experience has been that mesmerists go for their subjects to thosewho are mentally unsound. All their results are vitiated, as it seemsto me, by the fact that they are dealing with abnormal organisms."
"Which of these ladies would you say possessed a normal organism?" sheasked. "I should like you to select the one who seems to you to havethe best balanced mind. Should we say the girl in pink andwhite?--Miss Agatha Marden, I think the name is."
"Yes, I should attach weight to any results from her."
"I have never tried how far she is impressionable. Of course somepeople respond much more rapidly than others. May I ask how far yourscepticism extends? I suppose that you admit the mesmeric sleep andthe power of suggestion."
"I admit nothing, Miss Penclosa."
"Dear me, I thought science had got further than that. Of course Iknow nothing about the scientific side of it. I only know what I cando. You see the girl in red, for example, over near the Japanese jar.I shall will that she come across to us."
She bent forward as she spoke and dropped her fan upon the floor. Thegirl whisked round and came straight toward us, with an enquiring lookupon her face, as if some one had called her.
"What do you think of that, Gilroy?" cried Wilson, in a kind of ecstasy.
I did not dare to tell him what I thought of it. To me it was the mostbarefaced, shameless piece of imposture that I had ever witnessed. Thecollusion and the signal had really been too obvious.
"Professor Gilroy is not satisfied," said she, glancing up at me withher strange little eyes. "My poor fan is to get the credit of thatexperiment. Well, we must try something else. Miss Marden, would youhave any objection to my putting you off?"
"Oh, I should love it!" cried Agatha.
By this time all the company had gathered round us in a circle, theshirt-fronted men, and the white-throated women, some awed, somecritical, as though it were something between a religious ceremony anda conjurer's entertainment. A red velvet arm-chair had been pushedinto the centre, and Agatha lay back in it, a little flushed andtrembling slightly from excitement. I could see it from the vibrationof the wheat-ears. Miss Penclosa rose from her seat and stood overher, leaning upon her crutch.
And there was a change in the woman. She no longer seemed small orinsignificant. Twenty years were gone from her age. Her eyes wereshining, a tinge of color had come into her sallow cheeks, her wholefigure had expanded. So I have seen a dull-eyed, listless lad changein an instant into briskness and life when given a task of which hefelt himself master. She looked down at Agatha with an expressionwhich I resented from the bottom of my soul--the expression with whicha Roman empress might have looked at her kneeling slave. Then with aquick, commanding gesture she tossed up her arms and swept them slowlydown in front of her.
I was watching Agatha narrowly. During three passes she seemed to besimply amused. At the fourth I observed a slight glazing of her eyes,accompanied by some dilation of her pupils. At the sixth there was amomentary rigor. At the seventh her lids began to droop. At the tenthher eyes were closed, and her breathing was slower and fuller thanusual. I tried as I watched to preserve my scientific calm, but afoolish, causeless agitation convulsed me. I trust that I hid it, butI felt as a child feels in the dark. I could not have believed that Iwas still open to such weakness.
"She is in the trance," said Miss Penclosa.
"She is sleeping!" I cried.
"Wake her, then!"
I pulled her by the arm and shouted in her ear. She might have beendead for all the impression that I could make. Her body was there onthe velvet chair. Her organs were acting--her heart, her lungs. Buther soul! It had slipped from beyond our ken. Whither had it gone?What power had dispossessed it? I was puzzled and disconcerted.
"So much for the mesmeric sleep," said Miss Penclosa. "As regardssuggestion, whatever I may suggest Miss Marden will infallibly do,whether it be now or after she has awakened from her trance. Do youdemand proof of it?"
"Certainly," said I.
"You shall have it." I saw a smile pass over her face, as though anamusing thought had struck her. She stooped and whispered earnestlyinto her subject's ear. Agatha, who had been so deaf to me, nodded herhead as she listened.
"Awake!" cried Miss Penclosa, with a sharp tap of her crutch upon thefloor. The eyes opened, the glazing cleared slowly away, and the soullooked out once more after its strange eclipse.
We went away early. Agatha was none the worse for her strangeexcursion, but I was nervous and unstrung, unable to listen to oranswer the stream of comments which Wilson was pouring out for mybenefit. As I bade her good-night Miss Penclosa slipped a piece ofpaper into my hand.
"Pray forgive me," said she, "if I take means to overcome yourscepticism. Open this note at ten o'clock to-morrow morning. It is alittle private test."
I can't imagine what she means, but there is the note, and it shall beopened as she directs. My head is aching, and I have written enoughfor to-night. To-morrow I dare say that what seems so inexplicablewill take quite another complexion. I shall not surrender myconvictions without a struggle.
March 25. I am amazed, confounded. It is clear that I must reconsidermy opinion upon this matter. But first let me place on record what hasoccurred.
I had finished breakfast, and was looking over some diagrams with whichmy lecture is to be illustrated, when my housekeeper entered to tell methat Agatha was in my study and wished to see me immediately. Iglanced at the clock and saw with sun rise that it was only half-pastnine.
When I entered the room, she was standing on the hearth-rug facing me.Something in her pose chilled me and checked the words which wererising to my lips. Her veil was half down, but I could see that shewas pale and that her expression was constrained.
"Austin," she said, "I have come to tell you that our engagement is atan end."
I staggered. I believe that I literally did stagger. I know that Ifound myself leaning against the bookcase for support.
"But--but----" I stammered. "This is very sudden, Agatha."
"Yes, Austin, I have come here to tell you that our engagement is at anend."
"But surely," I cried, "you will give me some reason! This is unlikeyou, Agatha. Tell me how I have been unfortunate enough to offend you."
"It is all over, Austin."
"But why? You must be under some delusion, Agatha. Perhaps you havebeen told some falsehood about me. Or you may have misunderstoodsomething that I have said to you. Only let me know what it is, and aword may set it all right."
"We must consider it all at an end."
"But you left me last night without a hint at any disagreement. Whatcould have occurred in the interval to change you so? It must havebeen something that happened last night. You have been thinking itover and you have disapproved of my conduct. Was it the mesmerism?Did you blame me for letting that woman exercise her power over you?You know that at the least sign I should have interfered."
"It is useless, Austin. All is over:"
Her voice was cold and measured; her manner strangely formal and hard.It seemed to me that she was absolutely resolved not to be drawn intoany argument or explanation. As for me, I was shaking with agitation,and I turned my face aside, so ashamed was I that she should see mywant of control.
"You must know what this means to me!" I cried. "It is the blasting ofall my hopes and the ruin of my life! You surely will not inflict sucha punishment upon me unheard. You will let me know what is the matter.Consider how impossible it would be for me, under any circumstances, totreat you so. For God's sake, Agatha, let me know what I have done!"
She walked past me without a word and opened the door.
"It is quite useless, Austin," said she. "You must consider ourengagement at an end." An instant later she was gone, and, before Icould recover myself sufficiently to follow her, I heard the hall-doorclose behind her.
I rushed into my room to change my coat, with the idea of hurryinground to Mrs. Marden'
s to learn from her what the cause of mymisfortune might be. So shaken was I that I could hardly lace myboots. Never shall I forget those horrible ten minutes. I had justpulled on my overcoat when the clock upon the mantel-piece struck ten.
Ten! I associated the idea with Miss Penclosa's note. It was lyingbefore me on the table, and I tore it open. It was scribbled in pencilin a peculiarly angular handwriting.
"MY DEAR PROFESSOR GILROY [it said]: Pray excuse the personal natureof the test which I am giving you. Professor Wilson happened tomention the relations between you and my subject of this evening, andit struck me that nothing could be more convincing to you than if Iwere to suggest to Miss Marden that she should call upon you athalf-past nine to-morrow morning and suspend your engagement for