Part 26 (2/2)

”Not by you, I admit. I owe you an explanation for that. I came to call on Miss Lambert. Your man shouldered me into the room before I knew what was going on. I didn't intend to 'b.u.t.t in,' as they say. I was afterwards invited forward by Mr. Clarke, as you will remember, and later by the 'control.'”

”Clarke is not running things here.”

”Ah, but the spirits? Would you question their judgment? They insisted on making me the guest of honor, you will remember. They played to me, you may say.”

Pratt was daunted by his visitor's mocking tone. ”You should have had more sense of honor than to grab the medium the way you did.”

”Being invited to sit near, I took it as an invitation to make a test.

I wanted to know who held that horn. How can you hope to convince a sane mind of the truth of such an exhibition as that last night unless you permit tests?”

The colored man had returned. ”Miss Lambert will see you, sir. This way, please.”

For a moment Pratt meditated interference, but something in the movement and face of the visitor deterred him. As Serviss followed his guide up the great stairway, he asked himself: ”What will she be like?

She must be changed--deeply changed. How will she meet me?” He acknowledged a growing excitement.

She met him so simply, so cordially, with such frank pleasure, that his own restraint gave way at first glance. In her glowing color, in the tones of her voice, lay a charm which carried him back to Colorow, linking the mature and splendid woman with the unformed girl of the mountain-cabin. He took her hand with a keen thrill of admiration--whatever had come to her she had gained in grace without apparent loss of sincerity.

His eyes disturbed her, and she stammered some commonplace expression of pleasure, and he replied almost as lamely, then turned to the mother. ”I hope you have forgiven me for my action of last night?”

Then again to Viola. ”I only intended to touch your arm. I trust you suffered no lasting ill effects.”

Again something that was at once attraction and repulsion pa.s.sed between them. She perceived in his tone a note of mockery, involuntary in its expression, but all the more significant on that account.

”I am sorry you were there,” she quickly replied. ”I don't blame you.

No, it did not hurt me--I mean, it was all over in half an hour. The contraction is very painful while it lasts. It's just like a cramp. I didn't intend to give the sitting, but Mr. Pratt requested it for a few of his friends and I couldn't well refuse. I didn't know you were there till mamma told me afterwards. There is no value in such a sitting to you.”

With a dim suspicion of her wish to cover some deception, he answered: ”My entrance was quite as unpremeditated, I a.s.sure you.” He spoke with returning humor. ”I really came to call upon you, to welcome you to the city and to talk of the West. The usher mistook me for one of the seekers and thrust me bodily into the circle. Please believe that I acted upon sudden impulse in seizing your wrist. I am heartily ashamed of myself. I was an intruder, and had no right, no excuse--although your 'guides,' as you call them, seemed eager to have me sit beside you.”

”I do not blame you,” she repeated, and fell strangely silent.

He studied her with mounting pleasure. The flower-like line of her lips, her glorious bosom, the poise of her head, all the lines that had meant so much to him at their first meeting, were there, more womanly, more dangerous in their witchery than ever. For two years their thoughts had subtly crossed and intertwined, and she now felt his doubt, his question, almost as keenly as if he had uttered them.

He broke the momentary silence by saying, with a distinctly tender tone, ”Are you thinking of Colorow? I am.”

She flushed and started a little. ”Yes.”

”I was recalling my first view of you--a fragment of sunset cloud caught on a mountain-crag.”

Her face grew wistful. ”That seems a long time ago to me.”

”It doesn't to me. It seems but yesterday. My trip that year was a symphonic poem with a most moving final movement. I have thought of it a thousand times.” He paused a moment, then added: ”Well, now, here you are in New York, and here I am, and what of your music? I was to advise you, you remember.”

Her head lifted in defiance, an adorable gesture. ”You know my secret now.” It was as if she said, ”Come, let us have it over.”

He replied, very gently; ”I knew something of it then. Dr. Britt told me something of it at the time.”

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