, show yourfacesjust now!Come andblessus, come andblessus, come——"
"We arewaiting, we arewaiting, we arewaiting, just now,Just now we arewaiting, we arewaitingjust now;
"We arewaiting, we arewaiting, we arewaiting, just now,
Just now we arewaiting, we arewaitingjust now;
Toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou just now,Just now toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou just now.
Toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou just now,
Just now toreceiveyou, toreceiveyou just now.
Show yourfaces, show yourfaces, show yourfaces, just now,Just now show yourfaces, show yourfacesjust now!
Show yourfaces, show yourfaces, show yourfaces, just now,
Just now show yourfaces, show yourfacesjust now!
Come andblessus, come andblessus, come——"
Come andblessus, come andblessus, come——"
The fourth stanza was here interrupted by three sharp knocks.
"Is that you, Starlight?" the medium asked. Two raps signified assent. "Are you happy, to-night?" Two more knocks.
"Starlight's always happy!" Vixley remarked aloud.
"Yes, sheisa bright little thing," the medium assented. "She passed out when she was only twelve; they say she's very pretty. Are there any spirits with you, Starlight?"
Two more raps.
"Who's there—Wampum?"
Two raps were given with terrific force. Everybody laughed.
"Wampum's feeling pretty good, to-night," said Vixley.
"Anybody else?" Flora asked.
Yes, some one else.
"Who? Is it Mr. Torkins?"
Yes.
The voice of a little old dried-up lady on the front row was heard, saying, "Oh, that's Willie! I'msoglad he's come. Are you happy, Willie?"
Yes, Willie was happy. Had he seen Nelly? Yes, he had seen Nelly, and Nelly was also happy. And so, for a time, it went on, like an Ollendorf lesson.
Starlight was then asked if she could not control the medium, orally. She consented, and soon, in a chirping voice the medium twittered forth:
"Hello! Good evenin', folkses! Oh, I'se so glad to see you all, I is! Hello, Mis' Brickett, you's got a new bonnet, isn't you? It's awfully nice! Oh, I'se so happy. I got some candy, too. It'sspiritcandy; it's lots better'n yours." Here she laughed shrilly and the company snickered.
Mabel could scarcely hold herself in check and had to be pinched. Starlight resumed her artless prattle, with Vixley as interlocutor. The two exchanged homely badinage and pretended to flirt desperately. But she refused this time to sit upon his knee. Finally an old man asked if Walter were there.
"Well, I justguess!" said Starlight. "He's my beau, he is! He giv'd me this candy. Want some?" A chocolate drop flew into the middle of the room.
"That's real materialized candy!" Vixley explained. "We're liable to have a good séance, to-night!"
Starlight, after giving a few messages, announced that the spirits had consented to materialize, and requested the company to sing. Flora went into the cabinet, Madam Spoll turned the light still lower, and Vixley, stating that the medium would now go into a dead trance, took the chair in front of the cabinet. A doleful air was started by the believers on the front seats:
"I have a father in the spirit land,I have a father in the spirit land,My father calls me, I must goTo meet him in the spirit land!"
"I have a father in the spirit land,I have a father in the spirit land,My father calls me, I must goTo meet him in the spirit land!"
"I have a father in the spirit land,
I have a father in the spirit land,
My father calls me, I must go
To meet him in the spirit land!"
then,
"I have a mother in the spirit land,"
"I have a mother in the spirit land,"
"I have a mother in the spirit land,"
and so on, through the whole family, brother, sister and friend.
The darkness was now thick and velvety. The sitters could not see what they touched, and, gazing intently into the void, their eyes filled it with shifting colors and spots of light conjured up by the reflex action of the retina, as if their eyes were shut. As the song ended, there came an awed silence to add to the stifling darkness as they waited for the first manifestation from the cabinet.
Then the hush was broken by excited whispers, and a tall form, dimly luminous, was seen in the opening of the curtains.
"Why, here's the Professor!" said Vixley, shattering the solemnity, and making of this advent a friendly visitation. "Good evening, Professor, we're glad to see you. It's good to have you here again!"
A deep, slow voice replied, articulating its words painfully, "Good eve-ning, friends, I'm ver-y glad to be here to-night!" Every word was chopped into distinct syllables. The figure moved forward a little. It was a typical ghost, a vague, unearthly, draped figure, wavering, indistinct. The face melted into amorphous shadows. It glided here and there noiselessly.
The Professor was an affable celebrity, but somewhat verbose. He spoke to several of the company by name, and interspersed his greetings with jocular remarks to Little Starlight who was supposed to be flitting invisibly about the room. "She's a lit-tul darlink, ev-ery-bod-y loves lit-tul Star-light," he said, in answer to Vixley's comment.
He retreated silently to the cabinet, and the curtains closed upon him. Some one asked if they couldn't see the "Egyptian Hand" and Starlight's voice from the cabinet gave assent. Forthwith it appeared and made a hurried circle of the front part of the room, shedding a ghostly, phosphorescent glow, and, on its way, patting the heads of the faithful.
"Oh, I feel something so nice and soft!" cried Mrs. Brickett. "It's perfectly 'eavenly—right on top of my head—what is it?"
"That'shair!" Starlight called out.
The Professor bellowed from the cabinet, "Oh, ho, ho, ho! You must-unt mind lit-tul Star-light! She's so love-ly we don't mind her, do we?"
Vixley gave the cue for another song to cover the next entrance. This time it wasMy Bonnie Lies Over The Ocean, its special appositeness seeming to lie in the line, "Oh, bring back my Bonnie to me!"
Another shorter form appeared and stood wavering in front of the curtains, then, without a word, withdrew.
"That's Stella," said Vixley. "She's only come to get progression. She ain't very strong yet, so she can't stay but a minute, but we're always glad to see her and help her along all we can with our thought."
A woman, with a sob, rose to go forward.
"No, not to-night, Mrs. Seeley; the medium ain't strong enough!" said Vixley.
How he recognized these spectral visitors nobody asked. They looked just alike, except, perhaps, for height; all were wavering, white and mysterious, without distinguishable faces. At the entrance of another, like all the rest, Professor Vixley startled the company by saying, suavely and patronizingly:
"This is Mr. McKinley, friends. It's good to see you, Mr. McKinley. I'm glad you come. We'realwaysglad to see you. Come again, come any time you feel like it." He explained, after the spirit vanished, that Mr. McKinley had had great difficulty in finding any medium sympathetic enough for him to control, and he wandered from circle to circle, hoping to establish communication with the earth-plane.
The next visitor was no less than Queen Victoria. "That's good!" said Vixley, "we're awful glad to see you, sure!" It now transpired that the spirits whispered their names to him in entering. His conversation became a bit dreary and monotonous and he failed to rise to his obvious opportunities.
A few forms, after this, came farther from the cabinet, and their friends were permitted to embrace them. These favored few sat on the front seats. Whispered dialogues took place—innocuous talk of troubles and happiness, perturbed commonplaces that, had they not been sometimes accompanied with genuine tears, would have been nothing but ridiculous. The spirits were all optimistic and willing to help. Their advice, usually, consisted of the statement that "conditions would soon be more favorable." At intervals the singers broke out into new songs, There's a Land that is Fairer than Day—Nearer, My God, to Thee!—and so on. The air became oppressively close. The audience began to whisper, cough and shuffle. Mabel, desirous of excitement, had nudged Dougal again and again, but he had muttered "Not yet!" at each hint.
The songOver Therehad just ended, and the hush of expectancy had fallen over the company when another form appeared and took a step towards Vixley.
"She says her name is Felicia," he announced. "Does anybody recognize her?"
"I do!" an unctuously mellow voice replied.
"She says she has a message for you," said Vixley, "but she don't want to give it out loud before all these people. Will you come up here?"
Mr. Payson made his way with difficulty, in the dark, past those on his row and came forward.
"You can touch her, if you want to; she's completely materialized. Very strong indeed for one outside Flora's band. She ain't got much vitality, though, and you mustn't tax her too much."
The old man reached forward and touched a cold hand.
"Is it you, Felicia?" he asked tremulously.
"Yes, dear!" was the answer, in a thick, hoarse whisper. "I'm glad to see you here. You must come often. I've tried so hard to get you. I want to help you."
"You have a message for me?"
She whispered, "Yes; it's about the child."
"What is it?" His voice was eager.
"I've found him."
"Oh, I'm so glad! I've longed so to find him and do what was right by him. You know, don't you?" All this was spoken so low that but few could make out the words.
"Yes, I know. I know you love him."
"Where is he, Felicia?"
"He's in this city. I shall bring him to you. Then we'll be so happy, all three of us—you and I and our dear son!"
Payson's voice rang out sharply in an angry exclamation:
"It's all a damned fraud!" he cried. "This is not a spirit at all!" He took a step forward.
On the instant, before even Vixley could move, Dougal had jumped up and run forward. As he dashed up the aisle he pressed the key of his electric torch and cast a bright light upon the group by the cabinet. The draped form had started back, Payson faced her, Vixley had risen from his chair fiercely, Flora Flint's startled face peered through the curtains.
"Come on, Max!" Dougal shouted, and threw himself bodily upon the person wrapped in the sheet. Maxim grappled at almost the same time, but before him Vixley sprang in and rained blow after blow upon Dougal, who fell, dropping his torch. Vixley then locked with Maxim. Starr and Benton had run up, hurtling past Spoll, who had risen to block the way. They were just too late to save Dougal, who had fallen, still holding his captive fast. It was too dark to see what was happening, but Vixley's oaths led them on, crashing over chairs, creeping and fighting through the now terrified crowd. A match was struck somewhere behind them, and, before it flared out, Starr and Benton fell on Vixley together and bore him to the floor.
The room was now horrid with confusion. A racket of moving chairs told that every one had arisen in panic. Women screamed, and there was a rush for the door. It seemed hours before there was a light, then Madam Spoll reached up and turned up the light. At that moment Ringa flew past her—she was thrown down and the lamp fell crashing upon the seat of a chair beside her. There was an explosion on the instant. She was drenched with blazing oil, and the flames enveloped her.
Her screams rose over the tumult so piercingly that every one turned, saw her, and fell back in fear and terror. She clambered to her feet clumsily, shrieking in agony, ran for the door, tore it open and fled down-stairs, to fall heavily at the bottom, writhing.
Benton was that moment free, and the only man to keep his senses. He burst right through the room, throwing men and women to right and left and broke out the door after her, and down the stairs, tearing a table-cloth from a table as he ran through the hall. He wrapped it about her, the flames scorching his face and hands as he did so. The woman was struggling so in her blind terror and torture that it was for a moment impossible to help her. Then, in a few heroic moments he conquered the fire. At last he called to the crowd above for help, and they carried her up into a small side room and laid her upon a bed.
Starr, meanwhile, still clung to Vixley while Maxim had held Ringa off. Spoll was busy extinguishing the fire on the carpet. Then some one at last lighted the chandelier, showing a score of white, frenzied faces, men and women in wild disarray, chairs broken and strewn upon the floor, a smoking, blackened place on the carpet where the remains of the lamp had fallen. The room smelled horribly.
Vixley lay in a welter of ornaments that had been swept from the mantel in his struggle. He was still cursing.
Dougal had held his captive fast through all that turmoil, yelling continuously for a light. Now Mabel and Elsie, who had flattened themselves against the wall, joining their screams to the din, crept trembling up to him to see what he had caught. He turned the limp figure in his arms and sought amongst the folds of the sheet, and turned them away at the face. Elsie gave a little cry.
[image]He sought amongst the folds of the sheet
[image]
[image]
He sought amongst the folds of the sheet
It was Fancy Gray.
CHAPTER XVIII
A RETURN TO INSTINCT
Clytie Payson had come home after a two weeks' stay at Lonely with Mrs. Maxwell, poised, resolute, calm. She seemed sustained by some inward faith manifesting itself only in a higher degree of self-consciousness, as of one inspired by a purpose.
At breakfast, on the morning after the materializing séance, Mr. Payson read the morning journal interestedly, so intensely absorbed in its columns that he scarcely spoke to his daughter. But he did not mention the evening's event, and was moody and morose. The affair had received an extensive notice. Madam Spoll, it seemed, still lingered at the point of death. Although Mr. Payson's name was not mentioned, he was much disturbed and apprehensive of publicity. Clytie, noticing his abstraction, did not disturb him with questions.
After her father had left the house she went up to her workroom, put on her pink pinafore and commenced her bookbinding. She worked at the bench near the window where she could occasionally look out upon the shadows that swept over Mount Tamalpais. The day was alternately bright and lowering; it promised rain before night.
At ten, as she was pausing from her work, with a lingering look out into her garden, she saw a young woman coming up the path. It was Fancy Gray, looking about her as if uncertain whether or not she had found the right place. Fancy wore a black-and-white shepherd's plaid suit, bright and tightly-fitted, which picked her out, in an errant glance of sunshine, against the dull green shrubbery. She stopped for a moment to look at the sun-dial, raising her white-gloved hand to her red and white hat, then passed on toward the house, out of sight.
Clytie went down-stairs herself to answer the bell, and opened the door with a look of pleasure on her face.
Fancy hesitated. "Are you busy, Miss Payson?"
"Of course not!" Clytie held out both her hands. "If I were, I'd be so glad to have you interrupt me, Miss Gray. Do come in! How charming you look! I'm so glad to see you."
Fancy accepted the welcome, looking long into Clytie's eyes, as if she expected to find in them something of special significance. Her own were steady, and had in them an evidence of resolve.
"I've been hoping you'd come to see me, Miss Gray," Clytie began.
Fancy stopped on the threshold.
"Fancy Gray, please!" she corrected, with an elusive smile.
"Fancy Gray—I'm glad to be permitted to use such a lovely name."
"Make it Fancy, straight. Then I'll be more natural. I'm always stiff and stupid when people call me Miss Gray. I always feel as if they were talking about me behind my back." Fancy's smile broke out now, as if in spite of herself.
"I'd love to call you Fancy! It's good of you to let me!" Clytie answered.
Her smile was as delicious, in this gallant interchange. Fancy's smile seemed as much a part of her natural expression as the brightness of her open eyes; it was embracing, like a baby's. Clytie's had the effect of a particularly gracious favor, almost a condescension, a special gift of the moment.
Fancy stopped again at the entrance to the library.
"Say, this is awfully orderly," she said, "haven't you got some place that isn't so tidy and clean? I'm afraid I wouldn't be comfortable here, and I want to talk to you."
Clytie looked at her amusedly. "So you're one of those persons who think dust is artistic? Come up into my workroom, then. You'll find that untidy enough."
Up-stairs they went, to the workroom.
"My!" said Fancy. "If you call this place untidy, you ought to see my room! Why, it's as neat as a pin!" She entered, nevertheless, and looked about her with curiosity at everything.
"Haven't you a looking-glass here?" she asked in astonishment.
"No, but I'll get you one."
Fancy laughed. "I couldn't live an hour without a mirror," she confessed. "You're really queer, aren't you! And you don't even wear jewelry! I'm afraid modesty isn't my favorite stunt. It's very becoming to you, though. I suppose it doesn't go with painted hair." She sighed.
"I don't believe that even you could improve on nature, Fancy!"
"I'm sure nature intended me for a blonde, and got careless. Did you ever know a brunette who didn't want to be a blonde?" She looked at Clytie's tawny hair with evident admiration.
Clytie shook her head, smiling. "I'd give you my hair for your complexion."
"Done!" Fancy rubbed her handkerchief across her pink cheeks, and handed the bit of cambric to Clytie. After this comedy pantomime, she took the little silver watch from her chatelaine pin, opened the back door, where, inside, was a bright and shiny surface, and regarded her face, pouting. Then she looked across at Clytie.
"You're so pretty, Miss Payson! You're four times and a half as pretty as I am!"
Clytie ventured to touch her little finger to the dent in Fancy's upper lip. Fancy retreated a step. "My dear," Clytie asserted, "if I hadthat, I'd be sure that men would be crazy for me till I was seventy years old!"
Fancy shook her head. "I guess I can't beat that. That's what Gay calls 'the pink penultimate.' And the worst of it is, I suppose it's true! But I'll never be seventy if I can help it." She turned away, suddenly grown serious. The room grew dark. It was as if Fancy's mood had turned off the sunshine.
"What are you doing, now?" Clytie asked.
"Oh, just drifting." Fancy's voice was not hopeful.
Clytie took her hand. "Why don't you come here and stay with me for a while? I'd love to have you."
Fancy gently released her fingers in Clytie's and did not look at her.
"Oh, I wish you wouldn't be quite so kind to me, Miss Payson; I can't stand it!" Her mouth trembled; her gaze was serious.
"But it would be so kind of you to come!" Clytie urged.
Fancy smiled wanly. "I can't do it, Miss Payson, I won't explain. I never explain. It bores me. But I simply can't."
"Well, you know, if you ever do want to come—"
"I'll come, sure!" Fancy looked at her now, with fire in her eyes, not flaming, but burning deep. "Whenever I forget what a thoroughbred is like, I'll come! Whenever I need a teaspoonful of flattery to last me over night, I'll come! Whenever I want to know how much finer and kinder women are than men, I'll come! Whenever—"
She would have gone on, but Clytie interrupted her. "Whenever you want to make me very happy, whenever you want to do me the greatest favor in your power, you'll come!"
Fancy's eyes narrowed and twinkled. "I'm all out of breath trying to keep up with you! I give it up. Take the pot!" She turned to the bench and examined the tools in a box.
"Ugh!" she commented. "They look like dentists' instruments!"
"I don't believeyouever had to suffer from them! It doesn't seem possible!" said Clytie.
In response, Fancy engagingly showed her double row of small, white, zigzag teeth. Then, with a sudden access of frivolity, she favored Clytie with an exhibition of her little, pointed tongue, which she erected and waved sidewise. This done, she dropped into a chair again. The sun had returned and visited the room, making a brilliant object of her jaunty figure as she sat under the window. She wore the fine gold chain with the swastika that Clytie had given her. She fingered it as she spoke.
"Miss Payson," she said, "I'm going to ask you something that perhaps is none of my business."
"Ask what you please," said Clytie, but she looked at Fancy with something like alarm.
"Have you seen Mr. Granthope lately?"
Clytie shook her head. "No."
"Could you tell me why not?"
"I'm afraid I can't, Fancy."
"I'm terribly worried about it. I'm sure there's some trouble. Oh, Miss Payson, I know he's awfully unhappy. And I can't bear that!"
Clytie walked to the window and looked out, standing there with her hands behind her back. There was a faint line come into her forehead. "I'd rather not talk about it," she said quietly.
"But I'm sure that if there is any misunderstanding, I might help you. Oh, Miss Payson, I don't want to be impertinent, but I can't bear it to think that he isn't happy. Can't you tell me about it?"
Clytie turned slowly, a look of pain deepening on her face. "I can only tell you this, that I was mistaken in him."
"Mistaken? How?"
"Not in quality, so much as in quantity, if you know what I mean. I know what he's capable of, what he has done, and what he can do. I don't feel any anger or resentment, for what I know, now, that he has done. I feel only pity and sorrow for him."
"But whathashe done? That's just what I want to know. You mean that it was something definite?"
"Yes."
"And—you believed it of him?" Fancy could not restrain her surprise.
"I had to believe it. Oh, Fancy, don't you understand? It was the sort of thing that no woman could forget. It was of no importance except as showing that he wasn't so far along as I had thought. It merely means that I'll have to wait for him. And I shall wait for him. I'm so sure of him that I can wait, though it hurt so at first that I couldn't possibly see him. That's all."
Fancy bit her lip. There was a little, determined shake of her head that Clytie did not see. "Miss Payson," she said, "you must tell me what it was. I've heard Professor Vixley say a thing or two that aroused my suspicions." She went on slowly, with an effort. "I know that Frank adores you—that he has, ever since that night you came with him to his office, after his accident."
"Oh, but this was after that," Clytie said wearily. "It was something he told Vixley."
"After that! Why, Frank hasn't had anything to do with Vixley or Madam Spoll since then, except to try to get them to leave your father alone."
"I saw his own handwriting, Fancy; the very notes of what I had talked about to him—even the little intimate things—they nearly killed me. And Professor Vixley told me himself that Frank had been giving him information right along, up to only a few weeks ago—while we had been so happy together—oh, to think of it!"
Fancy's face had varied in phase, like the opening and shutting of the clouds. Now it was eager, rapt "Oh, I understand, now!" she cried, jumping up.
"Why, Miss Payson, Vixley can no more be trusted than a gambler! Don't you know that he's wild with Frank? Vixley's got it in for him; he is trying to ruin him! Don't you know that Frank has been trying to buy him off, just to save your father from being cheated by them? Why, Frank offered Vixley a thousand dollars to leave town, only last week. Vixley told me so himself!"
"A thousand dollars? That's impossible." Clytie's voice was still hopeless.
"I can't imagine where he got the money, but he had it with him, in cash. Vixley said so."
"How long ago was that?"
"Two weeks ago, about."
Clytie reflected. "I saw Frank on the platform at Stockton, two weeks ago. I wonder—"
"Yes, it was the day after he got back, I remember now."
"Oh!" Clytie's face lightened as if another person had come into the room. She looked away, as if to greet an unseen visitor. Her hand was raised delicately. "I see." Her voice came suddenly, definitely. Then she stared hard at Fancy. "Oh, Fancy, I'm almost frightened at it! I don't dare to believe it. Oh, if I've made a mistake in suspecting him. If I've accused him to myself unjustly, how can I ever bear it! But I saw those notes—"
"And you didn't ask him to explain them?" Fancy spoke very slowly. She did not accuse, she only wondered.
"No." Clytie's tone had dropped low, and she went on, fluttering hurriedly. "I simply went away. Oh, think of it—it was as melodramatic as a play—that's the way women do on the stage, isn't it? But you see, Ididknow awful things about him. Fancy—he had told me, and I suspected more. There was something in the notes about my present to father, and his birthday had only just passed. That proved to me that Frank's notes had been made recently, I thought."
Fancy looked at her with a quizzical expression. "I knew a fellow once who used to call me a marmoset. I guess that's what you are, you poor dear! Why, Frank told me about your binding a book for your father the day he first came here. You must have spoken of it then."
"I did!" Clytie fairly threw out. "I remember it now! And that wasbefore—before he really knew me, wasn't it! Oh, what shall I do, Fancy?" Her look was, for the moment, as helpless as a child's.
"Do?" Fancy repeated, shrugging her shoulders. "Why, the telephone wires are still working, aren't they?" She spoke a bit dryly. She had done her work, now, and relapsed into a sort of apathy.
"And I prided myself on my intuition, and on my fairness!" Clytie went on, unheeding her. "I knew that I saw in him what no one else saw—not even you, who knew him so well, and who wouldn't suspect him of anything so base as that! To think of my being the victim of such a claptrap trick!"
Fancy raised her eyebrows and watched her quietly. "What I can't understand now, is why you're wasting your time talking about it."
Clytie stared at her, her face still shadowed by her emotion. Then her smile came rapturously. She turned and ran down-stairs to the telephone.
Fancy walked to the window forlornly. There she leaned her head on her arm against the pane and shut her eyes, as if she were fatigued. It was black in the west, and the Marin shore was shrouded in the murk. The harbor was covered with dancing whitecaps. The storm was imminent. She stayed there, motionless, until Clytie's step was heard coming up, then started into life again and gave herself a shake.
"He's coming right up!" Clytie announced.
Fancy immediately looked at the blue enameled dial of her little silver watch. "Well, I must be going."
"Oh, please stay!" Clytie exclaimed, holding her tightly. "I really want you to, so! It's you who have done it all."
Fancy smiled at last, and released herself. "Yes, I've spent my life in straightening out other people's snarls," she said. "Sometime I hope some one will be able to straighten mine. But I've got a date, really."
"Oh, do tell me that you're as happy as I am," Clytie exclaimed. "I've been so selfish, I'm afraid! I don't know who he is, but I'm sure he must be fine, if you care for him. How I wish I could help you, dear!"
"The only way you could, I'm afraid, is by lending me some of your brains—and I'm afraid they wouldn't fit my noddle. He's awfully clever, and I feel like a fool when I'm with him."
"But you do really love him, don't you?" Clytie asked anxiously.
Fancy nodded gravely. "I guess yes. As much as I can love anybody. I'm afraid of him. That's one sign, isn't it?"
"And you can't tell me who he is?"
"Not yet."
"Fancy, when you're married, I'll give you a wedding."
"I accept!" said Fancy Gray.
She turned to go, but hesitated a moment, as if she could hardly make up her mind to ask the question, yet couldn't go without asking it. "Miss Payson," she said finally, "did you tell Frank that I had been here?"
"Of course I did!"
"What did he say?"
"He said that it was like you. That you always played fair."
"Good-by!" Fancy said, and suddenly breaking through the reserve that had so far constrained her, she laid her cheek for a moment to Clytie's.
Clytie kissed her. The two walked down-stairs arm in arm. At the front door Fancy paused and said:
"Take my advice, Miss Payson, and don't explain. Never explain. If you once get into that habit you're lost. It only wastes time. Get right down to business and stay there. Your head belongs on his shoulder, remember that. All Frank will want to know is what you're going to do next. Keep him guessing, my dear, but never explain! Now, I'm going to try and get home before it rains."
She turned up her collar, gave a quick toss to her head, and walked rapidly down the garden path. At the gate she turned, gaily gave a mock-military salute, a relic of her old vaudeville manner, then ran down the steps.
Clytie watched her till she had disappeared. Then she went up-stairs and changed her frock.
Fancy's sage advice was wasted. There were explanations, a torrent of them, when Francis Granthope came, explanations voluble, apologetic, impetuous, half-tragic, semi-humorous. The equilibrium of Clytie's mind was completely overturned and its readjustment came only after a prolonged talk. Every trace of the priestess, the princess, the divinity was gone forever, now. She was more like a mother rejoicing at the restoration of a lost child, for whose absence she blamed her own neglect and carelessness. It was all too delightful for Granthope to wish to cut it short. He was hungry for her.
He, too, had his explanations and his news. For two weeks his hands had been tied. Clytie had disappeared from his ken, and he had had no way of tracing her, for it was useless to telephone to the house or to ask of her father. There had been nothing for it but to wait in the hope that whatever had caused the interruption would come right of itself. He had never really felt sure of Clytie—her acceptance of him had seemed too wonderful to be true, a fortune to which he was not really entitled, and which he might lose any instant. Whether or not Vixley or Madam Spoll had effected the separation, he had no way of determining.
He told then of his trip to Stockton where, by establishing his identity by means of the finger-prints, he had succeeded in obtaining possession of the money he had deposited there so many years ago. This had amounted, with interest, to several thousand dollars. He had gone immediately to Vixley to seal the bargain they had made, but the Professor had absolutely refused to accept any payment for leaving town. Indeed, he had hinted that he had schemes on foot which would bring him an income that Granthope could not hope to rival. How matters stood between Mr. Payson and the mediums, neither Granthope nor Clytie knew. They had not yet heard of the materializing séance, and the situation was, so far as they knew, the same as before. It was agreed that there must be another attempt to rescue Mr. Payson, and this time through Doctor Masterson, who was probably venal.
Granthope, meanwhile, however, had perfected his plans. He had sufficient money, now, to warrant his devoting himself to the study of medicine, a project he had so long contemplated that, with the start he had already made, would make it possible for him to practise in two or three years. He had, therefore, abandoned all idea of going upon the stage. Clytie approved of this with considerable relief. The prospect of reviving gossip by Granthope's appearance as an actor had caused her much dread. They had already been much talked about. Society had discussed them until it had grown tired. Nothing was sensational enough to last long as an object of curiosity in San Francisco, and a half-dozen other affairs had caused them to be almost forgotten.
After this first flurry of talk, in which she had come down from that lofty spiritual altitude where she had dwelt for the last two weeks, she was sheer woman, thrilling to his words and to the sense of his nearness. As they had progressed in intimacy her maternal instinct had asserted itself more and more frankly towards him. She had treated him at times almost as if he were a boy whose education she was fondly directing. She had lost some of that feeling, now, in virtue of her mistake; she was curiously humble.
He, too, had somewhat changed. Before Clytie's direct gaze he had lost something of his power; he had been afraid of her. In this readjustment the normal phase of courtship was restored, and, feeling his way with her, delicately perceptive as he always was with women, he began to notice that she would willingly resign the scepter—she would gladly be mastered if he would but put forth his power. She was learning to be a woman; she would be conquered anew.
He was to learn all this slowly, however; so slowly that, at every manifestation of her inclination he had a moment's pause for the wonder of it, tasting the flavor of her condescension, marveling at his own conquest. To him, as to all lovers, his sweetheart had been a woman different from all her sex. He was now to find that she was not one woman but two—that in her the subtly refined spirit of his vision shared her throne with that immemorial wild creature of primal impulse who is the essence of sex itself; who, subdued or paramount, dwells in all women, saints and sinners alike. He had, in virtue of his victory, merged those two warring elements in her soul into one. She had come into her birthright, not lost it. She seemed a little frightened by the metamorphosis, but there was a triumph of discovery, too; he reveled in its manifestation, but he was still timorous before the new, splendid, potent being he had invoked. There was an intoxicating excitement, now, as he saw in her traces of every woman he had known. It was as if, after exploring a strange land and meeting its people, he had at last come upon the queen who combined all the national characteristics and fused them with the unique distinction of royalty.
They had, also, as yet, a whole lovers' language to manufacture, metaphors to weave into their talk, words to suggest phrases, phrases to stand for moods and emotions. But such idioms are untranslatable—they will never bear analysis. For love is a subjective state, whose objective manifestations are ridiculous. No one can see a kiss—it is a state of being.
But into this relation they entered, as children go to play, making their own rules of the game, establishing their own sentimental traditions as lovers use. With such vivid imagination as both possessed the pastime became deliciously intricate; it had pathos and comedy, wind and dew and fire. They spoke in enigmas, one's quick intuition answering the other—there were flashes so quick with humor that a smile was inadequate in satisfying its esoteric message. An observer would have seen Clytie, her eyes alight, her pose informed with gracile eagerness, waking from her gentle languor to inspired gesture—Granthope pacing the room, erect, virile, dark, sensitive in every fiber to her presence, flinging a whimsical word at her, or with a burst of abandon pouring himself out to her to her delight. There was an intellectual stimulation as well as an emotional pressure in their intercourse that forbade any monotony of mood. There was a tensity of feeling that broke, at times, into waves of laughter; but there were moments, too, when the sudden realization of their relation, with all its doubts, its unknown paths, and secret, fatal web of circumstance, impelled them to make sure, at least, of the moment, and to defy the future with an expression of their present happiness. So they came down, and so they went up. From height to depth, from shadow to light he pursued her. He chased, but she was ready enough to be caught! She held a hand to him and helped him up; they met in delightful solitudes of thought; they walked together through the obvious. That he should so follow her, that she could understand, there was wonder enough, even without that other diviner communion. It was a lovers' play-day, now; there was time enough for the lovers' ritual and the worship at the shrine. For this day was the untellable, impossible delights of wonder. They took repossession of their kingdom, no longer jeoparded by doubt.
It was Clytie, who, at last, grew more bold, more definite. She rose and put her two hands on Granthope's shoulders, smiling at him with pride in her possession.
"I can't wait any longer," she exclaimed. "I've suffered enough. Before anything else comes between us, let's settle it so that nothing can separate us. You see, my instinct has triumphed after all. I'm sure of you—indeed, I always have been. I must speak to father to-morrow, and, if you like—" She hesitated, in a sudden, maidenly access of timidity.
"We'll be married—instantly? Dare you?" He crushed her impetuously in his arms, not even this time without a wonder that she should permit him, not quite daring even yet to believe that she was more than willing.
She freed herself with an expression that should have reassured him. "There's nothing, now, to be gained by waiting, is there?"
"Nothing, if you can live on what I can provide."
She laughed at the very absurdity of it. "It may be hard, but I think I can manage father," she went on. "He's too fond of me really to oppose what I'm set on."
"I only wish I could do something to assure him, to propitiate him," said Granthope. "My position has been so undignified that I've had no chance. I have been meeting you surreptitiously, and I suppose he suspects me of being after your money."
"While the truth is, I'm after yours!"
"I wonder if, after all, itismine?" he said thoughtfully. "I have never been able to find any heirs of Madam Grant—and her last message to me seemed to be that I should have what she left."
"Oh, it's yours, I'm sure!" she said.
"I long so to know about her! If I could once convince your father of my sincerity there's much I'd like to ask him."
"Father is a strange man. He is often unreasonable and prejudiced in his judgment and treatment of people, but there's a warm vein of affection underneath it all. There's something hidden, something almost furtive, even in his attitude toward me, sometimes, that I can't understand. I happened on a queer evidence of his emotional side only a little while ago. There is a big trunk up-stairs in our garret where my mother's things are stored. It's always kept locked; I've never seen the inside of it. Well, I started to go up into the attic for something, and as I was half-way up the steps where I could just see into the loft, I heard a noise up there. Father was on his knees, in front of that trunk. He was examining something in his hand. There was a tenderness and a pathos in his posture—I got only one glimpse of him before I went down again. You know my mother died when I was about five years old—soon after that day at Madam Grant's. He never seems to want me to talk about my mother at all; he evades the subject whenever I mention her. I think that he must have been very fond of her, and it's still painful to discuss her."
"Have you ever asked him about that clipping about Felicia Gerard?"
"Why, he's as reserved about her, too. Isn't it. strange? But I'm sure that she was Madam Grant—there's a mystery about her I can't fathom. Do tell me more about her. You don't know how queer it seems that I have actually seen her."
He gave her all he knew of the strange, mad woman's life—it was not much, as he had been so young then—his straying into her rooms, her adoption of him, his education, his loneliness, his love. She warmed to him anew as he told the story.
"Ah, that's the part of you I know and love the best!" she exclaimed. "How good you were to her! If anything could make me love you more, it would be your devotion to that poor, lonely, ravaged soul. It seems as if you have served me in serving her, and I would like to think that I could pay you back, by my love, for all you gave her. It stirs me so to think of her pain and her despair!"
"Let's make a pilgrimage!" he said impulsively. "I haven't been inside the Siskiyou Hotel since I was a child, though I've passed there often enough. It's a pretty disreputable place now, I'm afraid."
"Oh, yes!" Clytie caught up with his eagerness. "Think of seeing that place again, where we first met! It will be a celebration, won't it! How long is it? I don't quite dare think."
"Twenty-three years!"
"And all that time we've been coming together—"
"It was a wide curve my orbit traced, my dear!"
"It's one of the mysteries of life that while we seem to be going away from each other, we're as really coming together. But we'll travel the rest of the course together, I'm sure!"
They set out, forthwith, on their quest for what had been. It had begun to rain, but their spirits were unquenchable by the storm. The excursion was, indeed, an adventure. Granthope himself felt his fancy aroused at the thought of the revisitation of the old home. It had a double charm for him now, as the spot where the two women who had most affected his life had been.
He left her under the shelter of an awning while he went into the saloon to interview the bartender who rented the rooms in the building. The man had heard of Madam Grant, though it was so long since she had lived there. There were still stories told of her wealth and her eccentricities, as well as of her occult powers. The rooms had even, at one time, been reported to be haunted, but they had always been let easily enough. At present they were occupied by some Russians. Yes, Granthope might go up; perhaps they would let him in.
They ascended the narrow, dingy stairs together. The wall was grimy where many dirty elbows had rubbed the plastering; the rail was rickety and many balusters were missing. Granthope rapped at the door in the hall with a queer, sick feeling of familiarity, though it was as if he had read of the place in some story rather than a place he had used to inhabit.
A Jewess opened the door, her sleeves rolled to the elbows, her face plump and good-natured. She smiled pleasantly.
"Would you mind our coming in to look at your rooms?" he asked.
"What for?" she said.
"Why, I used to live here when I was a child, and I'd like to show this lady the place."
"If you want to, you can, I suppose. It ain't much to look at now, though. We have to take what we can get, down here."
Her curiosity was appeased by the coin which Granthope slipped into her hand, and she sat down to her sewing phlegmatically, looking up occasionally with little interest.
The place was, of course, much changed. The windows were washed, the floor scrubbed and partly covered with rag rugs. It was well furnished and well aired. Granthope pointed but the little chamber where Madam Grant had slept, where his own bed had been, and, finally, the closet from which he had first spied upon her. Clytie looked about silently, much moved, and trying to bring back her own recollections of the place.
"If I close my eyes, I can almost see it as it was," she said. "I can almost get that strange feeling I had when I came here. If I could be here for a while alone I think I could see things. I'd like to go into the closet again. Let's see if the crack is still in the door."
It was still there. She asked permission to go inside, and the Jewess rather uncomfortably agreed. The place was filled with clothing; it was close and odorous; the shelves were filled with boxes, rags and household belongings. Clytie went in rather timidly.
"Go over where I sat in the front room, that day," she said. "I want to look through the crack, as you did. I'd like to be locked in, too, but the key is gone."
She closed the door on herself while Granthope walked to the bay-window and looked idly out. It was such a strange sensation, being in the old place again, that for some moments he lost himself in a reverie; then, turning and not seeing Clytie, he walked rapidly to the door and opened it.
She stood there, leaning back against the wall of clothing with a wondering, far-away expression, her eyes staring, her face white, her breath coming fast through her parted lips. He took her hand, thinking that she was fainting, and led her out. She recovered herself quickly and drew him into the front room.
"I saw my father while I was in there," she whispered. "He was looking about the room furtively, as if searching for something. What can it mean? I'm afraid something has happened to him—I'm alarmed about it. I must go right home and see if anything's the matter. I had a strange feeling, like a pain, at first, in the dark, and I was frightened. Then I saw him. Come, let's go away!"
She went up to the Jewish woman and shook hands with her, thanking her for the courtesy. The old lady patted Clytie's hand approvingly.
"That's funny, what everybody wants to see my room for," she said, "but I don't care when I get a dollar every time, do I? Last week they was an old gentleman here, like you was, to see it!"
"What was he like?" Granthope inquired.
"Oh, he was bald-head, with a spectacles and some beard."
Granthope and Clytie exchanged glances.
"He must have been down here for something," she said. "I can't make it out. I'm afraid that there's some trouble. It worries me."