The Professor's Mystery
CHAPTER XXIV
THE CONSULTATION OF AN EXPERT AND A LAYMAN
It was a situation in which I felt that I needed counsel, and that of anexpert order; so I made my way as fast as a taxicab could carry me tothe home of Doctor Immanuel Paulus. Unless I was very much mistaken, Ihad something which would interest him. A messenger boy was running downhis steps as I climbed them, and in the hall stood Doctor Paulushimself, opening the yellow envelop of a telegram. He nodded withoutlooking at me, and with some sibilance of excuse, read the message. Thenhe thrust it into his pocket.
"Very sorry," he said, "but I can not give any interview this evening. Iam called out of town. Besides, I have not orderly arranged my ideas asyet. Come around on the Monday, and I will have something for yourpaper."
"I'm not a reporter," I interrupted hastily, for already he had foundhis gloves and hat. "I want to see you about Mrs. Tabor."
"What is that--Mrs. Tabor? Carefully, carefully, young man. Names arenames. What have you with her to do?"
By this time I had found a card. "I'm a friend of the Tabors," I said,"and their trouble is no secret from me. You've been looking for acontinual irritating cause of Mrs. Tabor's hysteria. Well, I've justfound one."
"Clever," he shrilled, "diabolically clever. But it will not do, youngman. I have known these your American reporters--"
"If you say that again," I burst out, "you'll have me for a patient.Call the Tabors on the 'phone--any of them will tell you I'm in theirconfidence; and I can identify myself. We're both of us wasting time."
The sculptured face scowled at me for an instant, then relaxed with apiercing cackle of mirth. "Good. I waste time no more, then, but Ibelieve you. See," he spread out the telegram. "It is to her I go. Now,if you come with me--"
"Mrs. Tabor has just started home from New York in the motor," said I."Our train leaves in half an hour. Are you ready?"
Doctor Paulus did not say another word until we were safely aboard thetrain and out of the tunnel. Then he turned suddenly upon me.
"Have I not seen you at a so-called spiritualistic seance," he chirped.
"Yes," I said, "where we both heard a mysterious voice called familiarlyby the name of Mrs. Tabor's elder daughter. What is more, I have justseen Mrs. Tabor herself at another seance, where she talked with thisso-called spirit intimately. She has been doing so, unknown to herfamily, for a long time; and there is your irritating cause. That's whyshe has hallucinations of her daughter's presence."
Doctor Paulus received my revelation with somewhat humiliating calm. Heshowed not the least astonishment, nor did he answer for some minutes,but sat frowning in front of him, and drumming with a large white handupon the window-sill. When he spoke again, it was with a smile.
"Mr. Crosby, I find myself--yes--interested somewhat in you. First I seeyou at spiritualism; then before a house where another seance is aboutto be; next I pass you in the subway, and a few minutes thereafter Ipresently behold you riding a child's bicycle after my brougham todiscover me-- Now also, I recall to have seen you in the country, whenI was with the young medical man who sends this impetuous telegram.Therefore I say, since you are not a reporter, you have a mind eitherunbalanced or very well balanced. And you now bring me eagerly thisinformation, so that you are with the Tabors much interested, which mayprove--you are no relation, is it not so?" He laid his hand upon myknee. "It is not your mind then, but a heart unbalanced, which producesoften great mental activity."
I was both embarrassed and impatient. "Am I right, then, about Mrs.Tabor?" I asked. "Isn't there a chance of a permanent cure for her byremoving her from this spiritualism business? If we can only--"
He held up his hand. "Let us not leap to the conclusion. That is what Itell always to the Doctor Reid. He is a bright young man, but he leapstoo much to the conclusion. So probably he has said to you that Mrs.Tabor is a paranoiac, which may be so; or perhaps with continualirritation of the mind, only hysteria that may be aided by removal ofthe irritation. I am too old to be quickly sure. Now, I repeat to Reidthat a medical man must save his mental or physical jumps for cases ofextremity. He must not jump all the time; that is how you areneurasthenic in America. Hysteria, that we can by removing suggestionsand introspections palliate, or perhaps cure. And there may be alsohallucinations and the fixed idea. Therefore it is so like a shadow ofinsanity. The daughter's death, we knew of that. And I have said thatsome continual suggestion was to be sought for, which might produce thisillusion of her daughter's continual presence, such as you have perhapsfound. So we are ready to consider. Tell me now all that you know,carefully. Not your own deductions I want, but the facts alone."
When I had finished, he sat silent for a long time, frowning on his handas it drummed idly on the window-ledge.
"Why do you conclude that she has for some time been attendingspiritualisms unknown to her family?" he asked abruptly at last.
"They all seemed to know her, and to recognize the voice called Miriam.She went about it besides in a very accustomed way. And before her firstdisappearance this summer--the first I knew of personally--she had atelephone message from Mrs. Mahl. I answered it, and I recognized hervoice afterward."
After another long silence I ventured: "Hasn't she always been worseafter she has been away?"
He answered in a preoccupied tone, as if I had merely tapped the currentof his own thought: "It seemed at first to me a temporary breakdownonly, which I looked to grow better. I have been much disappointed thatit has not, and she grows periodically worse coincidently withdisappearances of which they do not know in time to control them. So Itell them that some harmful practice is added to the original cause, andthey assure me that no new thing comes into her life, unless--" helooked at me quizzically--"a young man whose interest in the remainingdaughter causes him to follow scientists about on bicycles. I recommendquiet and the removal of reminiscences, and still the irritation goeson. Now, as to spiritualism, there I have not made up my mind. Iinvestigate it as a human abnormality, for to me, like the Roman,nothing human is to be thought foreign. It looks to be trickery, and yetthat is not sure, but there may be scientific interest there. Certainlyso great a man as Lombroso found much to interest. In the end we shall,as I think, find all manifestations physical, or perhaps there is heresome little known semi-psychic force disengaged from the living personspresent. Of the dead there is little cause to speculate. However it beof all this, there is without any doubt acute nerve-strain very bad forthe neuropathic, and aggravated by belief. Yes, it is perhaps causeenough, and perhaps effect only."
The train was pulling into Stamford as he ended, and it was not untilthe waiting automobile had carried us nearly to the house that DoctorPaulus spoke again.
"I think," he said, "that possibly, I say possibly, Mr. Crosby, you havemade a valuable discovery. At least we know now the circumstancesbetter. But on the one hand these visits to seances may be aggravatingcause of the unbalancement, and on the other mere results of unnaturalcravings in the unbalanced mind. It is a circle, and we seek theslenderest point where it may be broken."
Mr. Tabor met us at the door, and as we came up the steps Reid slippedeagerly past him.
"Splendid!" he exclaimed, wringing the great man's hand. "Splendid!Hoped it would be this train, but I hardly dared think so. I know howimportant your time is. Very good of you to come out, very good indeed.Now as to the case; manifestations unfortunately very clear just now.Very unfortunate, but I'm afraid we have been right all along. Come outto my rooms a moment, and I'll give you the whole matter in detail.Better to run over the whole thing scientifically."
Doctor Paulus smiled at me dryly: "I shall be most happy," he shrilled,and after a formal word or two with Mr. Tabor, stalked soberly aroundthe house. Mr. Tabor and I went into the living-room without speaking.
"Has Lady told you--?" I began.
He nodded. "I hardly know what to say to you, Crosby. I feel very sorryfor you both. I am sorry for all of us. Mrs. Tabor has not been herselfat all since the other d
ay, and of course for the time everything elseis secondary to her. But don't think that I'm anything but very gladpersonally." He held out his hand.
I took it in silence, and a moment later, Lady came in, greeting me veryquietly, as if my presence at this time were entirely a matter ofcourse. Father and daughter evidently understood each other. We satalmost in silence until the two doctors returned, Paulus frowningdownward and Reid more jerkily busy than ever. The scene had the air ofa deliberate family council.
"Mr. Tabor," Doctor Paulus began, "I have thought better not to disturbour patient by an interview just now, since she is asleep after so longa wakefulness. Doctor Reid besides has made the conditions very clear.Only on one point he has not been able to inform me wholly: It appearsthat Mrs. Tabor has attended meetings of spiritualists habitually insecret, which accounts for those excursions of which we know lately. Howlong ago may we possibly date the commencement of this practice?"
"She was interested in spiritualism carelessly and as a sort of fadbefore Miriam's marriage," Mr. Tabor answered, "but so far as I know,she never actually attended any sittings then; and she hasn't spoken ofit for years. She might, of course, have kept it secret all along; it'sonly within the last few months that we have tried to follow all hermovements."
Doctor Paulus settled heavily into a chair, and fell to drumming on thearm of it. Lady stood beside her father, her arm resting upon hisshoulder; and Reid paced nervously up and down the room. A chirp and arustle made me notice the canary hanging in the farther window. FinallyPaulus looked up.
"Do you prefer to have my opinion in private?" he asked.
Mr. Tabor was looking older than I had ever seen him. "Your opinionmeans a great deal to all of us, Doctor," he said. Reid stopped a momentin his pacing.
"Well, my opinion is not quite positive, because I have not certainlyall the facts. That is the fault with all our opinions, that we nevercan base them upon wholly complete data. Mrs. Tabor we have thoughtinsane, and there was much to bear that out. So if I had been certainthat all her illusions proceeded from within her own mind, I should havesaid that it was surely so. But now Mr. Crosby makes known to us thisexternal suggestion of spirits, with its continual reminding of hertrouble and the unnatural strain. He argues also--and I am not at allcertain but that he argues rightly--that this practice, thissuperstition of hers, may be the cause of her deterioration, so that byremoving it she will grow better or perhaps well. Is it so far clear?"
"Quite so, exactly," Reid broke in. "Perfectly clear, Doctor, perfectly.But why not effect rather than cause? Another symptom, that's all.Fixed idea, unnatural craving for communication with the other world,because the mind is unbalanced by loss."
"I think that is to place the horse after the wagon, as we say. It iscertainly a vicious circle, but still--"
"Precisely," exclaimed Reid, "but the impulse comes--"
Doctor Paulus held up a white hand. "Wait a little. I do not come toconclusions hastily. Now I conclude that Mrs. Tabor is thus far no morethan hysterical, and what we have to do is first to remove entirely fromher this superstitious influence." The shrill voice took suddenly asharper edge. "Moreover, Doctor Reid, I will say to you that only twoother men in the world know more than I know of my specialty, and ofthose unfortunately neither one is here." He waited until Reid subsidedinto a seat, then went slowly on: "Now the question is how this harmfulbelief is to be removed, and that is the difficult matter."
"If she were in a sanatorium--" Reid began.
"She'd worry herself to pieces," Lady interrupted; and Doctor Paulusnodded heavily. "She'd feel imprisoned, and imagine and brood and worry,and the atmosphere of impersonal restraint would make her worse. We canat least help to keep her mind off herself and make her cheerful."
"We can prevent from now on, I think, any further communications," saidMr. Tabor.
"But the trouble's inside her own mind," snapped Reid; and the shrillvoice of his colleague added:
"That is partly true, so far as she has now hallucinations andre-creates her own harm. Suppose then we held her from seeking harmelsewhere, that is something; but still even so she feels restraint, andstill her misbelief goes on. If we could reach that--but how to make hernot thus believe?" He fell silent, and the white hand began its drummingagain. I felt irritably that he was the most deliberate man in theworld.
Suddenly I found Lady's eyes upon me. "I think Mr. Crosby has somethingto suggest," she said, and with her words a suggestion came to me.
Reid snorted.
Doctor Paulus smiled very gravely. "That busy mind of Mr. Crosby hasbefore been useful," he said. "What is this idea, then?"
"It sounds pretty wild and theatrical," said I, "but couldn't we reachthe root of the trouble by making the cure come from the same source? Wemight tell her for ever that her ideas were false and harmful, andshe'd only feel that we were profane. But if the medium herself deniedthem--these visions and voices must be at least partly a fake. Now, ifwe can persuade or force her to show Mrs. Tabor how it's done--and Ithink I know how to exert pressure upon her--then might not the illusionbe dispelled once for all? I mean, whether Mrs. Mahl is a fake or not,can't she be made to undo the work she has done, and discredit thedangerous belief she has taught?"
Mr. Tabor was leaning forward in his chair as I finished. Reid waswalking the floor again and shrugging his shoulders; and Lady waslooking at me with eyes of absolute belief.
"Fake?" asked Doctor Paulus unexpectedly.
"Sham, trick, fraud," I explained, and he nodded, frowning.
"Oh, but this whole thing's absurd," Reid put in. "Crosby's a goodfellow and clever, and all that, but he's a layman and this is acomplicated problem. It's all one if after another. If the woman'swilling to expose herself, and if she does it well, and if motherbelieves her, and if all this would have anything to do with the case.Besides it would be a shock, a violent shock, a dangerous shock. Nosense at all in it. Melodrama isn't medicine."
"I am not so sure," said Doctor Paulus. "It is unusual and what you calltheatrical, but my work is unusual and many times theatrical also. Ihave need to act much of the time with my patients. With the individualmind one must use each time an individual cure. This at least strikes atthe cause of the trouble, and might succeed. With your permission, Mr.Tabor, we will try it."
"But her heart, man, her heart," objected Reid, "what about her heart,and the shock?"
"Well, we can dare, I think, to risk that. Every operation is a riskthat we judge wise to take, and this is a malignant misbelief to beextirpated. There will be no unreasonable danger."
"If we can somehow get this medium out here--" said Mr. Tabor.
"That I shall manage, to bring her to-morrow afternoon, telling herperhaps of a private sitting in the interest of science. I am not oftenso much away, but this case is of importance." He rose, and looked athis watch. "Is not that the motor-car now at the door?"
On the step he turned to me with his quizzical smile. "It is perhapswell for us all to have your mind stimulated, Mr. Crosby. That is abeautiful and intelligent young lady." He looked abruptly from me to themidnight sky. "It appears, if I do not mistake, that we shall haverain," he chirped. "Good night," and he stepped gravely into thelimousine and closed the door with a slam.