"Then we"re not going to issue stock?" asked Linda. "I do need so many new and expensive things."
"We"ve got to experiment a little further, first," said Destyn.
Sacharissa laughed: "You blindfold me, give me a pencil and lay the Social Register before me. Whatever name I mark you are to experiment with."
"Don"t mark any of our friends," began Linda.
"How can I tell whom I may choose. It"s fair for everybody. Come; do you promise to abide by it--you two?"
They promised doubtfully.
"So do I, then," said Sacharissa. "Hurry up and blindfold me, somebody.
The bus will be here in half an hour, and you know how father acts when kept waiting."
Linda tied her eyes with a handkerchief, gave her a pencil and seated herself on an arm of the chair watching the pencil hovering over the pages of the Social Register which her sister was turning at hazard.
"_This_ page," announced Sacharissa, "and _this_ name!" marking it with a quick stroke.
Linda gave a stifled cry and attempted to arrest the pencil; but the moving finger had written.
"Whom have I selected?" inquired the girl, whisking the handkerchief from her eyes. "What are you having a fit about, Linda?"
And, looking at the page, she saw that she had marked her own name.
"We must try it again," said Destyn, hastily. "That doesn"t count. Tie her up, Linda."
"But--that wouldn"t be fair," said Sacharissa, hesitating whether to take it seriously or laugh. "We all promised, you know. I ought to abide by what I"ve done."
"Don"t be silly," said Linda, preparing the handkerchief and laying it across her sister"s forehead.
Sacharissa pushed it away. "I can"t break my word, even to myself," she said, laughing. "I"m not afraid of that machine."
"Do you mean to say you are willing to take silly chances?" asked Linda, uneasily. "I believe in William"s machine whether you do or not. And I don"t care to have any of the family experimented with."
"If I were willing to try it on others it would be cowardly for me to back out now," said Sacharissa, forcing a smile; for Destyn"s and Linda"s seriousness was beginning to make her a trifle uncomfortable.
"Unless you want to marry somebody pretty soon you"d better not risk it,"
said Destyn, gravely.
"You--you don"t particularly care to marry anybody, just now, do you, dear?" asked Linda. "No," replied her sister, scornfully.
There was a silence; Sacharissa, uneasy, bit her underlip and sat looking at the uncanny machine.
She was a tall girl, prettily formed, one of those girls with long limbs, narrow, delicate feet and ankles.
That sort of girl, when she also possesses a ma.s.s of chestnut hair, a sweet mouth and gray eyes, is calculated to cause trouble.
And there she sat, one knee crossed over the other, slim foot swinging, perplexed brows bent slightly inward.
"I can"t see any honorable way out of it," she said resolutely. "I said I"d abide by the blindfolded test."
"When we promised we weren"t thinking of ourselves," insisted Ethelinda.
"That doesn"t release us," retorted her Puritan sister.
"Why?" demanded Linda. "Suppose, for example, your pencil had marked William"s name! That would have been im--immoral!"
"_Would_ it?" asked Sacharissa, turning her honest, gray eyes on her brother-in-law.
"I don"t believe it would," he said; "I"d only be switched on to Linda"s current again." And he smiled at his wife.
Sacharissa sat thoughtful and serious, swinging her foot.
"Well," she said, at length, "I might as well face it at once. If there"s anything in this instrument we"ll all know it pretty soon. Turn on your receiver, Billy."
"Oh," cried Linda, tearfully, "don"t you do it, William!"
"Turn it on," repeated Sacharissa. "I"m not going to be a coward and break faith with myself, and you both know it! If I"ve got to go through the silliness of love and marriage I might as well know who the bandarlog is to be.... Anyway, I don"t really believe in this thing.... I can"t believe in it.... Besides, I"ve a mind and a will of my own, and I fancy it will require more than amateur psychical experiments to change either.
Go on, Billy."
"You mean it?" he asked, secretly gratified.
"Certainly," with superb affectation of indifference. And she rose and faced the instrument.
Destyn looked at his wife. He was dying to try it.
"Will!" she exclaimed, "suppose we are not going to like Rissa"s possible f--fiance! Suppose father doesn"t like him!"
"You"ll all probably like him as well as I shall," said her sister defiantly. "w.i.l.l.y, stop making frightened eyes at your wife and start your infernal machine!"
There was a vicious click, a glitter of shifting clockwork, a snap, and it was done.
"Have you now, _theoretically_, got my psychical current bottled up?" she asked disdainfully. But her lip trembled a little.
He nodded, looking very seriously at her.
"And now you are going to switch me on to this unknown gentleman"s psychical current?"
"Don"t let him!" begged Linda. "Billy, dear, how _can_ you when n.o.body has the faintest idea who the creature may turn out to be!"
"Go ahead!" interrupted her sister, masking misgiving under a careless smile.
Click! Up shot the glittering, quivering tentacle of Rosium, vibrating for a few moments like a thread of silver. Suddenly it was tipped with a blue flash of incandescence.
"Oh, dear! Oh, dear! There he is!" cried Linda, excitedly. "Rissy! Rissy, little sister, _what_ have you done?"
"Nothing," she said, catching her breath. "I don"t believe that flash means anything. I don"t feel a bit different--not the least bit. I feel perfectly well and perfectly calm. I don"t love anybody and I"m not going to love anybody--until I want to, and that will probably never happen."
However, she permitted her sister to take her in her arms and pet her. It was rather curious how exceedingly young and inexperienced she felt. She found it agreeable to be fussed over and comforted and cradled, and for a few moments she suffered Linda"s solicitude and misgivings in silence.