She looked at him puzzled. She had no idea what he meant.
"If that child wasn"t the child of sensible people, he"d have become famous--he"d be what silly people call a medium."
"Would he?" she said. "Do you mean that he can turn tables and do that sort of thing?"
The doctor shook his head. "What I mean is that in some way as yet unexplained by science, he can create simulacra of what people are thinking about, or of what may simply be hidden far away in the recesses of their memory. In a sort of way Timmy Tosswill can make things seem to appear which, as a matter of fact, are not there. But how he does it?
Well, I can"t tell you _that_."
Enid Crofton stared at Dr. O"Farrell. It was as if he were speaking to her in a foreign language, and yet his words made her feel vaguely apprehensive. Surely Timmy could not divine the hidden thoughts of the people about him? She grew hot with dismay at the idea.
The doctor bent forward, and looked at her keenly: "I should like to ask you another question, Mrs. Crofton. Have you in your past life ever had some very painful a.s.sociation with a dog--I mean any very peculiar experience with a terrier?"
The colour receded from her face. She was so surprised that she hardly knew what to answer.
"I don"t think so. My first experience of a really disagreeable kind was when that boy"s terrier flew at me. It"s true that I"ve always had a peculiar dislike to dogs--at least for a long time," she corrected herself hastily. She added after a moment"s pause, "I expect you know that Colonel Crofton bred dogs?"
"Aye, and that very dog, Flick, was bred by your husband--isn"t that so?"
"I believe he was."
She was wondering anxiously why he asked her this question, and her mind all at once flew off to Piper and Mrs. Piper, and she felt sick with fear.
"I ask you these questions," said the doctor very deliberately, "because, according to Mrs. Tosswill, Timmy thinks, or says he thinks, that you are always accompanied by--well, how can I put it?--by a phantom dog."
"A phantom dog?"
She stared at him with her large dark eyes, and then, all at once, she remembered Dandy, her husband"s terrier, who, after his master"s tragic death, had refused all food, and had howled so long and so dismally that, in a fit of temper, she had herself ordered him to be destroyed.
She lay back on her pretty, frilled pillow, and covered her face with the hand belonging to the arm that was uninjured.
"Oh," she gasped out, "I see now. What a horrible idea!"
"Then you have no painful a.s.sociations with any one particular terrier apart from Flick?" persisted Dr. O"Farrell.
He really wanted to know. According to his theory, Timmy"s subconscious self could in some utterly inexplicable way build up an image of what was in the minds of those about him.
"Perhaps I have," she confessed in a very low voice. "My husband had a favourite terrier called Dandy, Flick"s father in fact. The poor brute got into such a state after his master"s death that he had to be sent to one of those lethal chambers in London. The whole thing was a great trouble, and a great pain to me."
Dr. O"Farrell felt a thrill of exultation run through him. To find his theory thus miraculously confirmed was very gratifying.
"That"s most interesting!" he exclaimed, "for Timmy, even the very first time he saw you walking down the avenue towards the front door of Old Place, thought you were followed by a dog uncommonly like his terrier, Flick. His theory seemed to be that both Flick and the cat did not fly at _you_, but at your invisible companion."
"My invisible companion?"
He saw the colour again receding from her face. "Don"t for a moment believe _I_ think there is any phantom dog there," he said soothingly.
"All I believe--and what you have told me confirmed my theory--is that Timmy Tosswill can not only see what"s in your subconscious mind, but that he can build up a kind of image of it and produce what is called, I believe, in the East, collective hypnotism. I should never be surprised, for instance, if someone else thought they saw you with a dog--that is as long as that boy was present. It"s a most interesting and curious case."
"It"s a very horrible case," said Enid faintly.
She felt as if she were moving in a terrible nightmare world, unsuspected, unrealised by her till then.
"All abnormality is unpleasant," said the doctor cheerfully, "I always thought the boy would grow out of it, and, to a certain extent, he _has_ grown out of it. You"ll hardly believe me, Mrs. Crofton, when I tell you that, as a little child, Timmy actually declared he could see fairies and gnomes, "the little people" as we call them in my country!
I think that"s what first started this queer reputation of his among the village folk. I tell you he"s anything but a welcome guest in the cottages--people with evil consciences, you know!" The doctor laughed.
"They"re afraid of Master Timmy, that"s what the bad folks in Beechfield are--they think he can "blight" them, bring ill-luck on them. Well, well, I mustn"t stop, gossiping here with you, though it"s very pleasant. By the way, I"ll ask you to keep all I"ve said to you to yourself--not but what the boy"s parents know quite well what I think about him!"
Then followed a few professional questions and answers, and then the doctor went off, well satisfied with his visit.
After Dr. O"Farrell had gone, Enid Crofton lay back and shut her eyes.
Her nerves had by no means recovered from the horrible experience, and she felt a sort of utter distaste to Beechfield and to everybody there--with the one exception of G.o.dfrey Radmore. She promised herself fiercely that if Radmore did what she was always telling herself secretly he would surely end by doing, then she would make it her business to see that they never, either of them, came back to this horrible place any more.
Apart from anything else, Jack Tosswill was already beginning to be more of a complication than was pleasant to one in her weak, excited state.
He had left a letter when he called that morning--an eager, ardent love-letter, entirely a.s.suming that they were engaged to be married.
She took it out of the pretty fancy bag, which lay on her pale blue silk eiderdown, and read it through again with a mixture of amus.e.m.e.nt and irritation. It was a long letter, written on the cheap, grey Old Place notepaper, very unlike another love-letter she had had to-day, written on nice, thick, highly-glazed letter-paper which had a small coronet embossed above the address. In that letter Captain Tremaine urgently asked to be allowed to come down for the next week-end. He pointed out that his leave was drawing to a close, and that they had a lot of things to discuss. He, too, considered himself engaged to her, but somehow she didn"t mind that. She told herself pettishly that Providence has a way of managing things very badly. If only Tremaine had Radmore"s money, even only a portion of his money, how gladly she would leave England behind her, and start a new, free, delightful life in India! Tremaine knew the kind of grand, smart people she longed to know. He was staying with some of them now.
Just as this thought was drifting through her mind, the door opened and she hurriedly stuffed Jack"s letter beneath her silk quilt.
Radmore walked in, and his face softened as he looked down on the pale, fragile-looking girl--for she did look very much like a girl--lying on the sofa.
"I"ve brought you a lot of messages from Old Place," he began. "They really are most awfully miserable about you!"
"I"m glad the cat hasn"t been killed after all," she said weakly.
She had at last seen the look of recoil on Dr. O"Farrell"s face, and she was now tr.i.m.m.i.n.g her sails accordingly.
"That"s very magnanimous of you." Radmore smiled. He was surprised, and a little touched, too. "May I sit down?"
He drew up a chair, and then he touched the hand belonging to the bandaged arm. "I do hope you are fairly free from pain?" he said solicitously.
"It does hurt a good deal."
There was a pause; his hand was still lying protectingly over her hand.
She lay quite still--a vision of lovely Paris frocks, a Rolls-Royce running smoothly by a deep blue sea, a long rope of pearls, flashed before her inner consciousness. Then she was awakened from this dream of bliss by Radmore"s next words:--"My G.o.dson"s going to write you a letter of apology," he said.
And then, to her chagrin, he took his hand away; it was as though Timmy"s malign influence had fallen between them. His very tone changed; it was no longer tender, solicitous--only kindly.
"Mr. Radmore, I want to tell you something. I"m horribly afraid of Timmy!"
There was an accent of absolute sincerity in her low voice. She went on:--"Dr. O"Farrell has been talking to me about him. He seems a most strange, unnatural child. The village people believe that he has supernatural powers. Do you believe that?"
"I don"t quite know what I think about Timmy," he answered hesitatingly.
He felt acutely uncomfortable, also rather shocked that Dr. O"Farrell had said anything about a child who might, after all, be regarded as his patient. But Enid Crofton was looking at him very intently, and so he went on:--
"I"ve never spoken to any of them about it, but, yes, if you ask me for my honest opinion, I do think the child has very peculiar powers."
And then, all at once, Enid Crofton burst into tears. "Timmy terrifies me," she sobbed. "I wish he never came near me! He hates me--I feel it all the time. I"m sure he made that cat fly at me!"
Radmore remained silent--he didn"t know what to say, what to admit. He wondered uncomfortably how she had come so near the truth.