"But suppose," said Brand, with the suggestion of a sneer in his voice, "that Mildred should not wish to be released?"
The doctor pressed his lips together and his gray eyes flashed. His pale face looked very weary. "Her wishes can make no difference now,"
he replied decisively. "Write to her and say that you wish to end the engagement. Make any excuse that you like. But you must not see her again. That is final, Felix. Good-bye. I"ll see you tonight."
CHAPTER XXI
HUGH GORDON TELLS HIS STORY
Dr. Annister dismissed his last patient and looked at his watch. It was nine o"clock and Felix Brand, he thought, was probably in the waiting room. His face was even paler than usual and its deep lines told of pain, anxiety and spent strength. He sat down, his head upon his hand and his thoughts upon his daughter.
"Poor child!" he said to himself. "It will go hard with her. But there can be no "ifs" or "ands" about it now. Her mother must take her away where there will be no possibility of her seeing him again. Poor little girl!"
He rose with a weary sigh and crossed to the door into the waiting room. As he threw it open a man at the farther side of the room arose and came toward him with a quick, firm stride and a confident manner.
He saw at once that it was not Felix Brand.
"Good evening, Dr. Annister," said the stranger. "I know you were expecting to see Mr. Brand, but I have come in his place. I am Hugh Gordon."
"I am glad to see you, Mr. Gordon," the doctor replied, his interest at once at high pitch. "You can tell me the other side of the case. I met you once before, I believe. Will you come in?"
The physician cast a keen glance at his visitor and said to himself, astonished, that he would never have believed this physical envelope to be the same that housed the man with whom he had talked a few hours before. Feature and coloring were there, it was true, but a different soul animated the body and lighted the countenance and made of the whole another man. The tell-tale signs of evil living had vanished from the face, and so also had its expression of ultra refinement and sensitiveness, while in the eyes no longer shone that winning, caressing look which had been a magnet for the hearts of women. This man held his head high, his eyes were keen, penetrating, virile, and in his countenance the doctor read sincerity, forcefulness, determination. ""As he thinketh in his heart, so is he"," Dr. Annister mused as he leaned forward to listen to what the young man was saying.
"I have come to tell you the truth about this matter, so that you can see for yourself that Felix Brand is not worth saving. You promised him this morning that you would help him. But when you hear what I can tell you I have no doubt you will feel, as I do, that he deserves the fate he has brought upon himself and that the world will be better to be rid of him."
"One moment," said the doctor. "Were you aware of all that pa.s.sed between us this morning? Do you know all that happens to him?"
"Everything he thinks and says and does I know, and I have always known. That is one of the reasons why I have determined that he must go. I will no longer be a witness within his body of his evil deeds. I am never unconscious, as he is always when he goes under. And that is why, also, I am able to tell you the simple truth. It is not so strange a story as you may think. I wonder sometimes why something of the sort has not happened to many a man.
"It began with that incident about his sister of which he told you.
But it wasn"t an accident. He wanted her seat on the limb of the tree and when she wouldn"t give it to him he pushed her off. She was almost killed and was crippled for life. But n.o.body, except him and her and me, has ever known that it was not an accident. He surrendered to selfishness and cowardice and for the first time in his life denied his conscience. That was the beginning of me, and of all that has happened since."
Dr. Annister was leaning forward, almost out of his chair, and so intense was the interest with which he was listening that his pale face was alight and its lines of anxiety and fatigue smoothed out.
"I see!" he exclaimed eagerly. "I begin to understand how it was. The shock, the struggle within himself and the revulsion of his conscience from the victory won by the worse side of his nature started up a new center, or threw off a new nebula, of consciousness--we can only vaguely guess at the process. It proved strong enough to form within his brain the embryo of another individuality.
"I have thought sometimes--" the doctor stopped for a moment, his attention turning inwards again, while his elbows sought the arms of the chair and his finger-tips came together. "I am beginning to believe," he went on, his gaze fixed high up on the wall, "that even in apparently normal human beings there may exist two or more of these nebulae of consciousness in process of formation, but bound up so closely with the dominating consciousness that they never quite separate themselves. The case never becomes that of complete dual personality, although such a person may have within himself two widely different sets of ideals and principles of living.
"Strangely enough, these cases seem always to be evolved out of the person"s att.i.tude toward the ethical problems of life. There, for instance, are the officers of powerful corporations who may be rapacious, ruthless, brutal, criminal, in their business methods, but in private life the kindest, most sympathetic and generous of men.
Yes, I am beginning to think it may be that such men have set going within themselves some such physiological and psychological process as this which has nearly overwhelmed Felix Brand.
"Who can tell what a few more years of investigation and study of this problem will give us!" The finger-tips were rhythmically tapping and the physician"s face was alight with interest, although he seemed for the moment to have forgotten his companion. "Perhaps in another generation or two we shall have discovered that it is medical not legal treatment that pirate captains of industry stand in need of.
Perhaps the too shrewd financiers of that day will not be fined or sent to prison but compelled to take courses of hypnotic treatment."
Dr. Annister"s gaze, wandering downward, fell upon his companion, and he came back to the matter in hand with a deprecatory smile.
"Pardon me, Mr. Gordon. I"ve been going far astray. But the whole question interests me deeply. Strange, strange, what havoc within a man"s brain that war between right and wrong can make, when his own fierce desires get mixed up in it! Will you go on, please? After this first act of cruelty, unintentional doubtless, but afterward concealed, out of cowardice and the desire to advance his own selfish interests--then?"
"Why, it was the beginning of a constantly growing habit of selfishness in thought and action. I could tell you of thousands of little incidents, each of which helped to strengthen his conception of himself as the center of everything and his notion that his wishes must be gratified and his desires satisfied, at whatever cost to others. This didn"t come all at once, you know. It was the growth of years, and kept on all through his youth and early manhood, till it reached its present abominable state. And as it grew, so did I."
"Yes, yes!" the physician broke in again. "Every impulse toward altruistic thought or action that was denied broke off and attached itself to the other nebula of consciousness. Thus he set up within himself two centers of consciousness, of moral growth, one altruistic and the other egotistic. And, as these grew, certain other mental qualities were caught within them, so that, when the separation was at last complete, each individuality had, intensified, the qualities that, mingled together, ought to have gone to the making of an evenly balanced, highly endowed man."
"That"s it. And now the question is, which of us are you going to try to save? Which will you allow to live?"
"Why, I"m going to try to put you together again, to mingle you into one proportioned, rounded individuality."
Gordon"s manner bristled with aggressiveness. "You can"t do it," he exclaimed abruptly. "It"s beyond human power, now. "All the king"s horses and all the king"s men" wouldn"t be enough for such a job.
Felix Brand is beyond saving. He chose his part and wilfully kept in it. Let him suffer the consequences. I was his conscience--the part of him in which conscience abode. He denied me and repulsed me over and over again, until he so calloused himself that there was no point left for attack. And so we have become two separate and complete human beings."
Gordon"s words were rushing forth in an impulsive torrent and the physician held up an arresting finger. "No, you"re wrong there. You are not two complete human beings. It has come about that he has divested himself of moral sense. But he still has a wonderful esthetic gift, of very great value to the world. Have you any part in that?"
"No, I have not," was Gordon"s quick reply. "I admit I am lacking on that side of my nature. But is that the most important thing for a man to possess?"
He sprang to his feet and strode about as he went on pouring out his arguments with emphatic, forceful manner. Dr. Annister watched him, wondering at his apparent size. For he looked a considerably larger man than did Felix Brand. The light gray clothing, of looser fit, made some difference, but the physician decided that his manner was responsible for most of the illusion--his self-confident stride, his masterful quality, the impression he gave of abundant vitality and of strength of character and of body. These were all in strong contrast to Brand"s courtly, winning manners, affable tones and leisurely, graceful movements.
"Felix Brand has become a monster, a swollen toad of egotism. He cares for nothing but his own advantage, his own interests, his own pleasures, and these he reaches out and takes, grabs them, without any regard for other people"s rights or necessities. That kind of selfishness is the root of all evil, and Felix Brand is its incarnation. He is soaked with wickedness. Oh, you do not know the half of it, Dr. Annister, though you have guessed something from the change in the expression of his countenance. For years he has been like a carrier of typhoid, spreading the contagion of his own sinful nature wherever he went, himself unpunished, even admired, looked up to and patterned after. Do you want to keep such a man alive? Do you think, do you really believe, Dr. Annister, that the genius of such a man as that, whatever it is, could make amends to the world for all the evil that he does?"
"You forget, Mr. Gordon, that it is no part of my purpose to keep him as he is. It is my duty to save him from the consequences of his folly and of his perverted view of his relations with the world--to make him whole again."
"You can"t do it, Dr. Annister, you can"t do it! Oil and water will no more mix than my characteristics and his can be made to mingle in a smooth blend again. My purpose in life is to add to the well-being of the world. I want to lessen its poverty and its degradation and help to reform the soul-poisoning conditions under which so many thousands live. I have planned my life and my head is full of schemes for the betterment of the world. I find it easy to make money. I shall be rich soon. My chief interest and pleasure will be in using my money to work out those plans. It is not my intention to do this as charity or according to ordinary, philanthropic methods. I"ve no use for charity.
It is wrong and it only makes things worse. What I purpose doing is to carry out my business schemes by such methods as will enable those who work with me and for me to earn their own betterments in life, and then to enlighten and guide them in the spending and investment of their earnings. I want to prove that that sort of thing is possible and profitable. In that and similar ways, which will benefit and make others happy quite as much as they will contribute to my satisfaction, I expect to spend my life. Felix Brand will design some beautiful buildings. But he will add to the rottenness of the world and spread disaster and misery with every day of his life. Will the buildings atone for all that evil?"
Dr. Annister"s person, sunk in the depths of his arm-chair, looked even smaller than usual, in comparison with this energetic, dominating figure that stood above him, speaking with emphasis and conviction, instinct with determined will. He leaned forward and began to tap his finger-tips, his face thoughtful. Silence fell upon them for a moment.
"My mission," he presently said, slowly and solemnly, "is to heal, not to judge. But," he added, in a mournful tone, "you give me an idea of what a splendid man Felix Brand might have been if he had not so perverted and maimed himself."
Gordon made a gesture of impatience and his dark eyes flashed. "He chose his way. Let him walk in it. I did my best to warn him where it would lead. As long as I lived in him, I was his conscience and tried to plead with him and argue with him. After I broke from him and began to live my own life I wrote letters to him and told him the sort of creature he was becoming and what he might expect.
"It was as if we were twins, with only one body between us. At first I felt strongly the bond that held us together. At the start I did not want to do anything to injure him. I thought we might both live, taking turns with our one body. But as soon as I tried to make him see the evil of his ways he began to hate me. His life grew so much worse that I lost all patience with him. He would pay no attention to my warnings.
"When he decided that he wanted that appointment to the Munic.i.p.al Art Commission, of course, characteristically, he wanted it at once, by fair means or foul. I warned him not to do anything underhanded and he told me to mind my own affairs. I told him I"d show him up if he dabbled in any unscrupulous methods. But he went straight ahead after what he wanted. You know what the consequences were."
"Yes, I remember," the physician a.s.sented. "It was almost my first intimation, really my first proof, that Felix was not what I, and everyone, had thought him."
"Oh, he had kept the outside of his life as admirable as any one could wish. But I knew, long before that, how dirty and misshapen his soul was. Even then, though, if he had heeded my warnings and shown any desire to straighten out his theory of life and clean up his methods of living I would have done my best to help him. At that time I would even have given up my own desire to live and tried to reincorporate myself with him. But it was no good, any of it.
"There was the case of that young woman, Miss Andrews, a nice girl, with talent, and likely to make a fine success in her profession. But Felix Brand crossed her path, took a fancy to her, talked his d.a.m.nable ideas into her head and set her feet on the downward path. She"s going down now at a lively rate, thanks to the lessons she had from him, and she"ll soon be at the bottom. It was that incident as much as any one thing that determined me I"d live my own life, and the whole of it, and let him work out his own d.a.m.nation as fast as he could. I didn"t want to be instrumental in continuing his life as such a source of evil. Do you, Dr. Annister?"
The little physician sat with his finger-tips softly beating together, his attention all in drawn and his thought concentrated upon the problem which had been proposed to him. At last he rose slowly to his feet and turned his gray eyes upon Gordon, whose intent gaze was fastened upon his face.
"Your meaning, as I understand it, Mr. Gordon, is that I should refrain from giving him any a.s.sistance. And you believe that you can, in that case, dominate him completely, force him out of consciousness, keep him out of it, and yourself enjoy, from that time on, uninterrupted, active life, in his body."
"That is what I think I shall be justified in doing."
"Then I must tell you that I cannot help you. My Hippocratic oath binds me to the healing, the saving of life. He is my patient. He came to me asking my aid. I must give it to him, to the best of my ability."