Part 13 (1/2)
”A soul, you know,” he said again, and looked at the Sea Lady with the air of a man who is handling a difficult matter with skilful care.
”Come to think of it,” he said, ”it's a rather complicated matter to explain----”
”To a being without one?”
”To any one,” said my cousin Melville, suddenly admitting his difficulty.
He meditated upon her eyes for a moment.
”Besides,” he said, ”you know what a soul is perfectly well.”
”No,” she answered, ”I don't.”
”You know as well as I do.”
”Ah! that may be different.”
”You came to get a soul.”
”Perhaps I don't want one. Why--if one hasn't one----?”
”Ah, _there_!” And my cousin shrugged his shoulders. ”But really you know-- It's just the generality of it that makes it hard to define.”
”Everybody has a soul?”
”Every one.”
”Except me?”
”I'm not certain of that.”
”Mrs. Bunting?”
”Certainly.”
”And Mr. Bunting?”
”Every one.”
”Has Miss Glendower?”
”Lots.”
The Sea Lady mused. She went off at a tangent abruptly.
”Mr. Melville,” she said, ”what is a union of souls?”
Melville flicked his extinct cigarette suddenly into an elbow shape and then threw it away. The phrase may have awakened some reminiscence.
”It's an extra,” he said. ”It's a sort of flourish.... And sometimes it's like leaving cards by footmen--a subst.i.tute for the real presence.”