Part 1 (1/2)
The Mystery of a Turkish Bath.
by E.M. Gollan (AKA Rita).
Under the pseudonym ”Rita” E M Gollan wrote some seventy novels of which this is one. It is a rather penetrating book about the supernatural. It starts off with a somewhat unusual situation, at least in literature, with a group of ladies in the turkish bath of a large and luxurious hotel by the sea, in England, the sort of hotel to which people go to be cured of illnesses, on the recommendation of their doctors. It is some time in the late nineteenth century.
An extraordinarily beautiful woman appears one day in the turkish bath, and the women already in there are quite fascinated by her. But there is another guest in the hotel, a Colonel Estcourt, who, it turns out had known this woman since childhood. Indeed it had been expected that they would one day wed, but instead she had gone off and married an elderly, but fabulously wealthy, Russian prince.
Various demonstrations of her occult powers make the guests, both men and women, realise that the beautiful Princess is someone with very special gifts, which one or two of them would like to learn more about.
But in the very process of the ensuing teach-in, more things happen than had been bargained for, and both the Colonel and the Princess end up lifeless. The Mystery deepens.
If you like this sort of thing it is a very good novel, but if you are not happy to read about the occult, you should leave it severely alone.
THE MYSTERY OF A TURKISH BATH, BY RITA.
CHAPTER ONE.
THE FIRST ROOM.
”I take them for rheumatic gout,” said a slight, dark-haired woman to her neighbour, as she leant back in a low lounging-chair, and sipped some water an attendant had just brought her. ”You would not suppose I suffered from such a complaint, would you?”--and she held up a small arched foot, with a scarcely perceptible swelling in the larger joint.
She laughed somewhat affectedly, and the neighbour, who was fat and coa.r.s.e, and had decided gouty symptoms herself, looked at her with something of the contempt an invalid elephant might be supposed to bestow on a buzzing fly.
”You made that remark the last time you were here,” she said; ”and I told you, if you suffered from a suppressed form of the disease, it would be all the worse for you. Much better for it to come out--my doctor says.”
There was no doubt about the disease having ”come out” in the person of the speaker. It had ”come out” in her face, which was brilliantly rubicund; in her hands, and ankles and feet, which were a distressful spectacle of ”k.n.o.bs” and ”b.u.mps” of an exaggerated phrenological type-- perhaps also in her temper, which was fierce and fiery as her complexion, as most of the frequenters of the Baths knew, and the attendants also, to their cost.
The small, dark lady, with the arched feet, lapsed into sulky silence, and let her eyes wander over the room to see if anyone she knew was there.
The Baths were of an extensive and sumptuous description--fitted up with almost oriental luxury and comfort, and attached to a monster hotel, built by an enterprising Company of speculators, at an English winter resort, in Hamps.h.i.+re.
The Company had proudly hoped that lavish expenditure, a beautiful situation, and the disinterested recommendation of fas.h.i.+onable physicians, would induce English people to discover that there were spots and places in their own land as healthy and convenient as Auvergne, or Wiesbaden, or the Riviera. But though the coast views were fine, and the scenery picturesque, and the monster hotel itself stood on a commanding eminence, surrounded by darkly-beautiful pine woods, and was fitted up with every luxury of modern civilisation, including every specimen of Bath that human ingenuity had devised, the Company looked blankly at the returns on their balance-sheet, and one or two Directors murmured audible complaints at special Board meetings, against the fas.h.i.+onable physicians who had not acted up to their promises, or proved deserving of the substantial bonus which had been more than hinted at, as a reward for recommended patients.
On this December morning, some half-dozen ladies, of various ages and stability of person, and all suffering, in a greater or less degree, from various fas.h.i.+onable complaints--such as neuralgia, indigestion, rheumatism, or its aristocratic cousin, rheumatic-gout--were in Room Number One of the Turkish Bath.
The female form is generally supposed to be ”divine,” and poets and painters have, from time immemorial, rhapsodised over ”beauty unadorned.” It is probable that such poets and painters have never been gratified by such a vision of feminine charms as Room Number One presented.
Light and airy garments were, certainly, to be seen, but not--forms. It was, of course, a question of taste, as to whether the fat women, or the thin women, looked the worst--probably the former, if one might judge by the two samples of the lady who had arched feet, and the lady who had _not_.
Both were staying at the hotel, and were respectively named--Mrs Masterman, and Mrs Ray Jefferson. Mrs Masterman was a widow. Mrs Ray Jefferson had a husband. He was an American, blessed with many dollars, ama.s.sed on the strength of an ”Invention.” When Mr Jefferson spoke of the Invention, people usually supposed it to be of a mechanical nature. As they became more familiar with him, they learnt that it was something ”Chemical.” No one quite knew what, but it became a.s.sociated in their minds with ”vats” and ”boilers,” and large works somewhere ”down Boston way.” There could be no doubt of the excellence of the Invention, because Mr Ray Jefferson said it was known, and used all over Europe, and its success was backed by dollars to an apparently unlimited extent. The Inventor and his wife had sumptuous rooms, but they were not averse to mixing with their ”fellow-man,” or rather ”woman,”--for Mrs Jefferson rejoiced in the possession of certain Parisian _toilettes_, and was not selfish enough to keep them only for the eyes of her lord and master.
She was grudgingly but universally acknowledged to be the best-dressed woman in the hotel--except, of course, when she was in the Turkish Baths, which unfortunately reduced its frequenters to one level of apparelling, a garment which made up in simplicity for any lack of elegance.
The shape was always the same--viz., short in the skirt, low in the neck, and bare as to sleeves. The material was generally pink cotton, or white with a red border.
Mrs Jefferson was quite American enough to have ”notions” on dress, more or less original and extravagant. Finding her companion was unusually silent this morning, she gave up her thoughts to the devising of a special toilet for the Bath.
These garments were so hideous, she told herself, that it was no wonder people looked such guys in them. Still there was no reason why she should not have something _chic_ and novel for herself--something which should arouse the envy of, and make the wearer appear quite different to, the other women.
The choice of style was easy enough--something Grecian and artistic--but the material discomposed her. It was hardly possible to have a bath of this description without one's garment getting into a moist and clinging condition--leaving alone the after processes of shampooing, _douche_, and plunge. So silk, or satin, or woollen material was out of the question, and cotton was common, not to say vulgar.