"I don"t understand. Symptoms?"
"Well, we will say symptoms of nervous excitement. You are aware, no doubt, that he is exceptionally sensitive. Probably you have seen for yourself--"
"Wait a moment," said Lady Laura, her own heart beating furiously.
"Why do you not go to Mr. Baxter himself?"
"I have done so. I arranged to meet him at lunch, and somehow I took a wrong turn with him: I have no tact whatever, as you perceive. But I wrote to him on Friday night, offering to call upon him, and just giving him a hint. Well, it was useless. He refused to see me."
"I don"t see what I--"
"Oh yes," chirped the old gentleman almost gaily. "It would be quite unusual and unconventional. I just ask you to send him a line--I will take it myself, if you wish it--telling him that you think it would be better for him not to come, and saying that you are making other arrangements for tonight."
He looked at her with that odd little air of birdlike briskness that she had noticed in the street; and it pleasantly affected her even in the midst of the uneasiness that now surged upon her again tenfold more than before. She could see that there was something else behind his manner; it had just looked out in the glance he had given round the room on entering; but she could not trouble at this moment to a.n.a.lyze what it was. She was completely bewildered by the strangeness of the encounter, and the extraordinary coincidence of this man"s judgment with her own. Yet there were a hundred reasons against her taking his advice. What would the others say? What of all the arrangements ... the expectation...?
"I don"t see how it"s possible now," she began. "I think I know what you mean. But--"
"Indeed, I trust you have no idea," cried the old gentleman, with a queer little falsetto note coming into his voice--"no idea at all. I come to you merely on the plea of nervous excitement; it is injuring his health, Lady Laura."
She looked at him curiously.
"But--" she began.
"Oh, I will go further," he said. "Have you never heard of--of insanity in connection with all this? We will call it insanity, if you wish."
For a moment her heart stood still. The word had a sinister sound, in view of an incident she had once witnessed; but it seemed to her that some meaning behind, unknown to her, was still more sinister. Why had he said that it might be "called insanity" only...?
"Yes.... I--I have once seen a case," she stammered.
"Well," said the old gentleman, "is it not enough when I tell you that I--I who was a spiritualist for ten years--have never seen a more dangerous subject than Mr. Baxter? Is the risk worth it...? Lady Laura, do you quite understand what you are doing?"
He leaned forward a little; and again she felt anxiety, sickening and horrible, surge within her. Yet, on the other hand....
The door opened suddenly, and Mr. Vincent came in.
III
There was silence for a moment; then the old gentleman turned round, and in an instant was on his feet, quiet, but with an air of bristling about his thrust-out chin and his tense att.i.tude.
Mr. Vincent paused, looking from one to the other.
"I beg your pardon, Lady Laura," he said courteously. "Your man told me to wait here; I think he did not know you had come in."
"Well--er--this gentleman..." began Lady Laura. "Why, do you know Mr. Vincent?" she asked suddenly, startled by the expression in the old gentleman"s face.
"I used to know Mr. Vincent," he said shortly.
"You have the advantage of me," smiled the medium, coming forward to the fire.
"My name is Cathcart, sir."
The other started, almost imperceptibly.
"Ah! yes," he said quietly. "We did meet a few times, I remember."
Lady Laura was conscious of distinct relief at the interruption: it seemed to her a providential escape from a troublesome decision.
"I think there is nothing more to be said, Mr. Cathcart.... No, don"t go, Mr. Vincent. We had finished our talk."
"Lady Laura," said the old gentleman with a rather determined air, "I beg of you to give me ten minutes more private conversation."
She hesitated, clearly foreseeing trouble either way. Then she decided.
"There is no necessity today," she said. "If you care to make an appointment for one day next week, Mr. Cathcart--"
"I am to understand that you refuse me a few minutes now?"
"There is no necessity that I can see--"
"Then I must say what I have to say before Mr. Vincent--"
"One moment, sir," put in the medium, with that sudden slight air of imperiousness that Lady Laura knew very well by now. "If Lady Laura consents to hear you, I must take it on myself to see that nothing offensive is said." He glanced as if for leave towards the woman.
She made an effort.
"If you will say it quickly," she began. "Otherwise--"
The old gentleman drew a breath as if to steady himself. It was plain that he was very strongly moved beneath his self-command: his air of cheerful geniality was gone.
"I will say it in one sentence," he said. "It is this: You are ruining that boy between you, body and soul; and you are responsible before his Maker and yours. And if--"
"Lady Laura," said the medium, "do you wish to hear any more?"
She made a doubtful little gesture of a.s.sent.
"And if you wish to know my reasons for saying this," went on Mr.
Cathcart, "you have only to ask for them from Mr. Vincent. He knows well enough why I left spiritualism--if he dares to tell you."
Lady Laura glanced at the medium. He was perfectly still and quiet--looking, watching the old man curiously and half humorously under his heavy eyebrows.
"And I understand," went on the other, "that tonight you are to make an attempt at complete materialization. Very good; then after tonight it may be too late. I have tried to appeal to the boy: he will not hear me. And you too have refused to hear me out. I could give you evidence, if you wished. Ask this gentleman how many cases he has known in the last five years, where complete ruin, body and soul--"
The medium turned a little to the fire, sighing as if for weariness: and at the sound the old man stopped, trembling. It was more obvious than ever that he only held himself in restraint by a very violent effort: it was as if the presence of the medium affected him in an extraordinary degree.
Lady Laura glanced again from one to the other.
"That is all, then?" she said.
His lips worked. Then he burst out--