f&rk^^. ■ 

 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 \u^'
 
 HERR PAULUS 
 
 HIS RISE, HIS GREATNESS, AND HIS FALL 
 
 BY 
 
 WALTER BESANT 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'ALL SORTS AND CONDITION'S OF MEN' ETC. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES 
 VOL. I. 
 
 3^ It b It 
 
 CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 
 
 iSSS 
 
 [Ali rights ycscrved]
 
 PRINTED liY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NliW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 LONDON
 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PROLOGUE 1 
 
 BOOK THE FIRST. 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 I. THE VESTAL VIRGIN 35 
 
 II. THE LEADER 55 
 
 III. THE PROPHET 67 
 
 IV. AT DINNER 84 
 
 V. THE FIRST FUNCTION 106 
 
 VI. GOOD NIGHT 139 
 
 VII. THE SMOKING ROOM 156 
 
 VIII. THE SUBMISSION OF THE LEADER . . . . 171 
 IX. THE CONQUEST OF THE HAREM . . . .188 
 
 BOOK THE SECOND. 
 
 I. IN THE STUDIO 205 
 
 II. IN THE OTHER ROOM J24 
 
 III. IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 240 
 
 IV. SHOULD THIS HAPPEN 265 
 
 V. THE SECOND FUNCTION 275 
 
 5;5.f;ri78
 
 HERR PAULUS. 
 
 PEOLOGUE. 
 
 I. 
 Two young people were in a garden. Their 
 names were not Aclam and Eve, but Ziphion 
 and Bethiali, which seem somehow to re- 
 semble the original names. It was a spacious 
 garden, though not so spacious, nor so well 
 furnished, as the Garden of Eden, which, I 
 take it, covered many acres and had gushing 
 fountains of clear water ; humming birds, with 
 love birds and avadavats ; beautiful harmless 
 Hying dragons of all colours ; tame leopards, 
 tigers, hyaenas, and pumas, whose eyes flamed 
 with love and praise instead of cruelty and 
 hunger; gold and silver lish, bright-coloured 
 and vivacious sea snakes, and lubberly good- 
 
 YOL. I. B
 
 2 HERR PAULUS 
 
 iiatured sharks for the children to swim with ; 
 together with other dehghtful things which to 
 us would be the more delightful because they 
 would be at first so very surprising. It was, 
 however, a beautiful garden, with some age, 
 as they say of port. If it had been an English 
 garden it woidd have been very old indeed, 
 and would have had all round it a lovely red 
 brick wall covered with lichen — yellow, and 
 white, and red — with wall-flowers and grasses 
 growing tall and thick on the broad top of it. 
 But it was in America, where, I believe, there 
 are no gardens at all more than two hundred 
 years old, and few which have seen so many 
 as three generations of English-speaking men 
 and women. It contained a flower garden, a 
 kitchen garden, and an orchard, all in one. 
 The orchard contained chiefly apple-trees, and 
 the apples were now nearly ripe, for all day 
 long they had been industriously turning their 
 red and streaky sides to the hot sun of early 
 September, getting every hour ruddier and 
 streakier, as good apples should. One of the 
 young persons was sitting on a low stool, and
 
 PROLOGUE 3 
 
 the other was leaninf^ af^ainst the trunk of an 
 old tree. This is a detail of some importance 
 because it shows that they were not in Eng- 
 land, where, at sunset of a day in early 
 autumn, young people are longing to run 
 about, play lawn-tennis, go for walks, and do 
 vicforous thino-s. In America, where the heat 
 is fierce, they are naturally less active. This 
 is one reason why so many young people ask 
 permission to be born in England. The house 
 which belonged to the garden stood behind 
 it, well-built and ugly ; it was the house of 
 Mr. Ruysdael, lawyer and prominent citizen 
 of the town, which was a small town not 
 many hundred miles from Boston. 
 
 The girl — Bethiah Euysdael — had a box 
 of colours and a sketching-block lying on the 
 ground ])eside her. Slie had been engaged 
 in making a study of trees. But now she sat, 
 Avith hands clasped, looking up into the face 
 of the young man. I liave elsewhere — I be- 
 lieve more than once — preached the doctrine 
 that the very best kind of woman is the 
 woman's woman, which is the same thing as 
 
 B 2
 
 4 h£rr paulus 
 
 the womanly woman, the woman whom other 
 women love, of whom other women do not 
 speak with bitterness, or with innuendo, or 
 with eyes glancing at each other. She may 
 be beautiful, but women do not greatly dwell 
 upon her good looks : she may be graceful 
 and may possess all the accom])lishments, 
 clevernesses, dexterities, and arts which cul- 
 tivated ladies desire to acquire, but other 
 w^omen do not greatly talk of these things : 
 they speak of those qualities which are not 
 taught in the schools, such as her unselfishness, 
 her kindness, her thought for others, her sym- 
 pathy, and so forth. She never studies, as 
 some maidens use, the arts and mysteries by 
 which man may be attracted and drawn to 
 them as by a magnet : she does not in the 
 least understand the strength and vehemence 
 of the passion of love in man : nor does she 
 inquire at all into the subject. But she knows 
 that some women are weak, and that a pretty 
 face does not always mean a perfectly faultless 
 soul, whatever men may foolishly believe ; 
 and when she comes, in her reading, upon
 
 PROLOGUE 5 
 
 the pretty, passionate exaggerations of poets, 
 dramatists, and novelists, who love to repre- 
 sent their hero's mistress as a beautiful god- 
 dess, fall of all perfections, because she is so 
 beautiful, she lays down the book and takes 
 up another pitched in a lower and more 
 sensible key. When she marries it is with 
 calmness ; she gives away her heart without 
 illusions ; slie knows her own weaknesses and 
 is not blind to those of her husband, and she 
 thinks that life is at best soberly happy, and 
 that there will be no moment in it wliich will 
 call for the rapture of overwhelming joy. 
 Yet she is said to make her husband happy 
 all his life. Very often, however, this kind of 
 woman never marries at all. 
 
 Bethiah Ruysdael was such a girl as this 
 Her calm, capable face : her clear grey eyes 
 her hnn mouth : the clear strong; curve of 
 her cheek — all inspired confidence. Even 
 the business-like arrangement of \\vv dark- 
 brown hair helped to show that she was a 
 perfectly sensible and trustworthy person : 
 not flighty, whimsical, or humoursome — tlic
 
 6 HERR PAUL US 
 
 history of the last century presents some truly 
 admirable studies of the whimsical or humour- 
 some woman, but at present she is rare — not 
 enthusiastic, emotional, or hysterical. As for 
 beauty, being what she was, nobody spoke 
 much of her good looks : yet she was comely 
 and pleasant to look upon : somewhat paler in 
 the cheek than a healthy English girl, slighter 
 in frame and figure, and more delicate in 
 feature. When a girl lays herself out to call 
 attention by her dress and by her manners to 
 her personal appearance, of course one talks 
 about it : but Bethiah did not betray the 
 least consciousness of beauty or the least 
 desire for notice. Therefore such notice as 
 she got was of another kind. 
 
 It is said that there is no place in the 
 world where young men are so wonderfully 
 beautiful as in Xew York. The ancient 
 Greeks, it is reported, jealous of their own 
 reputation, liavc sent down to know if it is 
 really true. The young man leaning against 
 the trunk of tlje old apple-tree possessed 
 this remarkable beauty, in full and brimming
 
 PROLOGUE 7 
 
 measure. You know the portrait of Shelley, 
 with his girlish face and the strangely eager, 
 passionate eyes, full of light and earnestness 
 and fearless questioning. Well : that face has 
 always reminded me of Ziphion's, though 
 Ziphion was not so tall and had a larger 
 head in proportion to his height. By what 
 long-forgotten marriage and blending of race 
 did this strange face break out in a small 
 town of a New EniJ^land State? Who was 
 the ancestor or ancestress from whom the 
 boy got that wonderful face and those won- 
 derful eyes? His mother was certainly not 
 an artist, or a poet, nor did she in any sense 
 belong to the imaginative race. She was a 
 severely Christian person and a notable liouse- 
 wife, whose readino^s as well as her imag;ina- 
 tion were, so far as one knows, as narrow as 
 her creed. His father certainly might have 
 been at one time a potential poet, but the 
 General Store which he conducted blamelessly 
 had long since killed tlie poetic germ, if it 
 ever existed. He was, liowever, a most re- 
 spectable person : he sold everything, from
 
 8 HERR PAULUS 
 
 an English pirated novel at ten cents to a 
 string of onions, a barrel of apples, or a saucer- 
 ful of treacle : he was a deacon in his church : 
 and when he was not talking of dollars his 
 mouth was full of doctrine. Dollars and 
 doctrine : the union of this world and the 
 next : salvation and investments : the thing is 
 not unknown on this side of the Atlantic. 
 Both father and mother, being perfectly satis- 
 fied with themselves, ardently desired that 
 their only son should follow in their steps and 
 strike out a line of trade for himself; or, 
 failing this, because the great and glorious 
 gift of dollar-snatching is not granted to 
 everyone, they prayed that he might become 
 a lawyer and a politician, and so, presently, be 
 elected Mayor of his own City, Governor of 
 his own State, and perhaps — who knows ? — - 
 President of the United States. 
 
 Where did the boy get that face ? 
 
 Perhaps — the middle classes preserve no 
 genealogies — in some far-off generation this 
 American youtli had some Italian woman for 
 a great-grandmother : or some passionate
 
 PROLOGUE 9 
 
 Andalusian, or some wild gipsy — perhaps a 
 Provengale — from whom he derived those 
 clear and delicate features, those black eyes 
 which were soft and lustrous and charged 
 with all poetic qualities, such as tenderness, 
 sympathy, wonder, insight and sensitiveness. 
 The lad's figure was slender and tall. In the 
 mobile lips, in the pose of the head, in the 
 long thin fingers, one could read a tempera- 
 ment more nervous than that generally found 
 even among his countrymen. Whither this 
 nervousness will lead the American one knows 
 not. Perhaps in the amalgam of the future, 
 when all the nations of the world have con- 
 tributed some part to the construction of the 
 American, the nervous temperament will be 
 modified. But how if it be intensified? 
 Whither, however, this highly-strung organ- 
 isation leads the present generation one may 
 readily observe. For of some it makes splen- 
 did orators : of some, the most eloquent 
 preachers : of some, fiery partisans : of some, 
 fervid martyrs : of some, the most ingenious 
 inventors : of some, cranks : of some, the
 
 lo HERR PAULUS 
 
 most crafty rogues : of some, impostors of the 
 very highest order : on all it bestows qualities 
 in the superlative. 
 
 You shall learn, presently, whither this 
 sensitive and nervous oro;anisation broug-ht 
 this young man. Xever since the day — too 
 short a day — of Absalom, was there so sweet 
 a youth. Like Absalom, but in this respect 
 only — because in thinking of Absalom one 
 always thinks of a heau sabreur — the boy 
 wore his hair long. It was parted at the 
 side, and rolled over his white temples 
 with a natural curve, which, in the days of 
 the gallant D'Orsay, was achieved, where it 
 was not natural, by the aid of science, bear's 
 grease, and fragrant pomade. It seemed 
 natural that he should wear long hair : if it 
 was an affectation it was his only one, because 
 his dress was quite plain and even rustic, 
 while his boots would have attracted consider 
 able attention in the fashionable quarters of 
 New York. 
 
 ' Don't try to set me against it,' he said. 
 * Oh ! Bethiah, I never wanted so much sym-
 
 PROLOGUE II 
 
 patliy as now, and if you refuse to stand by 
 me there will be no one. Everybody is 
 against me.' 
 
 'I am not against you, Zipli. You ought 
 to know that.' 
 
 ' I met your father just now, and he 
 stopped to read me a lecture about the safe 
 ways and the unsafe ways. Well : there have 
 been plenty of men who have tried this way 
 and failed. I know that very well. But if 
 I were to fail — I shan't fail, though — I should 
 be happier than if I never had tried at all.' 
 
 ' You have told your father and mother ? ' 
 
 ' Yes — it was like having a tooth out. I'd 
 rather have two teeth out than go through it 
 again. But I was bound to tell them. And 
 now it's over, and — Bethiah — don't try to 
 argue against it.' 
 
 'I won't, Ziph. But — oh! — if you were 
 only sure that it was the wisest and the best 
 thing. Could you not wait a year or two — 
 I am sure ihat eighteen is full early to achieve 
 a literary success — could you not, just for a 
 little while, do — what your father wishes?'
 
 12 HERE PAULUS 
 
 She added tlie last words with a httle hesita- 
 tion, from which it was clear that the pater- 
 nal wishes were clearly distasteful even to 
 herself. 
 
 ' Measure calico and weigh out tea ? No — 
 no — I cannot do it." 
 
 ' But he offered to make you a lawyer if 
 you like.' 
 
 ' I liate law.' 
 
 ' Then you might be a doctor — or a minis- 
 ter — think of being a minister, Ziph ! Why 
 you might put your poetry into your sermons 
 and make us all cry.' 
 
 ' No — no — I must be a poet and an author. 
 Do not try to dissuade me, Bethiah. It is my 
 destiny.' He looked grand — tliis young Apollo 
 — as he rammed his hand into his waistcoat 
 and stood upright, the breeze gently lifting 
 his long locks. ' My destiny calls me — a man 
 must face his destiny.' 
 
 Of all Bibhcal heroes, Ziphion, son of Gad, 
 is one of the least remarkable. He is only 
 mentioned twice : there is even uncertainty 
 in the spelling of his name : and by some he
 
 PROLOGUE 13 
 
 is held to have been a family rather than an 
 individual. Perhaps the name was conferred 
 upon this young poet, while yet an infant, in 
 a spirit of Christian humility. Ziphion B. 
 Trinder ! Neither Christian name nor surname 
 quite consorts with a romantic face, poetical 
 eyes, and yearning after literary fame. But 
 what are we to do ? We are born to our sur- 
 names as we are to our g-odfathers and o-od- 
 mothers, and are powerless, unless, like Charles 
 Kingsley's hero, we change both names alto- 
 gether, which is a kind of forgery. By dint 
 of very great genius, perhaps the commonest of 
 names — even Johnny Briggs or Ziphion Trinder 
 — might be made beautiful in the eyes of the 
 world. Yet somehow it seems as if all great 
 poets, novelists, painters, and artists of every 
 other kind had names sweetly and musically 
 resonant. How beautiful to the ear are the 
 names of EafTaello, Tasso, Tennyson, Byron, 
 Wordsworth, Talma, Eachel, Eossetti, Mere- 
 ditli, Alma Tadema ! Perhaps the constant 
 handling and daily familiar use of these names 
 have poUshed them up and burnished them
 
 14 HERR PAULUS 
 
 SO that tliey now sliine and glow and glitter 
 in the sun and show to the best advantage : 
 whereas, Avere they merely stuck up over 
 shops, they would attract but httle admira- 
 tion. 
 
 ' Well but, Ziph,' the girl objected, ' think 
 a little. You may be a doctor, or a lawyer, 
 or a minister, and yet become an author if 
 you like. Think of Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 He is a physician.' 
 
 'No — no — literature is sacred. She will 
 have no divided allegiance. I belong, heart 
 and soul, to literature.' 
 
 'You are ambitious, Ziph,' — the lad blushed 
 — ' nobody except j^ou and me know how 
 ambitious you are. Why not follow the 
 regular line ? Everyone who wants to become 
 a great man begins by being a lawyer. I 
 suppose it is different in England. At least I 
 never heard that Lord Salisbury or that Mr. 
 Gladstone began in a lawyer's office. But 
 here — think of it, Ziph.' 
 
 ' I cannot think of it,' he replied. 
 
 ' You believe that you can make your
 
 PROLOGUE 15 
 
 living by your poems and stories and things.' 
 Observe that man. mere man, could never 
 bring himself to speak thus coldly to a friend 
 concerning that friend's dearest ambitions. 
 Woman, who belongs to the sensible sex, who 
 has no illusions, and tears away the veil witli- 
 out remorse, and disperses the golden mist, 
 permits herself to say such things. Bethiah 
 knew the boy's dreams and loved to hear 
 them : yet she knew also, or thought she knew, 
 the triflincr commercial value of those MSS. 
 which filled his desk, and therefore she said, 
 ' Poems and stories and thinsfs.' 
 
 ' Of course,' the boy replied, ' I know very 
 well that at first I may not be successful. 
 Then I must wait in patience and work. I 
 can live on very little. I shall go to one of 
 the cheap boarding-houses where they charge 
 five dollars a week. One poem a week — they 
 couldn't offer less than five dollars for a poem 
 — an essay now and then — a sliort tale occa- 
 sionally — one of those that you like so much 
 — a sketch of something or other, dashed oil' 
 — oh ! I could live very easily.'
 
 16 II ERR PAULUS 
 
 ' Well : but could you persuade editors to 
 take one poem a Aveek ? Don't think, Zipli ' — 
 for lie changed colour — ' don't think,' she re- 
 peated earnestly, ' that I do not like your 
 poems. I am sure they are beautiful. Many 
 poems, not much better, are published every 
 week in our own paper.' — Oh ! Bethiah ! ' not 
 much better ! ' Ziph choked, Ijut repressed 
 himself. ' And yet I fear that 3'ou may not 
 get a poem taken every week. And if you 
 wish to rise you must always be learning to 
 write better and better, and so be lifted above 
 the first anxieties for a livelihood.' 
 
 'Well — if I fnid any difficulties I shall 
 become a journalist. It's a step down, but 
 still it is literature.' 
 
 ' If you are going to be a journalist,' the 
 girl insisted, ' why go to New York at all .^ 
 Why not begin here, right away ? Or there's 
 Salem, where your fatlier came from, and 
 Avhere 3'ou've got cousins. Why not begin in 
 Salem, which isn't full of wickedness, like New 
 York?' 
 
 'No,' said the boy, 'I must go to New
 
 PROLOGUE 17 
 
 York. In Salem I should be buried for ever. 
 It is only in New York that a man can speak 
 so as to be heard all over the American Conti- 
 nent and across the ocean as well. I want a 
 world-wide fame.' Here he blushed, and 
 stammered, and stopped for a moment, because 
 he was ashamed even to speak of his own 
 ambitions. ' I want a world-wide fame,' he 
 repeated, after a gulp. ' I can be satisfied 
 with nothing short of that. I want to speak 
 to all the ends of the earth. Nobody knows 
 except you. Everybody would laugh at me 
 if they knew.' 
 
 ' I shall never laugh at you, Ziph.' This 
 girl was younger than himself, yet the lad 
 confided in her, asked her advice, and was to 
 some extent guided by her. You have heard 
 what manner of girl she was, so tliat you will 
 not ask how this could be. 
 
 ' \Vell, then — you know already what I 
 tliink. Ilow ca)i people go on living in such 
 a place as this? It is small and mean and 
 ugly, and the people are ignorant and conceited 
 and stupid. In books wc read — that is, you 
 
 VOL. I. - c
 
 1 8 HERR PAUL US 
 
 and I read — none of the others do — about art 
 and society and all the splendid things that 
 go on, but here we see none of them — we 
 don't belong to the real world, the civilised 
 world that has taken so many years to 
 build.' 
 
 ' We read of it, Ziph. Does not that 
 content you ? To be sure we cannot go and 
 live in London, if that is what you want. But 
 we are quite as well off as other American 
 citizens. We make our own culture, and 
 everybody says it is mucli deeper and more 
 real than the aristocratic varnish of Europe.' 
 
 ' And we read about great men, but we 
 never see any of them. Here they are all 
 little men. Yesterday I was in the cemetery 
 looking at the tombs. How many hundreds 
 lie there ! Yet not one — no — not one — who 
 was ever known outside his native place or 
 will be remembered when his children are 
 dead. How can they go on contented to be 
 so obscure ? ' 
 
 The lad had often talked in this way 
 before. But his talk had more meaning in it
 
 PROLOGUE 19 
 
 now that he was going to cast liimself upon 
 the world. 
 
 Bethiah, who was neither an agnostic nor 
 an atheist, hastened to administer, or at least 
 to exhibit, the consolations of religion. 
 
 ' Ye — yes,' the boy replied doubtfully, as 
 if he would like to have, in addition to the 
 Harp and Crown, the remembrance and the 
 contemplation of world-wide fame. Indeed, 
 one cannot but feel as if the great soul of 
 Shakespeare himself must derive continually 
 fresh gratification from the reports daily 
 dropping in of his continued fame. A glorified 
 person whose mortal remains lie in the Tower 
 Hamlets Cemetery, or that of East Finchley, 
 cannot have this satisfaction. 
 
 ' But yet — oh ! To feel that one has lived 
 to some purpose, and has made a mark upon 
 his generation, and is talked about wherever 
 the English language is spoken, and will not 
 l)c forgotten when the breath is out of liis 
 body, wliy,' he stopped and gasped. 
 
 ' Always fame and distinction, Ziph,' said 
 the girl. ' That is all you tliink about, 
 
 c 2
 
 20 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Would it not be better to feel that your work 
 has been good work well done, whether you 
 have won fame or whether you have remained 
 obscure? Then you would die with the 
 assurance ' 
 
 ' You talk as if everybody was always 
 going to church,' the boy interrupted im- 
 patiently. ' Why, to do good work and yet 
 miss fame — one would rather — ' he stopped, 
 because on this girl's ears the sentiment in his 
 mind would have sounded like rank blas- 
 phemy. 'Besides,' he w^cnt on, 'do they get 
 such an assurance — these obscure villagers? 
 Why should they get more of it than the 
 men who fight with all the world looking on ? ' 
 
 ' If you talk of fighting,' said the girl, 
 'remember how many gladiators die unseen 
 and unremembered.' 
 
 'Well, they die nobly, because they die 
 fighting. These people die ignobly, as they 
 have lived.' 
 
 Then there was silence awhile. The sun 
 was sinking low and the evening air was quiet, 
 save for the bells of the cows as they were
 
 PROLOGUE 21 
 
 driven slowly home along the road, each one 
 stopping at her own gate. 
 
 ' Ziph,' said Betliiali whispering, ' how 
 much money have you ? ' 
 
 ' Mother will give me a hundred dollars. 
 Father will give me nothing-. "When I have 
 spent my hundred dollars, he says it will be 
 time enough for him to send me money to 
 carry me home again.' 
 
 'I've got a hundred dollars saved, Ziph. 
 You shall have that money too.' 
 
 'Oh! no— no.' 
 
 'Yes — you shall — do not say a single 
 word. Wliy, Ziph, we have been school- 
 fellow's and like brother and sister always, 
 haven't we ? ' 
 
 'Always,' he replied. 
 
 ' Two hundred dollars is not a great deal 
 to give you a fair start, but perhaps it will 
 do.' 
 
 ' It slcall do,' said the boy. ' I am sure to 
 succeed. I feel that I must succeed. And 
 when I come back here I shall be ' — his voice 
 choked — ' famous. I shall be famous.'
 
 22 HERE PAULUS 
 
 ' Famous,' repeated the girl, tliis time 
 rareful not to wound his spirit by any pro- 
 phecy in the Cassandra vein. 'And then you 
 will be happy I hope.' She had no desire for 
 fame, and no confidence at all in fame as a 
 medicine for the procuring of happiness. 
 
 ' Do you remember the Medium who came 
 here last winter ? ' Zipli asked suddenly. 
 
 ' Yes — why ? He was only a common 
 cheat and impostor. What about him ? ' 
 
 'I don't know. lie did strange things, 
 anyhow.' 
 
 ' He drank whisky. There was no doubt 
 about that.' 
 
 I think that those Americans to whom the 
 first outward and visible sign of wickedness is 
 the drinking of whisky number about twenty 
 millions. Fortunately for the trade, the popu- 
 lation is fifty millions. 
 
 'Perhaps he did. But suppose — I only 
 say suppose — that by the help of spirits we 
 could not only get a new revelation of the 
 other world, but that we could go to them 
 for advice and guidance, by which we could
 
 PROLOGUE 23 
 
 make ourselves successful. Think how it 
 would be if we could light upon such an ad- 
 viser as a Avise spirit who would tell one what 
 to do.' 
 
 ' Well, Ziph, that is a poet's dream. Go 
 and write a poem showing how a man was 
 led upwards by a spirit, as Dante was led by 
 Beatrice.' 
 
 ' Dante — yes. He was led to Heaven and 
 Hell and Purgatory. But I mean — if a man 
 wanted distinction, would it not be a de- 
 lightful thing to find such a spirit who would 
 show him a way.' 
 
 He looked about the garden as if there 
 might possibly be one or two spirits thus 
 benevolently disposed, wise and capable, 
 within hearino^. But tliere followed no si^^^n 
 of their presence. 
 
 'Always greatness, Zii)h ? Wliy, think of 
 the millions who die unknown ! How sliould 
 you hope to escape the common lot ? One 
 or two out of every generation are remem- 
 bered for their works. And yet you are 
 dying to be one of them.'
 
 24 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' Never mind the improbability. If there 
 were only six men and women in all the world 
 going to be saved, yon wonld try to be one of 
 the six. Yon know yon wonld. Well now, 
 ever since I saw the Medinm and the won- 
 derful things he did, I have been trying to 
 find ont if I, too, were a Medium.' 
 
 ' Ziph ! ' 
 
 ' Because, if I ^\^ere, I could lift the Yeil, 
 as he did, or pretended to do, for myself.' 
 
 ' Ziph ! ' 
 
 'And then I could hnd that spirit and 
 make him do whatever I pleased.' 
 
 ' Oh Ziph — I am sure it is wicked. Do 
 not — do not go on. Eemember that witches 
 were not suffered in the land.' 
 
 ' I have gone to my own room to try. 
 You sit alone and you do nothing. You look 
 straight before you, and you keep your mind 
 quite clear. Presently there comes a time 
 when the room in which you are fades quite 
 away and is lost. Then everything vanishes. 
 You lose the sense of yourself — you are out- 
 side the body — your soul is floating — — '
 
 PROLOGUE 25 
 
 ' Zipli — stop, I entreat you.' 
 
 For as he spoke his voice dropped and 
 his eyes assumed the far-off gaze of one who 
 looks through things and sees them not. 
 
 ' Am I truly behind the Veil ? ' he mur- 
 mured, swaying gently to and fro, witli hands 
 outstretched as in the dark. ' I liear a rustling 
 of wings and a whispering of voices. There is 
 soft music around me : gentle hands touch 
 me : gtrange lips press my lips : there is fra- 
 grance in the air : my feet are on tlie thres- 
 hold ' 
 
 ' Ziph ! ' The girl sprang to her feet and 
 caught him by the coat collar with both hands 
 and began to shake him vigorously. ' Stop 
 play-acting ! ' 
 
 He turned his eyes reproachfull3^ 
 
 ' Play-acting ! ' he murmured. ' She calls 
 it play-acting ! ' 
 
 ' You Avere looking exactly as the Medium 
 tried to look. He could not, because he had 
 pig's eyes and fat cheeks. But 3'ou, Ziph, 
 you, to descend to the level of that poor 
 creature whose tricks have been exposed
 
 26 HERR PAULUS 
 
 again and again. Oli ! Zipli — it is worse than 
 nonsense — no spirit will ever help you, save 
 to your own destruction.' 
 
 ' Was I acting ? ' he repeated, dreamily. 
 ' Sometimes one doesn't know whether one is 
 acting or whether it is reality. How do you 
 know that you have not dragged me back 
 from the very threshold of the next world — 
 from knowledge and from power ? ' 
 
 ' Stuff and rubbish ! ' said the girl. 
 
 11. 
 
 Six months later, a young man, shabbily 
 dressed, whose boots were down at heel and 
 broken in the toes, walked slowly up the 
 Broadway of New York. His face, sharp and 
 pinched, showed the deepest dejection. There 
 are so many sad faces in every great city that 
 the New Yorkers may be pardoned for taking 
 small notice of this one sad face. 
 
 The lad — he was no more — presently 
 arrived at a certain door on which was a 
 brass plate announcing that here was the
 
 PROLOGUE 27 
 
 office of the ' Spread Eagle Magazine.' He 
 stopped, hesitated, and finally, with a deep 
 sigh, mounted the steps, and entered the 
 office. 
 
 ' I have called,' he said, ' about a manu- 
 script I sent to the Editor a short time 
 ago.' 
 
 ' Title and name ? ' asked the clerk, briskly. 
 
 'It was called "The Veiled Monk of 
 Cordova." ' 
 
 ' Name ? ' 
 
 ' It was signed Paul.' 
 
 ' " Veiled Monk of Cordova," by Paul,' 
 repeated the clerk, mechanically, writing on 
 a slip of paper. ' Wait half a minute.' The 
 young man obeyed with a certain meekness. 
 
 ' Not been at this business long ? ' said the 
 clerk. 
 
 ' What business ? ' 
 
 ' Sending your MSS. around.' 
 
 ' No, not long.' 
 
 ' Ah ! made it pay yet ? ' 
 
 ' Not 5^et.' 
 
 ' Thought so ' — with a look at the seedy
 
 28 HERR PAULUS 
 
 clothes and the worn boots — ' Got anything 
 else to do ? ' 
 
 ' No, nothing- else.' 
 
 ' Take my advice, and give it up. Give it 
 lip. Bless you, we've thousands of manu- 
 scripts. They come from all parts of the 
 States ; from Canada — even from England — 
 with letters and without. If with letters they 
 declare that tlie writer is starving ; and if 
 without, there is a note on the first page 
 requesting the Editor to attend to this work 
 without the least delay, and to forward the 
 dollars by return post. Get something else 
 to do — give it up, I say.' 
 
 The young man trembled, but made no 
 reply. 
 
 ' Here's your manuscript. See. The 
 Editor has just looked at two pages — here's 
 his pencil mark — and into the basket it went. 
 No chance for you. Give it up, I say — it's 
 no use — and try something else.' 
 
 The young man took his manuscript and 
 meekly retired without a word. This was his 
 last hope : he liad ventured to hope once
 
 PROLOGUE 29 
 
 more and for the last time that he might be 
 accepted — and now to be told that it was no 
 use and that he must give it up. 
 
 The young man was none other than 
 Ziphion Trinder. He had enjoyed six months' 
 experience of the literary life — he called it 
 the literary life — and he had not succeeded 
 in selling a single one of his poems, essays, 
 stories, or sketches — not one — not a single 
 one. 
 
 He arrived brimful of enthusiasm and of 
 hope ; he had a portmanteau stuffed to 
 bursting with the beautiful productions 
 which were to take New York Editors by 
 storm, and strike the whole of the United 
 States, not to speak of Great Britain and her 
 Colonies, with delight and amazement. He 
 began by considering which of the Magazines 
 he should lirst address : whether Harper, or 
 Scri])Tier, or the Century, or the Atlantic : or 
 whether he should try the English Journals — 
 Longman's, Temple Bar, tlic Cornhill, tlie 
 Gentleman's, or Tillotson for tlie Newspapers. 
 Finally he resolved to be patriotic, and to
 
 30 HERR PAULUS 
 
 send the first-fruits of liis genius to the 
 magazines of his own country. Afterwards 
 lie would cross the ocean and make pale with 
 envy the faces of the English writers. 
 
 Why tell the tale? Everybody will un- 
 derstand that the clever boy's crude pro- 
 ductions found no favour. He pelted all the 
 Editors with his papers. He had not had a 
 single kind word from one of them, and now 
 it was all over. He had tried all ; he had 
 been rejected by all ; and he had no money 
 left. The situation was truly terrible. At 
 the end of the week he would have to leave 
 his boarding-house ; it was the middle of the 
 winter and he would have no place to lay his 
 head. 
 
 ■ And only six months before he had come 
 to the city, his head aflame, his cheek aglow, 
 resolved to make his fortune and his name at 
 a single bound ! Here was a fulfilling of 
 destiny ! Here was a glorious outcome of 
 ambition ! Many youths of eighteen have the 
 same dream, but few there are who believe in 
 it so profoundly as to reduce it to actual
 
 PROLOGUE 31 
 
 experiment. Poor Ziphion ! what is to 
 become of him ? 
 
 He was so miserable that he dared not 
 think, but strolled along in a purposeless 
 way and listened to the talk of the passers 
 
 by. 
 
 First there came two girls dressed in furs, 
 with thick veils, muffs, and gloves, and pro- 
 tected from the cold by the solid fortification 
 of a good luncheon. They prattled of 
 chiffons : and they quickly passed him. Then 
 followed two middle-aQ:ed men who talked of 
 dollars : and they passed him. Then two 
 elderly ladies who were talking of their 
 minister : and they passed him. Then two 
 young men who talked of dollars : and they 
 passed him. Then other two young men who 
 talked of dollars. Then more women and 
 more men, and they all talked of dress and 
 dollars : and they passed him. 
 
 Then there came along a couple of men 
 who were speaking of something else. 
 
 ' I tell you, Doctor,' said one of them, 
 ' that you ought to take a pupil.'
 
 32 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' I have often thought of it. The difficulty 
 is to find a pupih' 
 
 ' You are not old, but you may die, and 
 then your incomparable powers and your 
 knowledge will die with you — therefore, take 
 a pupil.' 
 
 ' My dear friend, where am I to find one ? 
 I want a tliousand qualities combined in one 
 mind, all of which are rare, taken separately. 
 For instance, I want youth, quick intelligence, 
 sympathy, a highly nervous and sensitive 
 organisation, a poetic disposition, wide read- 
 ing, and good education. I want a young 
 man who is perfectly free from the trammels 
 of relations, society, and ties of any kind. I 
 want, besides, one who will give absolute 
 obedience and preserve, if I require it, 
 inviolable secresy. Besides tliis, he should be 
 a youth unspotted, not like these young 
 Gothamites, up to all kinds of devilry ; and 
 he must be prepared to postpone indefinitely 
 the acquisition of dollars. Tell me, my friend, 
 where shall I find such a paragon, such a 
 Phoenix for a pupil ? '
 
 PROLOGUE -^i 
 
 Tliey passed liim and went on. 
 
 Suddenly the words fell upon Ziphion, 
 who had been listening languidly, with a new 
 meaning. For what purpose could this 
 gentleman v/ant such a pupil ? He quickened 
 his steps and followed the speakers. Pre- 
 sently one of the two broke off and left the 
 other, the man called Doctor, who wanted to 
 find the pupil. 
 
 Ziphion followed this man. He turned 
 out of the Broadway into one of the side 
 streets which cross it at right angles. Pre- 
 sently he stopped at the door of a house. 
 Then — an inspiration — it was but a chance — 
 Ziphion hurried up and addressed him. 
 
 ' Sir, I beg your pardon. May I have one 
 word with you ? ' 
 
 ' What is it ? ' 
 
 ' You want a pupil. Take me.' 
 
 The man called Doctor looked at him 
 curiously for a few moments. 
 Come in,' he said. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 BOOK THE FIRST. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN. 
 
 At twenty minutes past seven there came 
 into the drawing-room, as yet empty, a girl 
 dressed for the evening. To the general 
 world she was Miss Brudenel, only daughter 
 of Mr. Cyrus Brudenel. But she was known 
 among the more frivolous of her companions, 
 male and female, as the Vestal, or as Sibyl the 
 Vestal, or even as Dodo, for reasons which 
 you will immediately understand if you are 
 patient and place a little confidence in your 
 narrator. She answered readily to all these 
 names, if only for the first and most important 
 reason that her full baptismal name was Sibyl 
 Dodona, She would also, I make no doubt, 
 
 1)2
 
 36 HERR PAULUS 
 
 have been baptized Manto Amaltlioea Da^^hne 
 Pythonissa — and then she would have had a 
 truly beautiful name — but for tlie fact that 
 her father's classical learning was rusty. It 
 will be acknowledged, however, that her 
 name, even without this comphment, had an 
 oracular, mysterious. Pagan, and Vestal virgin- 
 like ring. Such a name should properly 
 belong to a girl of large and lustrous eyes 
 and pale cheek and lofty brow, charged with 
 the mysterious power of an ancient priestess, 
 filled with the sacred fire of prophecy. But 
 Nature loves to turn the Blanches into 
 Brunettes, and make the Violets look like full- 
 blown Eoses, and the Pets and Pansies like 
 Queens; she corrupts the sons of mathemati- 
 cians so that they become poets, and the sons 
 of poets so that they become engineers. The 
 world, in fact, is full of people destined by 
 their parents for the highest and most dignified 
 offices, who have ended in occupying positions 
 of a very different kind. I was myself destined 
 for the Archiepiscopate — I can never gaze 
 upon an Archbishop without a mild wonder
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN yj 
 
 how I should look in an apron — and now you 
 see. As for Sibyl, Dame Nature had made 
 of her — though she was solemnly dedicated 
 to the Cause from her very cradle — a damsel 
 less like a young Vestal — I suppose Vestals 
 were sometimes youthful — than any young 
 woman I have ever seen. I may be wrong. 
 And certainly, in the day when Vestals went 
 about reprieving criminals, adorning proces- 
 sions, making the sacrificial ox vain-glorious 
 with wreaths of roses, and occupying the 
 front seats while the gladiators slaughtered 
 eacli other, I seem to have been somewhere 
 else, very likely in the ancient British city of 
 Grimspound. Still, speaking with diffidence, 
 one thinks of Vestals as of nuns ; and again of 
 nuns, not as tlie light and frivolous creatures 
 depicted by Gresset and the author of the 
 'Contes Drolatiques,' but as beings pale, 
 emaciated, austere, given to mortifying the 
 flesli till there was none left to mortify — in 
 itself a mortifying conclusion : regardless of 
 personal appearance ; pleased to have their 
 beautiful hair cut off"; delighted to dress up in
 
 38 HERR PAUL US 
 
 a hideous garb ; joyfully fasting ; enduring 
 hardness of all kinds ; never so happy as when 
 they had to turn out of a warm bed — but 
 then it was never allowed to be quite warm, 
 so that tliey might enjoy the misery of cold — 
 and to hurry along a draughty corridor into 
 an ice-cold cliapel, there to shiver and to 
 chant a sniffling service. That, I say, is the 
 popular conception of a Vestal virgin. 
 
 The outward appearance which this young 
 lady presented, pointed to anything ratlier 
 than the life of self-inflicted torture, humilia- 
 tion, or discomfort. A pair of laughing eyes, 
 rosy lips always ready to laiigh, light curly 
 hair and plenty of it, a cheek warmed with 
 sunshine, the whole face full of possible Venus, 
 as the Delphian prophetess of old was full of 
 Apollo, a shapely figure and a generous 
 stature may be outward and visible tokens of 
 a holy vocation, but they are not generally so 
 read and accepted. In the same way she 
 wore her dress of heliotrope silk, trimmed, 
 mounted, and set off with white feathers, as if 
 she felt a solid and substantial pleasure in
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN 39 
 
 merely putting on a really beautiful dress, and 
 as if she had no craving at all for the claustral 
 black and white. In her hand she carried a 
 feather fan, quite a roundane pretty thing ; 
 and on her wrist was that worldly gaud, a 
 golden bracelet set with turquoises. And yet 
 her name was Sibyl Dodona. 
 
 The lamps and candles — Lady Augusta 
 had quite an eighteenth century love for wax 
 candles — were ht and in their places, the fire 
 was made up, but the people had not yet 
 arrived. Sibyl glanced first at the clock — she 
 was in good time, twenty minutes before the 
 guests would arrive. Then she looked in a 
 mirror, just to see if that would confirm the 
 general impression of her own looking-glass 
 and the opinion of her maid. Any girl would 
 do that, whether she was a Vestal or not — we 
 can picture the handing round of the polished 
 steel mirror among the real Vestals before the 
 ladies formed themselves into procession, and 
 marched out into the open, grave and solemn 
 and beautiful, the ugly ones, of course, stage- 
 managed into the middle, out of sight. Satis-
 
 40 HERR PAUL US 
 
 fied witli the opinion of tlie mirror, Sibyl 
 smiled, perhaps at the tliought that she had 
 twenty minutes' start of the other people, who 
 were asked to dinner at a quarter to eight 
 and would not appear until that moment. It 
 is just possible that she smiled because she was 
 so early — as one chuckles virtuously at getting 
 up by six, two hours before anybody else ; but 
 perhaps there was another reason, for the door 
 was opened and a young man came in — unan- 
 nounced, because he was staying in the house 
 — and Sibyl blushed and laughed, and blushed 
 again when this young man, after entering witli 
 the greatest propriety, and looking about, and 
 satisfying himself that tliere was nobody else 
 in the room, ran across it with the utmost 
 eagerness and caught both Sibyl's hands, and 
 kissed her on both cheeks and on the lijDs, 
 with the most daring indiiference to time and 
 place, and whispered, ' My dearest Dodo ! ' 
 The most privileged lover could do no more. 
 
 One might have had a worse kind of lover. 
 Many girls are obliged to put up with a very 
 inferior brand of lover. This young man was
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN 41 
 
 strong to begin Avith. A man ought to be 
 strong. The length and the proportions of 
 his hmbs, and the depth of his chest revealed 
 the athlete. I do not know his record at all, 
 nor the length or height of his jump, or any- 
 thing about his performances, because these 
 are things of which I am profoundly ignorant. 
 The athlete came in after my time. But 
 everyone says that Tom was a good athlete, 
 and one is glad to accept the unanimous 
 opinion. He was, however, more than an 
 athlete. A first class in the Natural Science 
 Tripos and a laboratory record already honour- 
 able, had prepared him for the post he now 
 held as one of the Demonstrators in the School 
 of Mines. Those who hold such a post look 
 forward to become Professors in their turn, 
 regarding even Professor Huxley himself as 
 no more than their predecessor, considering 
 themselves as his followers in the advance of 
 science and in fame ; they intend to be made 
 Fellows of the Eoyal Society ; in due course 
 Doctors of Oxford and Cambridge, members 
 of the Athenteum Club, causd honoris ; and, to
 
 42 HERR PAULUS 
 
 complete their scientific career, Eectors of 
 Glasgow, St. Andrews, and Aberdeen. The 
 Crown alone has no honours, titles, or dis- 
 tinctions for these men. But they need not 
 Crown distinctions : greater honour hath no 
 man than the respect of his country. Pity 
 that they must ever die. The Aveak point of 
 the scientific young men is that they have a 
 tendency to premature gravity. One loves 
 to see a youth of five-and-twenty bubbling and 
 boiling over with mirth, and rejoicing in the 
 spring of his manhood. Therefore, it is 
 pleasant to record that Tom Langston — which 
 was this young man's name — was not yet 
 spoiled by his profession, but laughed, and was 
 frivolous, and joked, and was happy, just like 
 one of those foolish prodigal young men in the 
 old pictures, who were represented as laughing 
 idiotically, while they ran along a broad road 
 at the end of which was a great door, which, 
 it could be plainly seen, led to flames and was 
 guarded by two horrific devils with tails and 
 hoofs and pitchforks. Yet it was a strong 
 face, pleasingly ugly and charmingly rugged,
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN 43 
 
 though perhaps masterful. Those who knew 
 Tom Langston would have said that Sibyl had 
 made no mistake at all when she entrusted to 
 him the happiness of her hfe. 
 
 ' We only have a few minutes,' she said. 
 ' It was very good of you, Tom, to dress so 
 early. No, sir, not too close, for fear. Stand 
 quite quietly on that side of the fireplace, and 
 I will stand on this. So — more than an arm's 
 length between us, please. What if papa 
 were to come out and find — oh, Tom ! ' 
 
 ' I almost wish he would,' said Tom. 
 ' Then we could have it out at once. When 
 will you let me speak to him, Sibyl ? ' 
 
 ' Not 3^et — oh, it is not the least use to 
 speak yet. There could not possibly be a more 
 inopportune moment. Why, they have got 
 the most wonderful person in the world com- 
 ing this very night. He is going to revolu- 
 tionize everything. The Mediums — poor old 
 things ! — are to be quite snuffed out at last 
 with their accordions and their tubes and 
 rubbish. All the old spirits are to be sent to 
 the right about, and we are going to have an
 
 44 HERR PAULUS 
 
 entirely new importation. Mr. Emanuel 
 Chick and Lavinia Medlock are invited here 
 to-night for a last appearance, poor dears ! 
 Lady Augusta anticipates the immediate con- 
 version of the whole world ; and my educa- 
 tion is to be neglected no longer, so that I 
 may take up my duties as a Vestal as soon as 
 the new man is ready for me. Of course he 
 will only prove another liumbug ; but he 
 must have his innings, I suppose. And oh, 
 Tom, if you love me do not speak yet.' 
 
 ' You will be of age, Sibyl, in a few weeks, 
 and then not even your father ' 
 
 ' Tom, do not talk like that. I must be 
 married like other girls, with my father's con- 
 sent and blessing.' Her voice trembled a 
 little, and her eyes dimmed for a moment. 
 ' You do not know how much he loves me, 
 and what great things he expects of me. It 
 will break his heart when he finds out that 
 I cannot do what he expects and hopes.' 
 
 ' Great things, indeed ! With the Eaps ! ' 
 
 ' I suppose it is no use suggesting such a 
 thing, Tom, but if you really desired to win
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN 45 
 
 his consent you might pretend to be a Medium, 
 and to talk with the spirits, and so work 
 round to the subject gradually.' 
 
 ' It is such a sorry business, Sibyl. I could 
 not possibly pretend to have the least hand 
 in it.' 
 
 Sibyl sighed profoundly. 
 
 ' No, Tom,' she said, ' of course you would 
 not practise any such deception. But it 
 seems so sad, I feel like the Agnostic daughter 
 of a pious and earnest Bishop. Like her, I do 
 not dare to reveal my unbelief.' 
 
 ' Yet you do not believe in it ? ' 
 
 * No, I have lost every shred of belief, and 
 I am afraid to tell them so. All my life long 
 I have been looking on at manifestations and 
 messages, and they have always been the 
 same ; and, oh ! dear me ! in spite of the 
 messages, it seems to me as if we were not the 
 least bit advanced.' 
 
 ' You are not,' said Tom, ' so that eitlier 
 the spirits know no more than we already 
 know, or there are no spirits.' 
 
 ' And I have at last got,' continued the girl
 
 46 HERR PAULUS 
 
 with a little laugh, ' to know exactly where 
 the things come in and how they lead up to 
 them — the raps and the music and the rest of 
 it, you know — the things which may be tricks.' 
 
 ' I should think they were tricks ! ' Tom 
 replied, contemptuously. ' Why, Dodo, you 
 are just like a girl who goes to see a melo- 
 drama every night in her life, and so gets to 
 know all the surprises and where they come 
 in, and expects the startles and the jumps. 
 To think that a reasonable man should give 
 up his whole life to the encouragement of 
 these miserable impostors, when there is 
 the whole world of science before him ! ' 
 This is said with all the scorn of a full -blown 
 Professor, not a mere Demonstrator. 
 
 ' Try to be more patient with my father,' 
 said Sibyl, ' for my sake, Tom. He is not a 
 common curious pryer into secrets : he wants to 
 search and find out, if he can, what is possible 
 to be discovered of the other world ' 
 
 ' And I,' said her lover, ' find my hands 
 full of the world that is around us. Give me 
 science to work for and love to live for ; and
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN 47 
 
 when life is over I shall await without fear 
 the life — if there is any — which lies beyond.' 
 
 Every age has its formula?. Perhaps this 
 is one belonging to our age. 
 
 But it was twenty minutes to eight and the 
 people began to come. 
 
 The first comers were two girls, who also 
 came in unannounced, because one of them 
 was staying in the house and the other was 
 her companion. Cicely Langston, Tom's first 
 cousin, and, Hke him, the ward of Mr. Cyrus 
 Brudenel, was bhnd from infancy, but she 
 walked everywhere about the house without 
 being led, though her companion was always 
 with her. 
 
 ' You here, Tom ? ' she said, walking 
 straight to the spot where he stood by the 
 fireplace. ' You are dressed early to-night. 
 That is very unusual.' 
 
 'No, Cis. Perhaps it is my anxiety to 
 witness the fireworks we are to have to-nijiht, 
 which made me hurry up.' 
 
 Cicely smiled and sat down, her eyes 
 closed, her hands crossed in her lap, in the
 
 48 HERR PAULUS 
 
 patient and pathetic attitude of the blind. 
 She said nothing in reply, because her cousin's 
 scoffing attitude as regards the Eesearches 
 carried on in that house was well known to 
 everybody. She was somewhat hke him, 
 though with that kind of likeness which 
 vanishes when you look into details. For 
 where his features were rugged, hers were 
 regular ; and while his face was ruddy, hers 
 was pale ; and while his expression was com- 
 bative, hers was full of patience and resigna- 
 tion. Her features were delicate and fine ; 
 her nature, one perceived at once, was in- 
 capable of the stronger passions, but was 
 wholly governed by the affections. 
 
 She was dressed in what seemed to be 
 black lace and nothing else, with a bunch of 
 freshly-cut flowers at the neck. The ob- 
 servant person, while admiring the dress it- 
 self, which was not only costly but artistic, 
 would have objected that it was ' put on ' 
 rather than worn. This effect is produced, 
 with the best dress ever made, when a shop girl 
 dresses a dummy, or when an artist dresses a
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN 49 
 
 lay figure — no lay figure could ever yet be 
 made to show a pride in her ' things ' — or 
 when a lady's maid dresses a young lady who 
 is profoundly indifferent as to what she has 
 on. There really are a few young ladies of 
 whom this may be said, only they are all 
 bhnd from birth. Cicely Langston was one of 
 them. She resigned herself to be dressed for 
 the evening as for a drive, but gave no 
 thought to her raiment, except, perhaps, that 
 she Hked it soft and warm. 
 
 The girl who entered the room with her 
 was her companion, Hetty Medlock. Com- 
 panions, one observes, governesses and private 
 secretaries, are all apt to fall into one of two 
 faults. Either they go about with a sulky 
 and discontented air which they vainly try to 
 dissemble, or they assume, and habitually 
 wear like a grinning mask, an impossibly 
 cheerful look, as if they loved a condition of 
 dependence, and w^ould choose it out of all the 
 lots and fortunes offered to mankind. Hetty 
 was still too young for the cloud of discontent 
 to have permanently settled upon her brow ; 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 HERE PAULUS 
 
 but to-night she was clearly discontented with 
 something, very likely with her grenadine 
 dress, which, like a man with a grey beard, 
 could no longer pretend to be young. This is 
 a quite sufficient reason for any girl to be dis- 
 contented. Perhaps she looked discontented 
 because she did not like her work. Since, 
 however, work of some kind was necessary, 
 Hetty Medlock might have shown something 
 of that thankful heart which one expects even 
 in a pauper who gets a job — and, besides, 
 many girls would have jumped at such a job 
 as being companion to a girl who was the 
 most unselfish creature and had the sweetest 
 temper in the world. On the other hand, 
 it must be confessed that to be a companion 
 at all is to be, in a way, a household servant, 
 and such girls as Hetty especially dislike house- 
 hold servitude. 
 
 Hetty was the daughter of the once famous 
 Lavinia Medlock, a Medium of the first water 
 in the day, now five-and-twenty years ago, 
 when people still loved to turn tables, listen 
 to raps and receive messages of the old-
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN 51 
 
 fashioned kind, and when such a simple mes- 
 sage as one from a lost child to the effect 
 that she was happy, brought inexpressible 
 joy to a bereaved heart. No person ever 
 was such a benefactor in this respect as 
 Lavinia Medlock. But though she was still 
 ready to turn on a telephonic communication 
 with any spirit you might call for, the world 
 no longer came to her house to enquire. 
 Wicked people had got her into trouble by 
 asking for messages from persons alleged to 
 be deceased who had never existed — and yet 
 the messages came. Distinguished spirits, 
 such as those of Lord Byron, Shakespeare, 
 and even Dr. Johnson, had taken a pleasure 
 in bringing her into ridicule by rapping non- 
 sense, insomuch that her practice had almost 
 entirely fallen off, and she was now fain to 
 let lodgings. Her husband had long since run 
 away, chivied out of his own house, as he 
 himself said, while drawing on his gloves, by 
 bell-ringing, raps, sighs, whispers, cold breaths, 
 and such supernatural small ware. He bore 
 it as long as he could, but he was not a brave
 
 52 HERR PAULUS 
 
 man, and his nerves gave way. Therefore he 
 went away, with a small handbag, into the 
 Night, or the Shadows, or the Darkness, and 
 was no more heard of. He was by profession 
 a clerk, and when impecunious clerks go out 
 into the Night or the Shadows, they generally 
 get their feet upon those steps which go 
 swiftly down to Sheol. In any case Mr. 
 Medlock had been no more heard of. 
 
 If Hetty had looked happier she would 
 have been a very beautiful girl, much more 
 strikingly beautiful than Sibyl. She possessed 
 a pair of large and lustrous eyes, dark enough 
 to be called black, an unusual thing in an 
 English girl, and a great mass of thick black 
 hair. It was the face of a girl in whom 
 passion was possible — passion on a grand 
 scale, Spanish or Italian passion, with burning 
 jealousy and revenge. Fortunately, such girls 
 in these days of self-restraint and repression 
 and the shame of showing any sign of strong 
 feeling are rare. 
 
 'Well,' said Tom, 'I hope the grand Func- 
 tion will come off successfully, and then there
 
 THE VESTAL VIRGIN 53 
 
 will be no room for doubt left at all, will 
 there, Cis ? ' 
 
 ' There is already no room left for doubt, 
 in the minds of a great many people,' Cis 
 replied with the calm conviction of a believer. 
 
 ' Oh, I only said what I believed to be the 
 correct thing to say after every new manifes- 
 tation of the spirits.' 
 
 ' To me,' said Cicely, ' life is all shadow. 
 Whether it is a spirit of this or of the other 
 world that speaks to me, matters little, so 
 that it is a good spirit. Sometimes we have 
 had communications with those who are not 
 good spirits.' 
 
 ' That's just it,' said her cousin, ' and the 
 only way to keep out the deceiving spirits is 
 to draw the line so as to include only the 
 spirits of this world. From the nonsense they 
 talk I should be inclined to believe that we 
 never get hold of the good spirits of the other 
 world at all. What do you think, Miss Med- 
 lock?' 
 
 'Why do you ask me, Mr. Langston?' 
 she replied. ' Has not my mother been a
 
 5 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Medium for thirty years ? Am I to acknow- 
 ledge that all her friends are of the baser 
 sort?' 
 
 Then Lady Augusta came in, followed by 
 Mr. Cyrus Brudenel, and the other guests 
 invited to dine, and to assist at whatever 
 might follow afterwards, began to arrive.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE LEADER. 
 
 Mr. CrRUS Brubenel lias been for many years, 
 as everybody knows, the recognised leader in 
 the spiritualistic world of London. Other 
 people may have come to the front for a 
 moment by virtue of peculiar powers and 
 excellency of gifts. They have played their 
 parts, received their applause, made their 
 bows, and then retired. But Mr. Cyrus 
 Brudenel remains. In every cause, movement, 
 or party there is its Mr. Brudenel, whose 
 name is inseparably mixed up with it. He 
 must be rich and married ; he must live in a 
 great house, and his wife must be always 
 receiving. Further, he must be a sincere 
 believer in the cause. In short, what Lord 
 Shaftesbury, to take a well-known case, was
 
 56 HERR PAULUS 
 
 to the Evangelical party in the Church, so 
 Mr. Cyrus Brudenel was to the Spiritualists. 
 
 Mr, Brudenel was the second son of the 
 late Mr. Abraham Brudenel, shipowner and 
 milhonaire. His elder brother, created a 
 baronet in 1872, ingratitude for large moneys 
 spent in the advance of the Liberal cause, has 
 been recently, for similar reasons, promoted 
 to the peerage, and now enjoys the rank and 
 title of Lord Bow and Bromley. Cyrus, for 
 his part, passed through school and university 
 with no incidents to speak of, and took an 
 ordinary degree after a career marked on the 
 one hand by no turbulence, effervescence, or 
 hot madness of youth, and, on the other hand, 
 by no apparent superiority of intellect or 
 academic distinctions. Li fact there was no- 
 thing at all to indicate his future greatness. 
 On the demise of Abraham, the firm was con- 
 verted into the well-known Company, Limited, 
 and the sons, who sold out their interest, 
 bought land with the money they received. 
 This, a few short yeai's ago, was the recog- 
 nised first step with those who wished at once
 
 THE LEADER 57 
 
 to make an investment absolutely safe and to 
 rise higher on the social ladder. What is to 
 take the place of land, supposing that men 
 continue to get rich, which is doubtful, and 
 still aspire to enter society, which is not 
 doubtful, has not yet been determined. 
 
 I know not by what means the mind of 
 Cyrus Brudenel was first turned in the direc- 
 tion of Spiritualism. Perhaps by simple curi- 
 osity : perhaps by the natural longing of man- 
 kind to enquire after the Unknown and strive 
 to see the Invisible. For thirty years and 
 more he had experienced convictions of the 
 truth, and been one of those disciples whom 
 nothing can shake from their allegiance. Yet, 
 which is a symptom common to all Spiritual- 
 ists and peculiar to them — he was not restful 
 and settled and contented, but remained 
 always eager after new manifestations, raven- 
 ous for further confirmations, and still un- 
 satisfied with the messages which come in 
 plenty to those who enquire. He has assisted 
 in his time at numberless seances ; he has 
 been rewarded by the most stupendous
 
 58 HERR PAULUS 
 
 miracles of undoubted and undeniable genuine- 
 ness ; in his presence the heaviest and most 
 solemn tables have become frisky and fri- 
 volous ; the bulkiest of Mediums have lost 
 their ponderosity and been wafted about Hke 
 feathers. Yet he has never been satisfied ; 
 for in miracles, as at dinner, appetite comes 
 to those who eat, and one is never full. 
 
 On the other hand, it cannot be denied 
 that Mr. Brudenel has been too frequently 
 the prey to lying spirits, and has been often 
 imposed upon by brazen impostors pretending 
 to supernatural powers. At one time, for 
 instance, when he entrusted the whole con- 
 duct of his affairs to the advice of the spirits, 
 who told him what to do by means of his 
 then favourite Medium — it was Mr. Emanuel 
 Chick — he was made to buy a good many 
 shares in ventures which somehow all turned 
 out badly. There were suspicions that the 
 Medium had been squared, but Mr. Brudenel 
 preferred to lay the blame upon the spirits. 
 The commercial element among those with 
 whom we are permitted to converse is one,
 
 THE LEADER 59 
 
 he says sadly, whose City record, did we 
 know it, would probably prove shady. 
 
 His triumphs ; his disappointments ; his 
 real and sincere convictions of the truth and 
 final success of his cause ; the yielding and 
 treacherous nature of the ground on which 
 he stood ; his insatiable thirst for a fuller and 
 a deeper revelation, with manifestations of a 
 more startling kind, and beyond the possi- 
 bihty of doubt ; the adulation of the Mediums 
 who lived upon his word ; the consciousness 
 of Leadership — all these things together had 
 stamped his face with an expression as full 
 of varied emotions as the cauldron at Cama- 
 cho's wedding was full of every delectable 
 dainty. Among them might have been ob- 
 served — as the reporter says — pride, dignity, 
 importance, hope, enthusiasm, doubt, fear, 
 suspicion, irritability, jealousy, and many 
 other passions. He was certainly dignified in 
 his carriage ; he was certainly hesitating in 
 his speech ; his words were brave but his 
 manner was nervous. As for his figure, he 
 was tall and portly ; lie had grown bald and
 
 6o HERR PAULUS 
 
 grey but had as yet no look of old age or 
 decay. His face, handsome still at sixty, 
 must have been far more strikingly handsome 
 at thirty. This is not surprising when we 
 reflect that his aristocratic features and his 
 noble presence were inherited from a long 
 line of ancestors who were all, to a man, 
 porters, labourers, draymen, rustics, me- 
 chanics, and craftsmen from time immemo- 
 rable until Abraham, afterwards the milhon- 
 aire, left the ranks of labour to become a 
 clerk. The enemies of Cyrus Brudenel call 
 him names, such as Pump, Old Pump, Solemn 
 Old Pump, and the like, which I will not 
 repeat. To be sure his best friends could not 
 pretend that he was lively and sparkling ; 
 but then he was a Leader in a Cause on 
 which ridicule, epigram, irony and contempt 
 have been freely hurled, not only by wit and 
 by philosopher, but also by the baser sort, 
 because there is none so vile but he can jeer 
 at spirits and ghosts. To such a Leader, all 
 laughter is like the crackling of thorns be- 
 neath a pot ; and if you should be so ill-
 
 THE LEADER 6i 
 
 advised as to laugh in Mr. Brudenel's presence 
 he would become that pot and presently boil 
 over. 
 
 As for Lady Augusta, his second wife : — 
 There is a certain type of wife, which will, 
 I fear, with the march of woman's education 
 and the cultivation of her critical faculty, 
 grow rapidly rarer until it finally becomes 
 extinct. I mean the wife wlio ardently adopts 
 her husband's creed, convictions, dogmas, 
 hobbies, and Party as her own, and enters 
 into the very inner spirit of that creed or 
 Party. Thus, there is no person in the world 
 who more profoundly believes the doctrine of 
 the High Church than the wife — if she be of 
 this type — of the Pdtualistic clergyman ; there 
 is no person more profoundly agitated about 
 the future state of her own soul than the wife 
 of the Calvinist ; there is no one who more 
 honestly believes in the Connection than the 
 wife of the Minister. If the husband be a 
 man of science, the wife will breathe the at- 
 mosphere of science, and live wholly in the 
 scientific world ; if he be an artist, she will
 
 62 HERR PAUL US 
 
 live among the studios and talk of Art ; if he 
 be a musician, she will talk and think of 
 music all her life ; if he be a shopkeeper — but 
 here we draw the line, because there is, it 
 must be admitted, a universal tendency to 
 sink the shop. 
 
 Lady Augusta belonged to this type. 
 She felt no doubts — she had no hesitations. 
 'I have seen too much,' she said, 'to admit 
 of any room for doubt. After all, my dears,' 
 she added, ' one is possessed of eyes and of 
 the reasoning faculty. Oh ! we are on the 
 verge of a new revelation. I look for it daily ; 
 I expect the Prophet ; he may come at any 
 day or any moment, and then — oh ! then — 
 there will begin for the world in my drawing- 
 room a new Age of Faitli which will restore 
 happiness for ever to suffering humanity.' 
 
 The days passed and the looked-for Pro- 
 phet came not. 
 
 Lady Augusta, a handsome woman still, 
 and a grande dame de par le monde, was now 
 thirty-five. She could therefore no longer 
 welcome that Prophet in her youth. Now if
 
 THE LEADER 63 
 
 anything wonderful is to happen to a woman 
 in her hfetime, she would naturally prefer it 
 to happen in the time of her youth and beauty. 
 It would be delightful to become the friend — 
 in pure Platonic bonds — of a Prophet ; to 
 make his earthly existence smooth and happy 
 for him ; to be young with him and to grow 
 old with him. But he came not : and Lady 
 Augusta's youth took to itself wings and flew 
 away. 
 
 Perhaps, however, the Prophet would be 
 a venerable sage. Meantime, five-and-thirty 
 is not old for a Queen of any cause. Lady 
 Augusta was the undoubted Queen of the 
 Spiritualists, and she maintained her Court 
 with a graciousness and a hospitality truly 
 admirable. 
 
 To be taken up by Lady Augusta was to 
 secure public attention ; every Medium made 
 straight for her drawing-room ; her name was 
 perfectly well known in New York, St. Peters- 
 burg, Paris, and in every spiritualistic centre. 
 Nojdoubt the occult plutosophers, Mahatmas, 
 and Adepts of Thibet regard her with favour,
 
 64 HERR PAUL US 
 
 though they have never yet visited her. She 
 had her circle of courtiers as well as her con- 
 tinual stream of ever new and richly gifted 
 Mediums who wanted a clientele and an 
 income : round her were gathered all those 
 thinkers who are perpetually engaged in try- 
 ing to look behind the Veil. 
 
 Behind the Veil. We, who live in this 
 great crowded anthill and struggle and toil 
 daily with our fellow ants, bearing our burdens 
 and living in the present, rejoicing in the 
 sunshine of the moment, satisfied with life, 
 contented if we do not suffer pain, careless for 
 the most part of what may happen when this 
 life is done — we humble, common folk, I say, 
 hardly know anything of the world which 
 thinks of nothing but to pry behind the Veil. 
 To us it is a great black bank of cloud, lying 
 all round us, whichever way we look. It is 
 as the black spaces between the stars : we 
 cannot look long upon it without a reehng of 
 the brain. Sometimes, to those who think of 
 it, it seems to roll towards us, sometimes to 
 roll back a little way : whenever we make
 
 THE LEADER 65 
 
 a great physical discovery there is a feehng 
 that now, at last, we may have rolled it away 
 altogether and for ever. But it does not roll 
 away, and, my brothers, I tliink that it will 
 never either lift or roll away, whatever we 
 may discover, and that we know already every- 
 thing that mankind will ever be permitted to 
 know of the other world. Even if we find the 
 secret of birth and growth and decay : even if 
 we prolong our own lives indefinitely, the secret 
 of the other world will never, I am sure, be 
 found out by any efforts of human ingenuity. 
 But, for these people, life has no other 
 interest. For them there is nothins: else. 
 Science, art, literature, philosophy are foolish 
 and futile. Politics are unworthy the atten- 
 tion of a serious person. Eeligion, if they 
 have any, whicli is not always the case, is in- 
 complete without the supplementary revela- 
 tion for which they are always looking. 
 Reason is insufficient unless it is aided by the 
 counsel and guidance of the spirits whom they 
 consult every day. Even if they saw, with the 
 earthly eye, the New Jerusalem itself descend- 
 
 • VOL. I. F
 
 66 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ing from the clouds, they would go and ask the 
 spirits by the well-known machinery if it was 
 a real city and a thing to be relied upon. 
 
 In every age there have been always such 
 men. They used to consult the wise women, 
 and to ask the future in the thousand and one 
 ways which have been enumerated for us by 
 the Sage of Meudon. They inquired of the 
 oracle : they cast nativities : they sought for 
 the Philosopher's Stone and for the Elixir of 
 Life : they looked in the Crystal and practised 
 palmistry : they turned tables : they listened 
 to raps : they pretended to mysterious powers : 
 they talked of the Eosy Cross, the Kabbala, 
 and Hermes : they recorded the lives of ne- 
 cromancers and the miracles which they 
 wrought : they looked for hidden secrets 
 wrapped in allegory : they whispered and 
 mumbled and made themselves into societies 
 and sects : and in these latter days they read 
 the secret thoughts of mankind, they put on 
 astral bodies, they defy space and time, they 
 boast of Charma, and they belong to the 
 Sacred College of the Occult Philosophers.
 
 67 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PROPHET. 
 
 But it was now past eight, and everybody had 
 arrived except the guest of the evening, who 
 always comes last. The people were sit- 
 ting or standing about, with conventional 
 smiles and hungry hearts, exchanging words 
 which meant nothing, and boiling with indig- 
 nation to think that a mere Medium should 
 presume to keep them from dinner. For, 
 although a man may boast the most undoubted 
 supernatural powers, there exists in Spiritual- 
 istic circles a widely-spread feeling that a 
 Medium ought to know his place, and that it 
 is to the last degree unbecoming for him to 
 keep ladies and gentlemen waiting. 
 
 On such an occasion the guests belonged 
 to the highest circle of Spirituahsts — they
 
 68 HERR PAULUS 
 
 were attended, no doubt, by their friendly 
 Spirits, but these were invisible. Among them, 
 for instance, was the famous Athelstan Kilburn, 
 barrister-at-law. Forty years ago, Mr. Athel- 
 stan Kilburn became an original member of 
 the first Society for Psychical Eesearch which 
 was founded at Cambridge, having precisely 
 the same objects as Mr. Henry Sidgwick's 
 later association, and was, therefore, probably 
 established in imitation of it. His friends have 
 long since gone off to practical questions, and 
 some have gone up the ladder and become 
 Bishops, Judges, Q.C.'s, Archdeacons, Deans, 
 Physicians, Quarterly Eeviewers, Editors, Pro- 
 fessors, Head Masters, Leader Writers, and 
 even Novelists, But Athelstan Kilburn went 
 on Researching, and for tlie sake of the Spirits 
 has sacrificed his ambition and his career. 
 
 There was again the equally well-known 
 Pev. Amelius Horton, senior fellow of King 
 Henry's College, Cambridge, who heals the 
 sick by touch, and cures the halt and lame, 
 and makes the rheumatic go upright. At 
 least, he says he does. He also claims to have
 
 THE PROPHET 69 
 
 foretold the " earthquake which happened in 
 Egypt on the occasion of the transit of Venus 
 ten years ago or so. He says it happened in 
 accordance with his prediction, and that he 
 distinctly felt the shock, though the papers 
 agreed to pass it over. Lastly, he keeps up 
 direct communication with a great quantity 
 of spirits, some of whom make drawings for 
 him consisting of curves of quite wonderful 
 design and of previously unheard of colour. 
 As might be expected, these pretensions and 
 powers make him an immense favourite with 
 his brother Dons, who are greatly puffed up 
 with pride in him and talk about him as much 
 as ever they possibly can. 
 
 The professional Medium was represented 
 by Mr. Emanuel Chick. He is now advanced 
 in years, and has dropped out of fashion, like 
 his former rival, Lavinia Medlock. But in the 
 old days he appeared at the Tuileries before 
 the Emperor, and at St. Petersburg before the 
 Czar ; he has been made the subject of papers 
 and leaders in the ' Saturday,' the ' Spectator ' 
 and the Dailies ; he has also submitted his
 
 70 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' claims ' to the investigation of Professors 
 Huxley and Tyndall. He has therefore a 
 glorious past to remember, even if the present 
 be a time of tightness. In appearance Mr. 
 Chick resembled a waiter in a third-rate City 
 dining-room. One looked for the napkin. 
 
 While they waited and talked, the voice 
 of Lady Augusta was raised a little louder 
 than usual, as if she wished all to hear. 
 
 ' Yes,' she said, ' Herr Paulus is actually 
 in the house. He arrived an hour ago.' 
 
 ' Oh ! and you have seen him ? ' The 
 speaker was Mrs. Tracy Hanley, whose Sunday 
 evenings are well known. 
 
 ' Not yet. He went straight to his room. 
 But I can tell you something about him, if we 
 have time. I have here a letter from our 
 friend, Anna Petrovna, the well-known adept 
 of St. Petersburg, you know. She says' — 
 Lady Augusta opened the letter and read : — 
 
 ' " Our brother Paulus, who is on his way 
 to England, is one of those rare and precious 
 human creatures who acquire early in life 
 powers which the more dull can only attain
 
 THE PROPHET 71 
 
 to after years of work and struggle. He 
 proposes, if he meets with a sympathetic 
 circle " ' 
 
 ' He will — he will,' sighed Mrs. Tracy 
 Hanley. 
 
 ' " To preach the Higher Philosophy in a 
 way which will be entirely new to you. I 
 declare that until conversing with Herr Paulus 
 and seeing with my own eyes the exercise of 
 a power which I had before only heard and 
 read of, I had no true conception of his philo- 
 sophy. My dear sister in those ties which are 
 more sacred than the ties of blood, begin by 
 dismissing from your mind all preconceived 
 ideas of Spiritualism, as well as all prejudice 
 and suspicion. He makes a new departure. 
 His soul is candour itself; he is as pure as 
 the white leaf of a lily ; he is as incapable of 
 deception as one of tlie lofty spirits with whom 
 he holds habitual communion ; he trusts and 
 expects to be trusted. In a word, my dear 
 Augusta, take him to your heart." ' 
 
 Perhaps it was a pang of hunger which 
 made Mr. Emanuel Chick snort at this point.
 
 72 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' " It is only by sympathy, by confidence, 
 and by affection that he can he won, step by 
 step, to unfold his soul. He is entirely beyond 
 and above any considerations of money ; his 
 wants, which are simple, are supplied by his 
 Friendi; ; take care not to offer him any 
 money." ' 
 
 It was no doubt hunger again which caused 
 Mr. Emanuel Chick to breathe loud at this point. 
 ' " I do not know that there is anything more 
 to say by way of introduction. My dear 
 sister, we are on the eve of the most stu- 
 pendous revolution of thought that the world 
 has ever seen. It will beoin in England — 
 Christian, bigoted, prejudiced, conservative 
 England." ' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' Mrs. Tracy Hanley clasped her 
 hands to her bosom. ' How delightful ! 
 How wonderful ! And his name — Paulus — 
 Paulus — German for Paul. Why do they 
 always have such strange names ? ' 
 
 ' I believe the people who possess the 
 largest portion of these gifts have gene- 
 rally — I know not why — been sons of the
 
 THE PROPHET y^ 
 
 soil.' Here Lady Augusta dropped her voice 
 because Mr. Emanuel Chick undoubtedly 
 looked like a gentleman who had made him- 
 self, after an imperfect training in the Art 
 of Sculpture. ' They have got an astounding 
 collection of names — down there. This man, 
 however, seems in some essentials quite differ- 
 ent from others whom we have received here.' 
 
 ' From his name he must be a German,' 
 said Mrs. Tracy Hanley. 'He is probably 
 middle-aged. He will be too careless to 
 think of his dress ; he will trample a good 
 deal on our little social convenances — that 
 matters nothing ; he will have spectacles and 
 blue eyes and a big beard, and he will talk 
 about nothing but the spirits.' 
 
 ' That we must expect of such a man and 
 in this house. As forme,' said Lady Augusta, 
 looking round the room and through the 
 bodies of her friends — ' I live among them — 
 they whisper to me continually, and I hear 
 their wings at every moment.' 
 
 Her friend shuddered. But it was a 
 strange house.
 
 74 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' Well then, dear Lady Augusta, I am only 
 afraid that he will smell of tobacco and say 
 " Zo." But oh ! what matters the smell of 
 tobacco if a man has such gifts ? ' 
 
 Lady Augusta smiled with superiority of 
 knowledge. 
 
 ' Herr Paulus may be the exact opposite 
 of all that you imagine. I think from another 
 passage in Anna's letter that he will be a great 
 success, not only in the way pointed out 
 by Anna Petrovna,' here she lowered her 
 voice again, ' but also a social success. How 
 much more I dare not think. We want a 
 new departure. Everything has grown stale. 
 All the answers to all the questions have 
 failed. All the old systems are breaking 
 down. We are on the eve of a universal 
 collapse of systems and of Faiths, and nothing 
 really new has been proposed. In fact, my 
 dear, we want — we must have — a new Gospel. 
 I pray that this stranger may preach it to the 
 world — in my drawing-room.' 
 
 At this moment Herr Paulus himself ap- 
 peared. I believe that everybody had ex-
 
 THE PROPHET 75 
 
 pected just such a person as that described by- 
 Mrs. Tracy Hanley. That is the only way in 
 which we can account for the fact that every- 
 body with one consent gasped. Because the 
 man who stood before them was not in the 
 least like the middle-aged, spectacled German 
 imagined by that lady. There was nothing 
 Teutonic about him at all but his name — nor 
 was he middle-aged nor did he wear spectacles 
 — nor did he carry a big pipe in his hand. 
 Instead of all this they saw before them a 
 young gentleman, apparently much too young 
 to have achieved anything worthy of remark. 
 As a rule it is only senior wranglers who ever 
 get the chance of being famous before five- 
 and-twenty, except a poet or two, a lucky 
 officer or two, and a Prime IMinister or two. 
 This young man — could he really be Herr 
 Paulus ? — was certainly not more than four- 
 and-twenty. He was not bearded, bald, or 
 grizzled, but smooth-faced, save for a light 
 moustache ; he was not attired in the stage 
 dress, so to speak, of the German philosopher, 
 but in that of a private gentleman who knows
 
 76 HERR PAULUS 
 
 the power and value of personal appearance, 
 and is attentive to every detail, so that he 
 was not only well dressed, but simply dressed, 
 with no more jewellery than a gold chain 
 across his waistcoat, and a single pearl stud 
 in his shirt, and no other ornament than a 
 small white flower. 
 
 Could this man be the great luminary of 
 occult science spoken of in such glowing terms 
 by the theosophic sister of St. Petersburg ? 
 In height he was reasonably tall, or tall as a 
 young man need desire to be — namely, about 
 five feet ten ; his figure was slight and not in 
 the least athletic, but active and full of spring 
 — more like the figure of a Frenchman than 
 an Englishman ; his features were curiously 
 delicate and regular. ' Dodo,' Tom mur- 
 mured, ' I believe he's a young New Yorker. 
 Fve seen them made that way.' His black 
 eyes, though somewhat deep-set, were keen 
 and swift and full of light ; his forehead was 
 white and high ; his cheek was pale ; never, 
 certainly, since spiritualism, clairvoyance, 
 telepathy, and occult philosophy first began,
 
 THE PROPHET 77 
 
 was there seen such a Medium ; always the 
 Medium was uncouth and unused to the ways 
 of pohte society, and always he was ill-dressed 
 as well as ill-mannered ; generally he was 
 middle-aged. Surely, if this man was a 
 Medium he was the pearl of his profession ! 
 Again, his hair, so dark as to seem almost 
 black, was worn rather longer than is the 
 fashion with most young men ; he wore it 
 parted on the left, and it rose over his fore- 
 head in a natural arch that is unusual and 
 most effective. 
 
 ' I'm sure he's a New Yorker, Dodo,' Tom 
 whispered again. ' He's one of the sort they 
 call dudes.' 
 
 In one detail only he differed from the 
 ordinary young man of society. It M^as that 
 he wore kid gloves. To be sure he had only 
 just come from St. Petersburg, where the 
 white kid glove is de ligueur, and perhaps, 
 though this I do not know, it is nlways cus- 
 tomary in New York. 
 
 It was, in fact, none otlier than the Doctor 
 Mirabilisj Ilerr Paulus himself. He stood at
 
 78 HERE PAULUS 
 
 the door for a moment, and surveyed the 
 assembly with a rapid glance ; then, without 
 the least embarrassment, and with a manner 
 perfectly easy and assured, and yet entirely 
 devoid of side and swagger, he quietly 
 stepped across the room to his hostess. 
 Perhaps he knew her by the single step she 
 made to meet him. Anyhow, there was no 
 hesitation. 
 
 ' Lady Augusta ' — he bowed low, putting 
 his heels toi^ether. Therefore he was not an 
 Englishman, because no Englishman knows 
 how to make a bow. But he raised his head 
 and took her hand. 'I have seen you 
 already,' he murmured, ' while I was in St. 
 Petersburg. I came here in the spirit. And I 
 am assured already that our souls will be in 
 sympathy.' 
 
 His voice was extremely soft and musical, 
 his eyes met Lady Augusta's with a steady 
 glow of affection and friendship which moved 
 her strangely. And he held her hand in the 
 warm long grasp oi one who greets a long 
 absent friend.
 
 THE PROP HE 7 79 
 
 Could he — Oh ! — could he be the long 
 looked for Prophet ? 
 
 Then he turned to Mr. Brudenel, whom 
 also he seemed to know. 
 
 ' Mr. Cyrus Brudenel,' he said, ' I have 
 brought many messages for you and some 
 gifts from my Friends, who have long recog- 
 nised your true worth.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel generally gave his Mediums 
 two fingers to shake, after the manner of the 
 late Lord Shaftesbury with the inferior clergy, 
 but in this case he surrendered his whole 
 hand. Herr Paulus took it with less warmth 
 than he had taken Lady Augusta's, and he 
 looked curiously into Mr. Brudenel's face as if 
 trying to read something there. 
 
 ' Very glad, Herr Paulus,' said his host, 
 trying to put on the air of patronage with 
 which he generally received his Mediums, 
 ' Very glad to make your acquaintance.' 
 
 ' I was with you — in the spirit. Yesterday 
 morning it was, Mr. Brudenel, in your library. 
 You were reading.' 
 
 ' I was,' said Mr. Brudenel.
 
 8& HERR PAULUS 
 
 Everybody knew that Herr Paiilus had 
 only that day arrived from St. Petersburg. 
 But nobody expressed the least surprise. In 
 this house anything might happen. 
 
 ' You were reading a novel by Ouida, 
 called " Moths." ' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel changed colour, and some of 
 the people smiled. 
 
 ' Ah ! yes — in fact — yes — I was looking 
 into one of her books.' 
 
 ' You turned the page down at 144,' Herr 
 Paulus continued, ' and you resumed your 
 reading this morning until you arrived at 
 page 280.' 
 
 ' Y^es — yes,' said Mr. Brudenel, much con- 
 fused at being found out in reading Ouida. 
 'Ah! in this house, Herr Paulus, we are never 
 surprised even at being reminded of trivial 
 actions in the — ah ! — privacy of a study. We 
 are never surprised, and we expect a great 
 deal — ah ! — a great deal.' 
 
 He meant, I suppose, to indicate first, that 
 they were all quite used to people going 
 about without their bodies and being able to
 
 THE PROPHET 8r 
 
 see things ; secondly, that his study ought to 
 be considered private and confidential ; and 
 thirdly, that after this nasty one, he intended 
 to be critical and exacting. 
 
 ' Ouida's novels,' said Herr Paulus severely, 
 ' are not the best preparation for spiritual 
 study. Your attitude of mind prevented my 
 communicating with you, Mr. Brudenel.' 
 
 Everybody lowered their eyes at this 
 rebuke and no one ventured to look at their 
 Chief. Had anj^one, ever before, seen or 
 heard the like. To Mr. Cyrus Brudenel ! 
 From a Medium ! 
 
 Then Herr Paulus turned again to Lady 
 Augusta. 
 
 ' I must apologise for being late,' he said, 
 in' softer tones. ' After I was shown to my 
 room a message was brought to me — rather 
 an important message — from my Friends.' 
 
 ' A message, Herr Paulus ? ' You see he 
 had only been in the house for three-quarters 
 of an hour and had come straight from St. 
 Petersburg. ' A telegram ? ' 
 
 ' No,' he smiled ; ' not a telegram. My 
 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Friends do not use the wire. The message 
 came from the heart of Abyssinia. I had to 
 attend to it at once, though I kept you 
 waiting.' 
 
 He spoke without the least appearance of 
 boastfulness, though a man who receives 
 messages from Abyssinia more swiftly than 
 would be possible for mortals, even if the 
 Palace of the Negus and St. Martin's were 
 united by a wire, might reasonably stick out 
 his chin. But no. He spoke as if such a 
 thing were common. 
 
 ' Dodo,' whispered Tom once more, ' this 
 Johnnie is going to be far better fun than 
 poor old Chick. Here's a splendid Cracker 
 to begin with.' 
 
 Then dinner was announced, and the sigh 
 of relief from Mr. Emanuel Chick was heard 
 through the whole room. And Herr Paulus, 
 instead of meekly waiting to be put in his 
 place and to follow last without any lady, as 
 had always happened to Mr. Emanuel Chick 
 and the other Mediums, calmly offered his 
 arm to Lady Augusta.
 
 THE PROP HE! 83 
 
 'It is my first evening in England,' lie 
 said, ' and my first dinner with you. May 
 I exercise the privilege of my rank, Lady 
 Augusta ? Here we are all Spiritualists — in 
 name at least ' — did he mean anything by 
 looking at Mr. Chick .^ — ' and in Spiritual 
 Bank I am the first and the chief.' 
 
 Then they all marched out to dinner in 
 pairs, male and female went they. 
 
 G 'l
 
 84 HERR PAULUS 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AT DINNER. 
 
 Every well-ordered and old-established house 
 has certain usages, traditions, manners, and 
 customs of its own. It is only the New Rich 
 who are exactly hke each other, and have 
 machine-made manners. Why not, if they 
 are copies of good manners ? The leading 
 tradition of this house was the silence which 
 always reigned in it. There was never any 
 trampling heard in it, nor any banging of 
 gongs, ringing of bells, knocking at doors, 
 striking of clocks, or chatter of servants. The 
 only bells were the electric contrivances which 
 are not heard beyond the room for which 
 they are intended. The servants went about 
 their work without so much as a whisper. It 
 was said that even snoring was forbidden, and
 
 AT DINNER 85 
 
 Lady Augusta certainly once dismissed a 
 butler, otherwise virtuous, for trumpeting 
 with his nose. The phenomenal silence of 
 the house was supposed to be rendered 
 necessary by the presence of the spirits. 
 
 The silence of the service Avas most 
 marked at dinner. Only those who have 
 lived in countries where the servants go 
 barefoot know the value and beauty of 
 perfectly silent service. Lady Augusta could 
 not, unfortunately, make her people go 
 barefoot, but she made them wear noiseless 
 shoes, constrained them in their serving not 
 to whisper instructions to each other, not to 
 chink glasses, rattle plates, or knock bottles 
 together. Li the last century, when the 
 Eegent of France and his friends held those 
 suppers of theirs w4iich were assuredly the 
 most delightful and the most wicked of all 
 suppers, they were ftiin to turn out all the 
 people and to wait upon themselves, because 
 they had not yet been able to train their 
 servants — whom they were always admonish- 
 ing with whacks, kicks, cuffs, and canings —
 
 86 HERR PAUL US 
 
 to silence and order. Even in the present 
 day the loud and noisy zeal of the waiters at 
 a restaurant, their jostling of each other, and 
 their clatter and rattle of plates and knives, 
 inflict anguish upon every sensitive soul ; 
 while in many private houses King Scriromage 
 reigns absolute. Another tradition imposed 
 upon the house by the peculiar conditions 
 under which its occupants lived was that the 
 conversation at dinner should be always 
 pitched in a highly intellectual key. This 
 made the meal a function greatly beloved by 
 the younger members of the family. 
 
 Once, to be sure — alas ! the conspiracy 
 failed — goaded to desperation by the dulness 
 of the talk, Tom and Sibyl resolved on the 
 introduction of something comic. Had the 
 thing come off I am convinced, in spite of 
 their apprehensions, that it would have pro- 
 duced no greater effect upon the company 
 than a word or two of Hebrew or Zulu. They 
 resolved that the something comic should take 
 the form of a pun, as being a weapon easier 
 to handle and more suitable for a dinner
 
 AT DINNER 87 
 
 table than a comic song or a practical joke. 
 Then they set to work to make a good piin. 
 This seems easy, but to the unpractised hand 
 there is nothing more difficult. It is, in fact, 
 as hard for a beginner as a Ballade or a Yilla- 
 nelle. One does not like to say liow long this 
 pair worked at their miserable pun, but when, 
 after superhuman efforts, it was completed, 
 they arranged to lead up the conversation 
 artfully to the point where Tom was to be 
 entrusted with the production of the calem- 
 bourg. Sibyl felt that a pun is somehow un- 
 fitted for the lips of a maiden — Avhen one 
 comes to think of it, no woman was ever yet 
 known to make a pun, though a few here and 
 there — only a few — have been known to tell a 
 good story. 
 
 Very well. At the last moment, when the 
 conversation had been led up to the point, 
 and Sibyl was looking round the table expect- 
 ing the bewilderment which would immedi- 
 ately fall upon this profoundly solemn circle, 
 Tom broke down. He said afterwards that he 
 felt a qualm of pity for his uncle, who was
 
 88 HERE PAULUS 
 
 more solemn than all the rest of mankind put 
 together. But I doubt this explanation. I 
 believe he was afraid. He says, further, that 
 he felt himself unable to inflict so heavy a 
 blow upon the finest part of man, his dignity. 
 But I doubt this statement. I am sure he 
 was afraid. As for the loss of the pun, that 
 is nothing ; no pun is ever really lost, because 
 it is always being made over and over again. 
 I have no doubt that Messrs. Hook, Hood, 
 Lamb, Burnand, and Byron, have made Tom's 
 unlucky pun on many occasions, and that in 
 many a screaming burlesque it has caused the 
 faces to broaden from pit to gallery hundreds 
 of times. But the loss of the proposed experi- 
 ment seems a pity. 
 
 Mr. Cyrus Brudenel himself was certainly 
 by no means the kind of person with whom 
 one would like to take a personal liberty. I 
 have often wondered what would happen if a 
 man should venture to slap a really great and 
 correspondingly solemn man upon the back. 
 Suppose, for instance, that a curate — one of 
 the inferior clergy — had ventured to slap the
 
 AT DINNER 89 
 
 late Lord Shaftesbury on the back. What 
 would that venerable nobleman have said or 
 done? To cuff and kick the presumptuous 
 curate would be undignified ; to swear at him 
 would be impossible ; to splutter and get red 
 would only make him laugh ; to find a fitting 
 rebuke in short but eloquent words, which 
 would leave an indelible scar on his soul, 
 would be difficult. Merely to look at him 
 might do no good. Yet something, one feels 
 certain, would have been said or done, so that 
 the miserable curate would have crept, pale 
 and trembling, with fearful remorse, and fore- 
 boding of dreadful punishment to come, into 
 some dark and secret recess of the earth — 
 say the cavern at Buxton. 
 
 Conversation was long in beginning at this 
 dinner, partly because everybody wanted to 
 hear what the newly arrived young great man 
 was going to talk about, partly because every- 
 body was hungry and cross at having been 
 kept waiting, and partly because some of the 
 guests regarded each other with the jealousy 
 and suspicion not uncommoiL among specialists,
 
 90 HERR PAUL US 
 
 actors, conjurors, and those who are rivals for 
 the pubUc applause. 
 
 ' Our sister — Anna Petrovna,' said Herr 
 Paulus presently, ' has already written to you 
 from St. Petersburg announcing me.' 
 
 ' Yes. Did she tell you that she was going 
 to do so ? ' 
 
 * I knew that I should have no need of a 
 letter of introduction. I had hoped that you 
 and Anna were both able to converse without 
 the vulgar necessity for letters. In that re- 
 spect the Russians are far in advance of the 
 Westerns. Nothincr is more common amongf 
 our Friends in Eussia than conversation at 
 any distance. That, however, will doubtless 
 come in due course.' 
 
 ' I hope that it may,' said Lady Augusta. 
 ' We hear from time to time of this won- 
 derful power of annihilating space, but we 
 have not yet been able to witness any mani- 
 festations of the kind. And you, Herr 
 Paulus—? ' 
 
 ' Space and time do not exist for my 
 Friends. Do not speak of me, Lady Augusta ;
 
 AT DINNER 91 
 
 speak rather of my Friends, who will be 
 yours.' 
 
 ' Oh, if they would become ray Friends ! 
 We are weary, Herr Paulus, of the dull round 
 of our English and American Spiritualism. 
 We have been greatly harassed by frivolous, 
 lying, and wicked spirits. We ask for a more 
 real and a deeper communion with spirits 
 whom we can trust, those who will not 
 deceive us, those who will give us messages 
 able to lift up our hearts and to carry us out 
 of ourselves.' 
 
 ' You shall before long commune with my 
 Friends,' he replied softly. 
 
 Lady Augusta sighed deeply. ' Our sister, 
 Anna Petrovna, told me so many wonderful 
 things about you, Herr Paulus, that Ave have 
 been thinkino; of nothini? else since we had her 
 letter.' 
 
 ' I know the contents of that letter. They 
 were communicated to me in the train be- 
 tween St. Petersburg and Berhn.' 
 
 * Communicated ? Oh ! I understand.' 
 
 * By my Friends. They also communicated
 
 92 HERR PAULUS 
 
 to me many things which are necessary to me 
 here. For instance, they told me much con- 
 cerning yourself.' 
 
 ' Concerning me ? ' She blushed and 
 looked startled. It is disquieting for a 
 strange man to tell a lady that he knows all 
 about her. 
 
 ' Do not imagine that I know everything. 
 I know only what I have been told. Thus, I 
 was told the history of Mr. Brudenel, of this 
 house, of your step-daughter, and so forth — 
 more things than I can tell you in an hour or 
 two— yet if you were to examine me, you 
 would find that in some points I am still quite 
 isjnorant.' 
 
 ' It seems strange that your Friends should 
 wish you to know such trifling matters as the 
 private concerns of this household.' 
 
 ' How do we know what are trifles and 
 what are things of importance ? For instance, 
 I am here your guest, for how long I do not 
 know. I am here with a definite mission. 
 Surely it is well that I should begin, not as a 
 complete stranger, but with some knowledge
 
 AT DINNER 93 
 
 of your difficulties and the nature and dis- 
 position of those among whom I am to work ? 
 It saves time, and the trouble of explanation.' 
 
 ' Yes. But should not the confidence be 
 extended, Herr Paulus ? ' 
 
 ' You mean, should you not know as much 
 concerning me ? Certainly. But as yet my 
 Friends are not in communication with you. 
 And, pardon me. Lady Augusta, I think there 
 are no spirits with whom you do confer who 
 are strong enough to do you so simple a 
 service as to tell you who and what I am.' 
 
 ' It is, unfortunately, too true. There is 
 not a single spirit who has ever done anything 
 for me of a practical kind.' 
 
 ' You have liere, I perceive, one Medium 
 at least.' Herr Paulus looked down the table. 
 
 ' We have several. There is Mr. Emanuel 
 Chick. Have you heard of him ? ' 
 
 ' No. Yes — I have this moment heard of 
 him.' Herr Paulus slniddered as if in pain. 
 ' Lady Augusta,' he whispered, ' mistrust that 
 man's communications. His spirits are lying 
 spirits.'
 
 94 HERR PAULUS 
 
 * There is the Eev. Amehus Horton.' 
 
 Herr Paulus looked curiously and doubt- 
 fully at the clergyman. Then he smiled. 
 
 ' He is the sport and plaything of the 
 spirits. Oh ! I understand, now, how it is 
 that I could not communicate with you 
 when I was here yesterday. This house is 
 haunted with inferior spirits. It is full of 
 them. I shall send them all away imme- 
 diately.' 
 
 ' And will nobler spirits take their place ? ' 
 
 ' You shall see. But you have a much 
 better Medium present — a young lady.' 
 
 'Who is that?' 
 
 ' I told you that I was ignorant of many 
 things. I mean the young lady next the 
 blind girl — Miss Langston, who, too, might, in 
 good hands ' 
 
 ' Oh ! It is Hetty Medlock, Cicely Lang- 
 ston's companion. You think that ' 
 
 ' I do not think only. I am sure that she 
 s gifted with the temperament of the 
 Medium.' 
 
 ' Look at my step-daughter. How rejoiced
 
 AT DINNER 95 
 
 would be her father if you could discern in 
 her the signs of power.' 
 
 Herr Paulus shook his head. ' Xo,' he 
 said, firmly, ' I discern no such signs in her. 
 Meantime, to return to myself, you shall, in 
 due course, learn anything you want to know 
 about me. I must have no secrets from you, 
 Lady Augusta, if our relations are to be — 
 what I hope and trust they will become.' 
 Again he lowered his voice and their eyes 
 met, his limpid and filled with that expression 
 which she had observed before. 
 
 ' I expected, I confess, a very different 
 person. But, yes ' — she answered his eyes — 
 ' we will be friends and you shall do for me 
 what you can.' 
 
 It was almost with the smile of a happy 
 lover that he received these gracious words. 
 Neither spoke for a while. 
 
 ' Herr Paulus,' she said, presently, ' I con- 
 fess that, thinking you were so very different, 
 I have asked a good many people to meet 
 you this evening, and ' — here she blushed — 
 ' I fear I have held out hopes. But do not
 
 96 HERE PAULUS 
 
 mind tliem. Forgive me, and do not show 
 them anything.' 
 
 He laughed. 
 
 ' You want the signs and the miracles. 
 Very well ; it is natural. But, Lady Augusta, 
 you at least will very soon pass beyond the 
 region where signs and wonders are necessary. 
 My mission is not to do these things, but to 
 teach. Yet I dare to think that I shall be 
 able to satisfy your friends' expectations even 
 in this direction.' 
 
 ' Oh, will you really ? ' 
 
 The young man's manner, assured and 
 easy, yet not presuming, impressed her with 
 a sense of sincerity. She believed in him 
 from that moment, implicitly and without the 
 least doubt. 
 
 ' The Ancient Wisdom does not consist in 
 making people open their eyes and stare. 
 But it confers Powers on those who deserve 
 them which they may use for their advance- 
 ment in true knowledge. You Avould like to 
 see some illustration of those Powers ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, yes ; we who live and move on the
 
 AT DINNER 97 
 
 Lower Plane always ask for some sign. Is it 
 not natural ? ' 
 
 ' It is the old story,' lie said somewhat 
 sadly. ' Lady Augusta, your friends shall 
 have their sign — from my Friends.' 
 
 Then there was silence for a space wdth 
 the commonplace business of eating, and 
 Lady Augusta made the useful discovery that 
 even the highest flights of philosophy and the 
 Ancient Wisdom do not deprive a young man 
 of his appetite. On the other hand, they 
 seemed to take from him the power or the 
 desire to drink wine. Herr Paulus drank a 
 bottle of Apollinaris. 
 
 ' Do not think me curious,' said Lady 
 Augusta presently, ' but may I ask, is it often 
 that the secrets of your philosophy are en- 
 trusted to men so young as you — so very 
 young — while they are withheld from men 
 as old and as eager to acquire them as my 
 husband ? ' 
 
 ' What is my age, Lady Augusta ? ' 
 
 ' I suppose about thrce-and-twenty.' 
 
 ' I do not j)retend to be tlic Wandering 
 
 VOL. I. \\
 
 98 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Jew. But I will tell you a strange thing. It 
 happened the other day, only a few months 
 ago. Perhaps you will not believe it.' 
 
 ' I will believe it if you tell me that it is 
 true.' 
 
 He raised his voice a little. Then there 
 was silence at the table and all listened, 
 
 ' It was in Abyssinia. Some natives were 
 digging for the treasure which is everywhere 
 believed to be hidden underground. They 
 found, instead of treasure, a great stone vault, 
 into which they broke an opening, for it had 
 neither door nor window. Around it the 
 earth lay apparently undisturbed for ages, 
 and above it grew a tree hundreds of years 
 old. They found within the vault not indeed 
 the treasure they looked for, but an old man. 
 He was thin and worn — say rather wasted ; 
 his beard was white and liis head was bald. 
 How had he lived in that stone vault? How 
 long had he been there ? I repeat there 
 was neither door nor window, no means of 
 jrettinji fresh air, no visible means of com- 
 municating with the world, no way of pass-
 
 AT DINNER 99^ 
 
 ing food into tlie vault. And the roots of 
 the tree, hundreds of years old, were lying 
 over and around the vault. We, who 
 know more than the world generally knows, 
 immediately recognised in that old man a 
 famous philosopher once celebrated by his 
 disciples, long, long since lost sight of, and 
 forgotten many, many generations ago — 
 and all these years, with animation sus- 
 pended, he had been meditating in the highest 
 rapture — that state which few indeed can 
 possibly attain.' 
 
 ' Well ? Finisli the story,' said Lady 
 Augusta. 
 
 ' They brought him out into the open air, 
 and as he breathed again he opened his eyes 
 and looked around him. Then a wonderful 
 change came over him. For his wrinkled 
 skin filled out, and his flesh came back to his 
 bones, and his eyes became bright, and his 
 hair became black. He was once more a 
 young man, strong and comely.' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' they all murmured together. But 
 Mr. Emanuel Chick drank off a whole glass of
 
 loo HERR PAULUS 
 
 champagne, and pretended not to listen. And 
 Tom grinned. 
 
 ' Then he looked about him and saw the 
 city close by, and the shepherds with their 
 ilocks. And suddenly he vanished and Avas 
 no more seen.' 
 
 'That young man — it was you yourself, 
 Herr Paulus.' 
 
 'No, Lady Augusta,' he replied, sadly. 
 ' I wish it had been. For that young man 
 has now attained the highest felicity possible 
 for man. I tell you the story that you may 
 understand that among my Friends there is 
 no such thino- as ao"e or youth or death unless 
 it be willed and chosen. In other words, if 
 my Friends please they may look young ; and 
 if they please they may look old.' 
 
 This was a strange kind of talk to hear in 
 a London house at a London dinner. But 
 then this was no ordinary house. 
 
 ' Oh ! ' Lady Augusta heaved a profound 
 sigh — al^out the twentieth at that dinner. ' I 
 had always longed but never ventured to 
 expect that one of the wise men of whom
 
 AT DINNER loi 
 
 we have read would actually come to my 
 house,' 
 
 'There are Englishmen among us,' Herr 
 Paulus added. ' Not many, but a few, who 
 break away from the shallow creeds of the 
 present, and seek to conquer for themselves 
 the powers and the secrets of the past. But 
 they refuse to leave the place where they 
 reside, even to preach among their own 
 countrymen. Therefore I am sent.' 
 
 ' No better ambassador could be sent,' 
 said Lady Augusta graciously. 
 
 On the other side of Herr Paulus sat Lady 
 Augusta's ' old friend, Mrs. Tracy Hanley. 
 She had been privileged to read some of 
 Sister Anna Petrovna's letters. She was 
 thinkinfj all the time that if the voi^ni? i^^an 
 talked in this beautiful and bewildering Avay, 
 wdiat an effect he would produce at her 
 Sunday evenings, especially if he would ' do ' 
 things. This was a selfish view to take of the 
 Highest Philosophy and the Ancient Wisdom, 
 but ladies who have Sunday Evenings are 
 often inclined to that form of selfishness.
 
 102 HERR PAUL US 
 
 She looked at him and Hstened. The longer 
 she looked the more she was impressed — 
 wholly from the Sunday evening point of view 
 — with the strange beauty of his face and his 
 lovely dark eyes. The more she listened the 
 more she fell in love — always from the Sunday 
 evening point of view — with his soft and 
 musical voice. If he would only ' do ' things. 
 At this house, where manifestations of all 
 kinds were common, whatever he might do 
 would be received in a coldly critical spirit, 
 like the jugglery of a conjuror among his pro- 
 fessional brethren. But at hers, where no- 
 thing better than the common Medium of 
 commerce had ever been introduced, he would 
 be received with delightful surprise. A young 
 man, mysterious in name and of unknown 
 origin ; a young man who might be of fabu- 
 lous age ; a young man romantic in appear- 
 ance, possessed of good manners and endowed 
 with miraculous powers ; a veritable prophet 
 of old, but in evening dress, not a sheepskin ; 
 a youth sent from the Lord knows where by 
 the Lord knows who, to preach a new and
 
 AT DINNER 103 
 
 mysterious doctrine — but it all depended on 
 what he could ' do.' Why, such a man as this, 
 if he could really do things, would make her 
 Sunday evenings celebrated. He would cause 
 them to become the talk of the town. It 
 Avould be a privilege to have the entree at 
 those Sunday evenings. The world would 
 rush to her rooms. This pleasing vision 
 floated through her brain while the young 
 man talked. Why shoidd it not be realised ? 
 She began to recall all the successive pro- 
 phets and lions who had passed through her 
 house in the last ten years. There was the 
 Baboo, for instance, clever and fluent, who 
 had come over to England all the way from 
 Bengal on purpose to teach us Theistic doc- 
 trines which we knew before. He could talk, 
 certainly ; but when he had been talking for 
 an hour or so the men stole away and the 
 women yawned. For his discourse was 
 charged with the deadly flavour of the com- 
 monplace, while his conceit was profound and 
 his new gospel was certainly a poor thing 
 compared with the old one. But even the
 
 104 HERR PAUL US 
 
 Baboo was better than liim of tlie sorrowful 
 visage, that Agnostic, who felt so profoundly 
 the presence of the Abysmal Unknown, and 
 yet was compelled by his enormous Intellect 
 to acknowledge only the Phenomenal. Both 
 Baboo and Agnostic were played out. Then 
 there was the languorous ^Esthete, now also 
 played out, thougli in his day he could satisfy 
 the deepest yearnings of the soul with art, 
 blue china, peacocks' feathers and a dado. 
 As for the Anarchist, the Nihilist, and tlie 
 Socialist, they were only uncomfortable crea- 
 tures who terrified people. No one would 
 come twice to talk with a wild and spectacled 
 Anarchist, who desired to destroy everything 
 first, whatever was to be done next. No one 
 wdio wished to keep the good things which the 
 gods had given him would care to meet a 
 Socialist more than once. Should he prevail, 
 there would be no more drawing-rooms, and 
 no more evenings anywhere, except upon the 
 cold kerb, and no more social gatherings ex- 
 cept outside the street door. Again, there 
 was the Medium who might be hired at half-
 
 AT DINNER 105 
 
 a-guinea, and who brought mysterious rolls 
 and an accordion, and had the lights out, and 
 played tricks too thin to delude the most 
 credulous. Time was when he was seen at 
 many houses — but he, too, was a thing of the 
 past. What were such clumsy things as rap- 
 pings, levitations, writing on the ceiling and 
 the rest, compared with such things as were 
 told and hinted at by this beautiful and 
 wonderful young man ? 
 
 Here Lady Augusta looked round and 
 rose.
 
 lo6 HERR PAULUS 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 THE FIEST FUXCTIOX. 
 
 ' No miracles yet, Dodo,' Tom whispered when, 
 a quarter of an hour later, the gentlemen came 
 into the drawing-room. 
 
 ' This is not a common Medium remember, 
 Tom,' said Sibyl. ' I suppose he must not be 
 asked to sit down and show off, like Mr. 
 Chick.' 
 
 ' We must have something, though,' Tom 
 replied, ' if it's only to back up that awful 
 Cracker of his about the Old Man of Abys- 
 sinia.' 
 
 The general impression in the room, which 
 was now crowded with a large company in- 
 vited to meet Herr Paulus, was that some- 
 thing very startling indeed was expected. 
 The people looked at each other, and at the
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 107 
 
 guest of the evening, with eyes that plainly 
 spoke of general expectation. What did they 
 expect? Most of them Avere old hands in 
 Research, who looked for nothing but some 
 modification of the usual business to which 
 they were thoroughly well accustomed. There 
 might be music in a darkened room — but there 
 was no accordion ; there might be messages and 
 raps ; but there were none of the tubes, rolls 
 of paper, and other accessories of the common 
 seance. There might be spirit photographs, 
 an incarnated spirit or two, or perhaps some 
 message a little out of the common. More 
 than this was not expected by the expe- 
 rienced. Of course there was a sprinkling of 
 young people, beginners in the mystic science, 
 to whom every creak of furniture is a message 
 from the dead, and every note on an accordion 
 out of tune is the music of the heavenly 
 spheres. And there w^ere some, like Cicely 
 Langston, who fervently believed in, and 
 ardently prayed for, the coming of a new 
 Prophet with a new Eevelation. But the 
 greater number consisted of the old hands.
 
 io8 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Among the latter was the well-known Lavinia 
 Mecllock, parent of Hetty, once the most 
 fashionable of all the Mediums, but now, like 
 others, fallen into neglect and obscurity. 
 She looked on with an anxious and wistful 
 air, as if longhig for a wrinkle which might 
 start her afresh. Just so, if the comparison 
 be allowed, the Professor of legerdemain, 
 Avhen he is out of an engagement, frequents 
 the exhibitions of those who are on the 
 platform, in hopes of picking up something 
 new. But Lavinia's da}^ was passed. The 
 Eev. Benjamin Piudge, too. Historiographer in 
 ordinary to the Cause, awaited the events of 
 the evening witli more than common interest. 
 It w^as long since there liad been a sensation in 
 Spiritualism, and he scented materials for 
 ' copy.' He was hungry for new things, be- 
 cause there are lines of literature, one need 
 hardly explain, which are more lucrative than 
 that of Chronicler to the Spiritualists. 
 
 ' Again, Herr Paulus,' Lady Angusta whis- 
 pered, ' will you forgive me ? I have asked 
 all these people to meet you, as if you were a
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 109 
 
 common Medium, such as come over to us 
 every year from America, and want to get 
 money from us.' 
 
 ' Your friends shall go away satisfied,' he 
 said, smiling. 
 
 In fact, a blank dulness was already falling 
 upon the party, because it seemed as if the 
 expected programme was not to be carried 
 out. No arrangements had been made for a 
 seance. Xow, if one is asked to a party to 
 meet a ventriloquist, ventriloquism is ex- 
 pected : if to meet a conjuror, Ave look for 
 tricks : if to meet a pianist, we expect to 
 hear him play : if to meet a most eminent 
 professor of Spiritualism, we expect to have 
 quite a conversation with the other world, 
 and to get some new lights, at least, on the 
 way that things are managed there. 
 
 'Will you have the room arranged? 'Lady 
 Augusta asked him. ' My people are very 
 quick in moving and arranging furniture.' 
 
 ' Not at all,' Ilerr Paulus replied. ' I want 
 no special arrangements.' 
 
 ' The room can be darkened in a minute
 
 no HERR PAULUS 
 
 by removing the lamps. Sliall I have a screen 
 before the fire ? And shall the people sit down ? ' 
 
 'No darkness, if you please. Oh ! Lady 
 Augusta ! ' — his eyes spoke pity, not reproach. 
 ' Darkness ? And with the spirits of Light ? 
 My Friends, I assure you, have no need of 
 darkness.' 
 
 Lavinia Medlock heard and hung her 
 head. All her manifestations had been pro- 
 duced in a darkened room. She had never 
 known a single spirit who would work for her 
 in the light. 
 
 Mr. Chick heard and sniffed, incredulous. 
 
 Everybody sat down who could find chairs, 
 leaving a space in the unddle of the room. 
 Tom Langston remarked with some interest 
 that Mr. Emanuel Chick took up a position 
 beside the pianoforte. This gave him a back 
 view of the performer, and suggested a watch- 
 ful, even a suspicious, attitude. Mr. Eudge 
 and Lavinia Medlock were not slow to observe 
 tlie movement, and nodded to each other, 
 meaning that the evening might possibly end 
 with a row, such a row as happens when a
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION in 
 
 treacherous person strikes a match and the 
 Medmm is discovered capering about the 
 room as the incarnated spirit and playing the 
 music of heaven upon an accordion. 
 
 Herr PauUis stepped quietly forward. He 
 looked slowly round the room, and then, rais- 
 ing himself to his full height, he lifted his 
 right hand suddenly and unexpectedly. 
 Everybody jumped. Xo Manifestation, how- 
 ever, followed this action. 
 
 Then he spoke. 
 
 'I have come to this country,' he said, 
 ' with a Message. Do not think, pray, that 
 I am here as a professional interpreter and a 
 Medium by which spirits can convey messages 
 to you. My Friends, and those who are the 
 Accepted, have intercourse so free and un- 
 restrained with the Souls of the Livin^ and 
 the Dead, and with tlie Spirits of the other 
 world, that the poor and feeble utterances 
 wliich have reached yowv ears are worthless 
 to tliem. Look, if you please, into the record 
 of tlie communications, and ask yourselves how 
 far the world has been advanced by them.
 
 112 HERR PAULUS 
 
 My mission is to teach — to those who are 
 worthy — the old wisdom, the Ancient Way. 
 You see in me a servant, a Messenger, one 
 who simply carries ont liis orders. But as it 
 is well to prove in some way that I am what 
 I profess to be — a Messenger — I have asked 
 for and obtained certain Powers. Do not, 
 I pray you, think that these Powers constitute 
 my Message. They do no more than illustrate 
 it. Such Powers as have been conferred upon 
 me are within the reach — not of all' — he 
 looked, perhaps unconsciously, at Lavinia 
 Medlock — ' but of some in this room ' — his 
 eyes fell upon Hetty Medlock, who sat in the 
 front beside Cicely. 'Those who desire the 
 Ancient Way for the sake of getting the 
 Powers will never go far along that Wa}^ 
 which is only to be trodden by the pure and 
 unselfish. Listen ! ' 
 
 He threw up both hands and seemed lis- 
 tening expectantly. In a few moments there 
 were heard faint sounds of music far off. The 
 sounds grew nearer and louder, though the 
 strain was still soft and the music seemed to be
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 113 
 
 hovering over the operator's liead. Then it 
 slowly receded and died away in the distance. 
 
 ' This,' Tom whispered, ' is a very good 
 beginning. It beats the dark room and the 
 concertina.' 
 
 The habitues of the house — those who were 
 accustomed to manifestations — nodded their 
 heads approvingly. This was, certainly, so 
 far, better than the ordinary business. Still, 
 they looked on calmly critical. Music at a 
 seance is not an original feature. Mr. Emanuel 
 Chick scowled, perhaps because he did not 
 understand how it was done : perhaps because 
 he felt himself ill-used by his own spirits, who 
 had never consented to vouchsafe music except 
 in a darkened room. 
 
 When the music died away it Avas followed 
 by a most melodious tinkling of silver bells, 
 whicli behaved exactly like the music, draw 
 ing nearer, tinkling immediately above Herr 
 Paulus's head and then receding. 
 
 'Good business again. Dodo,' Tom whis- 
 pered ; ' but old. AVe've heard the bells 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 HERR PAULUS 
 
 before, To be sure the room was always 
 dark. Wonder liow the beggar does it.' 
 
 Then lo ! a Miracle ! Herr Paulus suddenly 
 threw u]) both his arms and there were seen 
 fluttering' into his hands two lii^ht and thin 
 packets of silver paper. AVhere did they 
 come from ? Observe that the room was quite 
 full of people : that they Avere all looking on : 
 that there was a blaze of light : and that the 
 testimony of all — all but one — would have 
 been exactly the same. ' I saw,' they would 
 have said, ' the papers fall from the ceiling 
 into Herr Paulus's hands.' The one exception 
 was the young man of science. Tom, more 
 prudent, would have said, ' The joapers seemed 
 to fall into the man's hands.' This, it will be 
 observed, involves great reservations. 
 
 Herr Paulus gave the packets into the 
 hands of Lady Augusta. 
 
 'Do not open them yet,' he said. 'You 
 are going to witness a really remarkable illus- 
 tration of the Powers possessed by my Priends. 
 Take it as a special mark of their favour.' 
 
 Then he turned and surveyed his audience
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 115 
 
 without the least touch of triumph in liis eyes ; 
 and he did not, as Mr, Emanuel Chick would 
 have done, proceed to call attention to the 
 wonderful manifestation of the spirits. He 
 looked round tlie faces slowly, as if searching 
 for something. They represented all the stages 
 of bewilderment, from the cataleptic condition 
 of those who believe everything they see, to 
 the irritated and puzzled condition of those 
 who see and j-et preserve something of the 
 critical faculty. Mr. Emanuel Chick from 
 his position in the rear watched the operator 
 jealously ; Lavinia Medlock, enviously ; Tom, 
 suspiciously. 
 
 *The fellow conjures,' said Tom, 'as well 
 as Maskelyne and Cooke.' 
 
 ' Hush ! ' said Sibyl. ' Perhaps he is going 
 to do something much finer. See.' 
 
 Did you ever see the mild Hindoo perform 
 his feats ? When you have done so, you will 
 go about for the rest of your life declaring 
 that the impossible became possible : that 
 miracles were performed before your eyes 
 compared witli wliicli the saintly records are 
 
 I 2
 
 ii6 HERR PAULUS 
 
 poor and tcame. Men are decapitated before 
 the eyes of the audience and then restored to 
 their heads ; boys are stabbed and gashed all 
 over without consequent injury; deadly snakes 
 are handled with impunity ; dry sticks blossom 
 like Aaron's rod. Why, a great Indian 
 Emperor has set down in writing, so that all 
 may read, how some jugglers came to him 
 and performed, before him and all his Court, 
 twenty-eight distinct miracles, each one more 
 wonderful than its predecessor. Do you think 
 they actually do the tricks ? Not so ; and 
 yet those who tell of them do not lie ! What 
 happens then ? If one could answer that 
 question one could produce exactly the same 
 effects as those for which these same jugglers 
 got the Imperial gift of fifty thousand rupees, 
 many years before the depreciation of tliat 
 coin. 
 
 ' Some of you,' said Ilerr Paulus, ' have 
 heard of certain Orientals avIio possess powers 
 which are now unknown to the West. I say 
 now, because there is evidence that in the 
 l^iiddle Ages, and even later, there have been
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 117 
 
 many who had attained in some measure to 
 these powers. There have been monks who 
 could converse with the spirits. There was a 
 nun named Hildegardis who in moments of 
 rapture could compel the other nuns to think 
 exactly as she pleased. There were also the 
 Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit, who 
 arrived at great Powers : and the so-called 
 Friends of God, who were also Spiritualists of 
 a high order. It is, therefore, no new thing 
 that you are invited to observe. Among the 
 Powers are those of conversing with each 
 other without respect to distance : of joining 
 each other instantaneously : of knowing what 
 their friends are saying and thinking : of tell- 
 ing what is in the minds of tliose who are not 
 their friends : of making people see what they 
 order, say what they wish, think what they 
 choose. These Powers are not born with us : 
 they are conferred or acquired as one advances 
 in true Wisdom. You know that as 3^ou climb 
 liigher the air grows clearer and tlic vision 
 sharper. It is so with the Ancient Way. Or 
 to take anotJicr illustration, if you dig wells
 
 Ii8 HERR PAULUS 
 
 in the ground tliey will natnvally fill with 
 Wcater. You do not pour Avater into them. 
 The waters fill them by the laws of nature. 
 I do not pretend to these Powers in their 
 highest form. Jiut I will try to show you 
 what some of them mean.' 
 
 lie looked again about the room. AW 
 faces Avere turned towards him, all eyes looked 
 into his, and to some it seemed as if his eyes 
 saw tlirouo;li them into the hidden soul. But 
 perhaps that Avas due to the excitement of the 
 nerA^es. 
 
 The blind girl, Cicely Langston, sat imine- 
 diately before him. Beside her sat her com- 
 panion, Hetty Medlock. Cicely AA^as sitting in 
 her customary impassiA^e attitude, her hands 
 in her lap, but her cheek Avas flushed, and she 
 Avas excited by the strange music and the bells, 
 and tlie Avondrous talk about supernatural 
 poAvers of the young man Avitli the soft and 
 musical voice, ller lingers nervously opened 
 and closed, her lips treml)led, liaif parted. 
 
 ' Hetty,' she Avhispered, ' Avliy is he stop- 
 ping ? Tell me — tell me — Avhat is he doing ? '
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 119 
 
 ' He is asking Mrs, Tracy Haiiley to play 
 something. It is she wlio is playing.' 
 
 ' Oh ! it is coarse and common after the 
 other music,' said Cicely. ' Go on, Hetty, 
 what next ? ' 
 
 ' Oil ! is it true ? Is it true ? Can it be 
 true after all ? ' A strange question for the 
 daughter of a Medium. Hetty had turned 
 pale, and her eyes were fixed upon Herr 
 Paulus. ' Xow he is standing quite still : he 
 is looking slowly round the room : he is look- 
 ing at Sibyl : and at Lady Augusta He is 
 looking — oh ! he is lookino; — at Me ! ' 
 
 She said no more. The magician's eyes 
 met hers, and she rose and walked across the 
 room before them all, and stood before him. 
 
 ' Oh ! my daughter ! Oh ! my child ! ' cried 
 Lavinia Medlock. But the accents were those 
 of joy and surprise and not of terror. Never 
 before had she seen that look in her daughter's 
 face ; and it betokened — she recognised it Avitli 
 dehfrht — a ]iis<:hcr mii llian ever iiad l^een 
 hers — the strange and wonderful gift of clair- 
 voyance.
 
 120 , HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' Sit do^'in,' said Hcrr Pauliis. 
 
 There were some -wlio said afterwards that 
 before Hetty left her seat there was no chair 
 in the middle of the room, but this wants 
 confirmation. 
 
 Hetty obeyed. Then with a single motion 
 of his hand he seemed to close her ej^es. The 
 girl was now leaning back in the chair, pale, 
 with set lips and closed eyes. Her hands were 
 lying in her lap, tightl}^ clasped. She did not 
 look as if she slept, but as if she was waiting 
 to do somethins' — one knew not what. 
 
 Hcrr Paulus bent over her, and it seemed 
 as if lie breathed gently upon her head. 
 
 ' We inliale oxygen and hydrogen into the 
 natural lungs,' he explained. 'With the 
 spiritual lungs we breathe what for want of 
 another name has been called aura. My aura 
 has fallen upon this young lady's head and 
 has entered into her soul. She will now, as 
 you will see, think only as I shall direct her.' 
 
 ' It ought not to be allowed,' Tom mur- 
 mured. 
 
 ' Why not ? ' said Sibyl, the experienced.
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION izi 
 
 * I have seen them hke this dozens of times, 
 and it never does anybody any harm.' 
 
 She spoke as one wlio has been watching 
 these phenomena all lier life, and tliought 
 little of them and expected nothing from 
 them. 
 
 ' This,' cried Mr. Emanuel Chick loudly, 
 ' is nothing in the world but pure mesmerism.' 
 
 ' I beg,' said Mr. Cyrus Brudenel firmly, 
 
 * that there may be no interruption at all ! 
 After the seance an3'one who wishes shall have 
 the opportunity of speaking, or of producing, 
 if he can, by his own powers similar mani- 
 festations.' 
 
 Mr. Emanuel Chick subsided, but with an 
 effort. Herr Paulus, for his part, behaved 
 like a practised speaker at a public meeting 
 when some one unexpectedly gets up in the 
 middle of his speech to propose an amendment 
 — that is to say, he stopped speaking, but took 
 no otlier notice of the interruption, treating 
 the thing as if it had no kind of connection with 
 himself. Meantime, Mrs. Tracy Hanley went 
 on playing mechanically, but wondering if the
 
 122 HERR PAULUS 
 
 music and the bells and the leaves fluttering 
 from the ceiling could be secured for her 
 Sunday evenings. Like many sensible women, 
 Mrs. Tracy Haniey considered the wisdom and 
 the genius of Man : his science, art and letters ; 
 his inventions and his discoveries ; his skill 
 and dexterity ; his genius and his ingenuity ; 
 as shadows and unsubstantial things compared 
 with the solid realities of society. 
 
 ' I will now ask Lady Augusta,' said Herr 
 Paulus, ' to give me one of the papers in her 
 liand — any one. Thank you. There is a 
 drawing on the paper. I command this young 
 lady to see, in her vision, the subject of this 
 drawing.' 
 
 There was silence for a space. Hetty 
 Medlock made no movement nor any sign of 
 life. Herr Paulus gave back the papers to 
 Lady Augusta and ]nade another single pass 
 with his right hand. Hetty Medlock opened 
 her eyes and looked about her. 
 
 ' Where am I P ' she asked. 
 
 ' You are safe — with friends. Do not fear. 
 You have had a Vision in your sleep. Can
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 123 
 
 you recall it ? Can you tell us of wbat you 
 dreamed ? ' 
 
 She hesitated. 
 
 ' Nay — tell us the whole. There is nothing 
 to fear.' 
 
 ' I was in a country — I know not where — 
 I was happy, much happier than I am in this 
 'world.' She spoke with a kind of constraint, 
 as if reluctantly. ' I was free to do what I 
 pleased and to go where I pleased. I could 
 have what I wished — pictures and music, and 
 a beautiful house and gardens, and inoney to 
 give away. I was not only rich, but able to 
 Avrite the most wocderful things. The people 
 sang my songs and I was powerful. Then they 
 brought me out and crowned me Queen ! ' 
 
 ' Do you remember the place and manner 
 of your coronation ? ' 
 
 ' Yes, perfectly.' 
 
 'Lady Augusta, will you kindly give me 
 the paper I have just l)cen liolding in my 
 hands? Yes — thank y(ju. Will you tell me, 
 Miss Medlock, if you recognise this picture ? ' 
 
 Hetty took the paper. There was a water-
 
 124 HERR PAUL US 
 
 colour drawing upon it, thougli the paper was 
 thin. The girl looked at it and cried out in 
 amazement. 
 
 ' Oh ! it is the very scene. And this is I 
 myself whom they are crowning. Oh I give 
 me the picture.' 
 
 ' You shall have it when everybody has 
 seen it. Let me pass it round.' 
 
 There was no doubt possible that the girl 
 had seen the crowning of herself. The dream 
 itself was such as a girl, poor, young, not too 
 clever, might easily dream — a vision of the 
 unattainable. Yes, here was drawn in pale 
 tints Hetty herself, large-eyed, unmistakable, 
 clad in a wonderful dress, going forth in 
 grandeur, the people shouting around her. 
 
 And the drawing was good. Mr. Cyrus 
 Brudenel held the paper up to the light. 
 
 ' The watermark,' he said, ' is Peters- 
 burg.' 
 
 ' I daresay it was painted there,' said Herr 
 Paulus, carelessly. 'It must have been painted 
 somewhere. Lady Augusta, I have done what 
 I promised. Let me make one more experi-
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 125 
 
 ment. May I ask Miss Cicely Langston to 
 take Miss Medlock's place ? ' 
 
 'Oh! I say,' cried Tom. ' Not my cousin.' 
 
 'No harm — not the least harm shall be 
 done to Miss Langston,' said Herr Paiilus. ' I 
 pledge my word as a — not as a gentleman — 
 but as the Messenger of my Friends.' 
 
 ' I doubt the security,' Tom murmured ; 
 and, satisfied with the repartee, which seemed 
 rather sharp, he made no further opposition. 
 
 But the blind girl had risen at the first in- 
 vitation and walked without guidance straight 
 to the spot where the chair was placed. Then 
 slie sat down as if she had neither the power 
 nor the inclination to resist. 
 
 ' The deepest wish of the blind is to see,' 
 said Herr Paulus. ' I restore to you, for a 
 few moments. Cicely Langston, the power of 
 sight. Tell me what you see.' 
 
 ' I can see,' she replied, but in a strange 
 voice, and without the least movement of 
 hands or head ; and her eyes remained closed. 
 ' I can sec. The room is full of people. You 
 are before me. You have dark hair and black
 
 126 IIERR PAULUS 
 
 eyes ; there is a white flower in your button- 
 hole, and you have a gold chain with a thing 
 like a beetle hansfino; from it. You are looking 
 at me. Yes. I will look round the room ' — 
 but he had not spoken. ' I can see the others, 
 but not so well as I can see you. Their faces 
 are blurred. AVhy is tliat? I see Sibyl and 
 Hett)^ and Tom, and many others ; but they 
 are not so clear and distinct as you are. And 
 now they have all faded away and it is dark 
 afTain.' 
 
 ' I cannot restore her sight permanently,' 
 said the young magician. ' The time may 
 come wdien this and many other things which 
 now seem impossible will be in our Power.' 
 
 ' Oh ! I saw the room. I saw all of you. 
 Oh ! it was wonderful — wonderful,' said the 
 blind girl, reaching out her helpless hands. 
 
 Sibyl stepped forward and took her hands 
 and led her back to her place. 
 
 ' You have been persuaded, dear,' she said. 
 ' You are among us — with your friends. 
 Xothing has really happened. Nothing of the 
 least importance.'
 
 THE LIRST FUNCTION 127 
 
 ' Nothing of the least importance,' repeated 
 Herr Pan his, gravely. 
 
 Then the people wondered what would 
 come next. 
 
 ' Since the seance has concluded,' said Mr. 
 Emanuel Chick, ' at least I suppose it has con- 
 cluded — I think I may offer, as an older man, 
 our congratulations to our younger brother 
 on his progress in the mesmeric art. The 
 display of mesmeric power is very creditable 
 — very creditable indeed. So far we have 
 seen nothing that coidd not be done by pure 
 mesmerism. But I understood that we came 
 here to receive communications from the 
 Spirits. In this house we are accustomed to 
 converse freely with the Spirits. We have 
 been offered a mesmeric performance. That's 
 all I wanted to say. A very good performance 
 indeed ; but it is not conversing Avitli the 
 Spirits.' He tossed his hea.d and sat down 
 with a snifl. 
 
 ' It is not for me,' Ilerr Paul us replied "witli 
 dignity, 'to discuss IJie things tliat have liap- 
 pened. Perhaps tlie mesmeric force may
 
 128 HERR PAULUS 
 
 explain tlie whole of the phenomena you have 
 witnessed to this gentleman's entire satisfaction. 
 If so, I have nothing to object. As for conver- 
 sing with Spirits, we converse daily and hourly 
 with, those wdiom I am allowed to call my 
 Friends. Tliese are the wise Spirits of Humanity, 
 living and dead, around us, here and every- 
 where. They converse with me without the 
 intervention of knocks and raps. They tell 
 me more in a quarter of an hour than you 
 in England have learned from the raps in 
 forty years. They have spoken to you twice 
 already. They will speak, if you wish it, 
 once more. Is there any here who would 
 like a Message of Consolation or of Hope? 
 Do not mock my Friends, or it may be bad 
 for us. Let no one speak who is not deeply 
 and earnestly desirous of such a message.' 
 
 The party sat perfectly still and silent. 
 Then Cicely Langston spoke again. 
 
 ' Tell me,' she said, ' about my brother.' 
 ' Your brother ? AVho is your brother ? 
 Oh ! Do not tell me. Yes — now I know — ■ 
 now I know. He lias been gone for five
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 129 
 
 years and has sent no letter, and you fear 
 that he is dead. Yes. ... I understand.' 
 He spoke quickly and without connection, as 
 if he was listening to some one at his ear. 
 ' I understand. He has been at sea. His 
 name is Percival — Sir Percival Langston. He 
 is a Baronet. He is not dead — he lives — he 
 is well.' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' Cicely burst into tears. ' Is this 
 true ? Do you really know ? ' 
 
 ' I know notliing,' said Herr Paulus. ' I 
 have been told, just now, since you stood up, 
 Miss Langston.' 
 
 ' Can it be true ? ' 
 
 ' My Friends are always true. But you 
 shall see more. Sit down and raise your eyes 
 to me. Think that you can see me.' 
 
 Again he breathed upon her head. 
 
 ' Lady Augusta,' he said, ' you have a 
 second packet. I w^as wondering why the 
 second packet came. Please give it to me.' 
 
 He held it, still wrapped in the tissue 
 paper, flat between botli his hands. 
 
 ' Tell me,' he said, ' what you sec.' 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 I30 HERR PAULUS 
 
 She replied, just as Hetty had done, as if 
 she had no choice. 
 
 ' I see a ship rolhng about in the night on 
 a rough sea, under a black sky. It is a sailing 
 ship. The decks are wet and the waves are 
 breaking over her bows as she plunges. At 
 the wheel I see my brother. lie is dressed in 
 big boots and a waterproof. He is a com- 
 mon sailor by his dress, and he is steering the 
 ship. He does not think of me at all : his 
 mind is full of religion : he cannot see me as 
 I see him. Oh ! I see his face and I know it 
 is my brother, but I cannot tell why. 
 Percival ! ' she cried, holding out her arms, 
 * Percival ! speak to me — look at me.' 
 
 Some of the ladies began to cry, and Sibyl 
 again stepped forward to support the girl. 
 
 ' You have played with her enough,' she 
 said. ' Impostor or honest man — I know not 
 which — you have played with her enough.' 
 
 ' Your brother will return,' said Herr 
 Paulus. ' Sleep in peace to-night. Is it play- 
 ing with her to calm her heart with the assur- 
 ance that her brother is safe ? '
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 131 
 
 He opened the packet in his hand and 
 showed Sibyl the picture within. 
 
 The picture was what Cicely had described. 
 There was the stern of a ship and there was 
 the man at the wheel : in the blackness of the 
 night one could see little but the shrouds and 
 the dim outline of the ship's bulwarks. 
 
 ' Who is that man ? ' lie asked Sibyl. 
 
 ' He is Sir Percival Langston,' she re- 
 plied. 
 
 Herr Paulus gave the picture to Lady 
 Aufjusta, and it was handed round. Then a 
 great awe fell upon the multitude. They 
 were in the presence of one who could compel 
 the truth. He had proved his power. Even 
 Tom Lang;ston scoffed no lono;er, though he 
 would not give in. 
 
 Herr Paulus returned a^^ain to the middle 
 of the room and spoke to the people, now 
 silent and terrified. He spoke slowly, gravely, 
 and with the utmost dignity. 
 
 ' I have done what I was commanded to 
 do this evening. You have seen something of 
 the powers possessed by my Friends — alive or 
 
 k2
 
 3 32 HERE PAULUS 
 
 dead. It is not some lower and baser spirit 
 of the other world, who may show liimself, as 
 3'Ou have proved over and over again, 
 untrustworthy, fickle, and even frivolous,' — 
 Lavinia Medlock groaned and hung her iiead 
 as one who is the victim of misplaced confi- 
 dence — ' it is a man — whether alive or dead, 
 whether in the flesh or out of it, matters 
 nothing— who is wise and benevolent, who 
 has acquired powers of which 3'ou cannot 
 even dream — who has spoken to you this 
 evening. Nay, there are many men whom I 
 call my Friends, but their action is as one. 
 The Manifestation has been made — the Teach- 
 ing will follow — to those who are accepted.' 
 
 And then he retired into the throng and 
 became only a simple guest, like the rest. 
 The seance, if that can be called a seance 
 where there was not so much as a single rap, 
 was concluded. But it had ended in a Func- 
 tion which gave a solemnity to the evening. 
 Out of the Unknown had come a manifestation 
 of a kind never before experienced. The 
 sightless saw ; the absent became visible ; the
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 133 
 
 blind sister recognised the brother whom she 
 had never seen before ; she asked for news of 
 him and she received an answer in this strange 
 and mysterious manner. 
 
 I cannot omit to add a concliidimT incident 
 in the history of tlie evening. 
 
 Both pictures vanished. 
 
 They had been lianded round and they 
 vanished. Perhaps some one stole them and 
 now keeps them secretly as precious spirit 
 paintings ; perhaps they were drawn away as 
 they came. The most diligent inquiry failed 
 to trace them, and they have never since been 
 seen. 
 
 Mr. Emanuel Chick stepped briskly for- 
 w^ard and held out his hand with fine effusion. 
 
 ' Herr Paulus,' he said heartily, but with 
 a gulp, 'I congratulate you. Don't mind 
 what I said about the mesmerism. Lor ! I 
 recognised a brother from the very first. We 
 are fellow-workers, and we've got lots to teach 
 each other.' 
 
 The poor old Professor looked deplorably 
 common and shaljby l^eside this handsome
 
 134 HERR PAUL US 
 
 young man. His nose was red : his clieeks 
 were puffed : he had taken at dinner as much 
 wine as he could lay hands upon: and his 
 voice was thick. 
 
 ' Pardon me,' Herr Paulus replied coldly, 
 and without seeing the proffered hand, ' I 
 think that 3'ou have nothing to teach me. I 
 am certain that I have nothinsr which I shall 
 teach you. We are not, I assure you, either 
 Brothers or Fellow-Workers.' 
 
 Emanuel Chick fell back, snubbed and dis- 
 gusted. He has never since quite recovered 
 the effects of tliat public snub. Indeed, he still 
 spends long hours at times in trying to think 
 what would have been the proper retort ; and 
 he can find none. Tliere are cases in which 
 the proper retort, which should be at once 
 dignified and epigrammatic, is extremely diffi- 
 cult to find. For instance, there were once 
 two men, both members of the Utter Bar, 
 who met in the courts of the Temple — the 
 one in wig and gown hastening to Court, 
 the other in a pot hat, lounging to his 
 chambers. Quoth the former to the latter,
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 135 
 
 ' That's a pretty kind of hat to wear in the 
 Temple.' The other waited till his friend 
 was gone a little distance and well within 
 hearing of a circle of men. Then he replied 
 loudly : — 
 
 ' Not 'at, my friend ; not 'at. Hat. Hat. 
 H.A.T.' 
 
 The retort to this remark has never yet 
 been discovered, any more than the retort to 
 Herr Paulus. 
 
 Mr. Emanuel Chick speaks of this evening 
 still, with contempt, as one thrown away upon 
 a bit of mesmerism and something artful done 
 with the ceiling and some bits of paper. * As 
 for the music,' he says, ' a confederate on the 
 stairs with an accordion did the trick. Pro- 
 babl}'- a footman. I've known spirits — real 
 disembodied spirits — who would have done 
 more than that for me. The picture business 
 I call contemptible. It looked new at the 
 moment, but it was contemptible. I'm old, 
 I suppose, though, and out of fashion. But 
 to think of the things I've actually done 
 myself in that very room ! Why, sir, when
 
 136 HERE PAULUS 
 
 I was twenty years younger I have set every 
 table spinning like a whipping top. I've been 
 carried up into the air by the spirits. I've 
 been taken out of one window and brought 
 in at another : they've written on the ceiling 
 for me : tliey've sent messages b}^ hundreds : 
 comic messages, some of them, because they 
 will have their joke, and why not ? Why 
 not, I ask you ? Bless you, the room has been 
 crammed with spirits — Peter, Katey, Joseph, 
 Alexander — ay ! dozens of 'em, and all willing 
 and wishful to talk and be comfortable. And 
 all he's got to show is a bit of fluttering paper 
 and a mesmeric trick and a brazen, impudent, 
 arrogant, supercilious cheek. It makes a man 
 sick, sir, sick, to see the women 'umbugged 
 and only wanting more.' 
 
 That, in fact, is what people always do 
 want — More. The smallest, briefest glimpse 
 behind the Veil, the least glimmer of light in 
 the blackness around us, makes us only long 
 for More. To-ni^ht aflbrded the clearest 
 vision of supernatural powers which had yet 
 been vouchsafed to seekers in any age. Things
 
 THE FIRST FUNCTION 137 
 
 liacl been done wliicli could not be explained 
 by any theory of mesmeric force — strange, 
 weird, and unexpected tilings ; none of the 
 ordinary machinery of raps, no darkness of 
 the room, no sitting round tables, no singing 
 of hymns, no uncomfortable suspicion of 
 tricks, no vulgar Medium, uneducated and 
 coarse, holding out his hand to be paid before- 
 hand, but a gentleman, refined in manners, 
 language, and appearance, who would take no 
 money. 
 
 They came — these friends of Lady Augusta 
 — prepared to witness the common feats of 
 spiritualism ; some of them expected to go 
 away and declare that the Spirits had written 
 on the ceiling in the dark ; others looked for 
 another example of the well-known frauds : 
 people banged on the head with paper rolled 
 up in long cylinders, writing on the ceiling b}^ 
 means of a piece of charcoal in a pair of lazy 
 tongs, the Medium capering about the room 
 in a white shawl, and so forth. 
 
 But there were none of these things. The 
 believers went away with awe, and yet with
 
 138 HERR PAULUS 
 
 their hearts aglow. And the incredulous felt 
 that here was something which could not be 
 accounted for by any of the previously dis- 
 covered tricks and machinery. Mesmerism ? 
 But mesmerism will not cause pictures to 
 descend from the ceiling, nor will it bring 
 music into the air — nor will it cause blind 
 girls to see and to know their long lost 
 brothers. 
 
 Alas ! There was no More. And pre- 
 sently the people began to break up.
 
 135 
 
 CHAPTEE Vl. 
 
 GOOD NIGHT. 
 
 While they were slowly dispersing there was 
 a little opportunity for whispered confidences. 
 Lavinia Medlock, for instance — she had once 
 been so truly great that nobody called her 
 Mrs. Medlock, but Lavinia Medlock, just as 
 one says George Eliot — succeeded in getting 
 Lady Augusta to herself. She was one of 
 those who always want to whisper confiden- 
 tially, and, whatever she had to say, always led 
 the conversation round to herself and her own 
 wants. 
 
 ' Oh ! dear Lady Augusta ' — she sighed 
 and clasped her hands — ' 01 1 ! it was too 
 delightful. Nobody but you would have 
 found and secured such a man. Oh ! how 
 fortunate we have been ! Such Powers !
 
 I40 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Such a Fulness ! Such an Abundance ; and 
 what an Outpouring upon my poor Hetty. 
 Oh ! he makes ns poor common Mediums feel 
 so cheap and small. Oh, I should think he is 
 too great to be ever taken in by a lying spirit, 
 as happens sometimes to the best of us. 
 Think of what I am and what 1 used to be. 
 Oh ! dear — dear — and I so trusted Peter ! ' 
 
 ' Yes, Mrs. Medlock, we are now on a 
 different plane altogether.' 
 
 ' We are, indeed ; and yet one feels, after 
 all, that one has been a worker in the same 
 held. Lad}^ Augusta, it is already whispered 
 in the room ' — here she became very confi- 
 dential — ' that you are going to found a 
 College — actually a College — for the Pursuit 
 of Kesearch.' 
 
 ' Eeally, it is the first I have heard of it.' 
 
 ' Oh ! yes : it is confidently whispered, 
 and I would so gladly liellup.' 
 
 ' Well, Mrs. Medlock, I assure you that I 
 know nothing of it. Any developments that 
 may follow do not depend upon me.' 
 
 'Not altogether. But everybody knows
 
 GOOD NIGHT 141 
 
 that you are our real Leader, and I would 
 so gladly liellup. And oli ! Lady Augusta, 
 you saw my Hetty — poor Hetty ! — I could 
 never teach her anything — and to-night she 
 has come out so beautifully. There is Clair- 
 voyance in her of the highest order. If she 
 would only be guided by me ! ' 
 
 'You must not teach her to think of 
 money, Mrs. Medlock, or you will spoil her.' 
 
 'Well — perhaps — not yet. However, I 
 hope she will keep better company among the 
 spirits than her poor mother could contrive. 
 And oh ! Lady Augusta, a College w^ants 
 secretaries and clerks, and liow gladly would 
 we liellup. Hetty could do the spirit work, 
 and I could receive the fees, you know.' 
 
 ' All this is really premature.' 
 
 ' It is exactly the work for which I was 
 fitted. I have been looking for it all my life. 
 I could give j'ou so much hellup. And oh ! 
 if you did Ijut know how badly I want the 
 work. The last society is broken up, and — 
 and — here is that Mr. Eudge. Do you know 
 why he was turned out of his last situation ? '
 
 142 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Lavinia retired and the Kev. Benjamin 
 Eude^e advanced, smilinj::^ and unctuous. 
 
 'A rich treat, Lady Augusta. A rich 
 treat, indeed. Before retiring to rest this 
 evening: I shall commit a full account of the 
 manifestations to paper. It has been an 
 evening full of surprises and of instruction : 
 an evening at once intellectual, spiritual, and 
 religious — especially religious. The future 
 will see magnificent developments of what we 
 must now call, I suppose, the Ancient Way. 
 As the movement grows and spreads — as it 
 spreads and r-r-r-ramifies ' — he swept space 
 circularly with his hands — ' you will want an 
 Organiser, a Lecturer, a Secretary. You may 
 command me, Lady Augusta. My services 
 are at your disposal. Poor Lavinia Medlock ! 
 It was kind to ask her here. You know why 
 she lost her place the other day ? The usual 
 trouble,' he wdiispered. 
 
 The worst of Spiritualism is that there is 
 so broad a Fringe. Every Cause lias its 
 Fringe, broad or narrow. Spiritualism has so 
 very broad a Fringe. Lavinia Medlock, for
 
 GOOD NIGHT 143 
 
 instance, now that people no longer ran after 
 her, was fain to lecture for anybody who 
 would employ her : she would act as Secretary 
 to any Society ; she would collect moneys to 
 be applied to good objects ; and her enemies 
 said that there was always, sooner or later, 
 trouble about those moneys. The Eev. 
 Benjamin Eudge, on the other hand, the 
 Historiographer of the Cause, had enemies 
 too. They were constantl}?- raking up old 
 passages in his life — for he was no longer 
 young — which he himself would willingly 
 have forgotten. It is unmanly to rake up 
 things which tlieir authors would fain bury in 
 oblivion. He had no cure of souls, and he 
 darkly whispered that the Bishops were in 
 league to keep him out of any. He had been 
 connected with societies, and terminated his 
 connection in consequence of what he himself 
 called the bad business habits which are 
 always found among scholars and gentlemen ; 
 but his enemies called tliem by a diflerent 
 name. Whenever lie stepped to the front 
 into the public gaze somebody always wrote
 
 J 44 HERR PAULUS 
 
 nasty letters, asking if this was the same 
 reverend gentleman who ten years ago did so 
 and so. He had written a book or two, on 
 subjects not commercially valuable, he occa- 
 sionally got some hack literary w^ork, and was 
 generally attached to some unsuccessful 
 journal. But concerning this evening's work 
 he saw his way, by the exercise of a rather 
 limited imagination, to write a paper or two 
 which w^ould be worth a month's dinners. 
 
 Then Sibyl advanced to the young Pro- 
 phet. She intended to speak her mind to him 
 boldly. But for the moment she was stricken 
 with awe like the rest. 
 
 ' Herr Paulus,' she said, earnestly, ' do you, 
 in very truth, possess these powers ? Are you 
 only mocking a poor girl who lives in constant 
 anxiety about her brother ? ' 
 
 ' Indeed, Miss Brudenel,' he replied, ear- 
 nestly, 'you do me an injustice by the mere 
 suspicion.' 
 
 ' Other Mediums have been asked, but they 
 told us nothing. Yet it is easy to deceive a 
 girl through her affections.'
 
 GOOD NIGHT 145 
 
 'Miss Brudenel, I assure you on my 
 lionour ' 
 
 ' It was the likeness of my cousin — but in 
 a common sailor's dress.' 
 
 ' I do not understand that any more than 
 you do. My Friends permit me to tell you 
 more. Your cousin is, in fact, a common 
 sailor at this moment. He is in mid-Atlantic, 
 on board the ' Willing Bride,' of Quebec, sail- 
 ing vessel, laden with timber, and bound for 
 the port of London.' 
 
 ' Is it possible ? And he will come safe to 
 shore ? ' 
 
 ' I do not know. Believe me I have told 
 you all that I know — all that I have learned — 
 from my Friends.' 
 
 ' I thank you, Herr Paulus.' 
 
 Sibyl retreated, and a gentleman slipped 
 forward who held out liis hand. 
 
 ' To our better acquaintance, Ilerr Paulus.' 
 He had a commanding presence and a remark- 
 ably deep voice. ' My name is Kilburn — 
 Athelstan Kilburn — not quite unknown in 
 
 VOL. I. L
 
 146 HERk PAULVS 
 
 the Spiritual world here, though perhaps in 
 Abyssinia ' 
 
 ' My Friends know everybody, Mr. Kilburn. 
 I confess, however, that they have not in- 
 structed me as to your history.' 
 
 ' Xever mind, that will follow. My history, 
 sir, is the history of the Cause in this country 
 from the very beginning. I identified myself 
 with it even before my friend Brudenel came 
 into it. We are coarse and common operators 
 compared with you, Hcrr Paulus. But such 
 as we are I shall be glad to tell you all about 
 us. There have Ijeen Eogues among us — 
 plenty of Eogues among us : and lying spirits 
 have vexed us. But you shall hear. And 
 you have come to instruct us — me among the 
 number, I hope. Good night, Herr Paulus.' 
 His voice sank deep, as if lie was going to 
 sink into the earth. 
 
 His place was taken by the Eev. Amelius 
 Horton, the Senior Fellow of King Henry's 
 College, Cambridge. Mr. Horton's friends 
 were perhaps right in considering his manner
 
 GOOD NIGHT 147 
 
 as flighty, but there was confidence in his 
 assertions. 
 
 ' Pray, sir,' he asked, ' have you ever 
 turned your thoughts in the direction of 
 heahng ? ' 
 
 ' Sometimes.' 
 
 * I possess, myself, the gift of heahng in 
 a somewhat remarkable degree. Only last 
 Sunday, in the Gray's Inn Eoad, I made a 
 cripple throw away his crutches and walk 
 upright.' 
 
 ' Does this power remain always with you ? ' 
 
 ' X — no. I confess that it does not. It 
 is fitful. If it were steady, I should esta- 
 bhsh myself as a healer and close all the 
 hospitals.' 
 
 ' I liave been enabled myself, on occasions, 
 to exercise this power. The last time was a 
 year ago, when I healed a whole village in 
 Abyssinia, where every inhabitant was stricken 
 with the cholera.' 
 
 Mr. Horton gazed at him with admira- 
 tion, mixed, perhaps, with a little incredulity. 
 
 I. 2
 
 148 HERR PAUL US 
 
 ' My dear sir,' he said, ' if you have that 
 power, ' why not rid the whole world of 
 disease ? ' 
 
 ' It would be a truly useful work, if it were 
 permitted ; but I will answer your question by 
 another, Mr. Horton. In your ordination as 
 Priest, I beheve the Bishop gave you power to 
 absolve sin.' 
 
 ' Certainly.' 
 
 ' There was no condition attached ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly not.' 
 
 ' You possess, then, a much more precious 
 gift than I, and since you have this power, 
 Mr. Horton, why do you allow the sins of 
 humanity to weigh upon us for an instant ? 
 Absolve us all, dear sir. Let us all start from 
 this moment with a clean slate. As soon as 
 the sins of mankind are taken away, I will rid 
 them of their diseases.' 
 
 Mr. Horton made no reply. 
 
 Then other guests came and murmured 
 words of applause and congratulations, and of 
 hope that this evening would be followed by 
 many others equal in interest and in wonder.
 
 GOOD NIGHT 149 
 
 Very pretty things tliey said, and the young 
 man repHed to each with an admirable grace 
 and ease. And to the ladies the wonderful 
 charm of his eyes brought conviction as to 
 his truth and sincerity. As Lady Augusta 
 prophesied, he was already a success. The 
 last was Mrs. Tracy Hanley. 
 
 ' I want to ask you to my Sunday even- 
 ings, Herr Paulus. We are quiet people : 
 there is no crush with us : you will find in my 
 rooms rest and sj^mpathy — I feel that after 
 those manifestations you will need repose — and 
 sympathy. You will not be asked to exhibit 
 your truly marvellous powers : and you will 
 find only friends — true friends — who have 
 learned to trust and love each other.' 
 
 ' You are really most kind,' the young man 
 replied, astonished at this unexpected proffer 
 of friendship from a complete stranger. ' I am, 
 however, in Lady Augusta's hands.' 
 
 ' That will not prevent you from coming. 
 Then I shall expect you, Herr Paulus, next 
 Sunday evening ? ' 
 
 ' Perhaps not next Sunday. I never make
 
 I50 HERR PAULUS 
 
 appointments, because I may be called away 
 by my Friends, or ordered upon some special 
 service. Will you kindly let me come on any 
 Sunday evening when I am free ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly, we shall always be happy to 
 see you. Not as a lion, understand. I never 
 have any lions.' This was quite true, but oh ! 
 how devoutly she wished that she could have 
 one or two in the season. ' Only a very quiet 
 circle of friends, with music and talk. Where 
 the people are anxious to make each other 
 happy the talk is always pleasant. Mere wit 
 — mere epigram — is apt to wound. Some- 
 times my friends do what they can to amuse 
 each other. If you feel disposed — but no : 
 you shall feel yourself perfectly at liberty, you 
 shall not come hampered by any feelings of 
 obligation. We shall lay ourselves out to 
 amuse you, Herr Paulus, and you shall repose 
 and be happy.' 
 
 Was there ever a kinder or more gracious 
 lady? She pressed his hand, smiled most 
 sweetly, and retired. 
 
 * All the same,' she observed to her hus-
 
 GOOD NIGHT 151 
 
 band — he was something in the City, where 
 he toiled every day from ten till five, going 
 out with his wdfe in the evening, and taking a 
 back seat from eleven till one, two, and three 
 in the morning, so that he really was a happy 
 man — ' All the same, if he does come I will 
 have something out of him, if it is only a 
 thouc^ht reading.' 
 
 And now the people were all gone, and 
 only the house party remained. When the 
 door shut upon the last of them, Mr. Cyrus 
 Brudenel spoke. Hitherto he had said no- 
 thing : now he spoke. When a leader speaks 
 the broad earth trembles. He spoke with a 
 certain tremor in his voice which showed that 
 he was deeply moved, and he spoke with that 
 earnestness of conviction which always made 
 Sibyl feel so guilty, and he began by grasping 
 Herr Paulus by the hand. 
 
 ' This night,' he said, ' marks a new depar- 
 ture in Spiritual Eesearch. Herr Paulus, I 
 thank you in the name of all those who, like 
 myself, have believed, through cruel disap- 
 pointments and most unworthy deceptions, in
 
 152 HERR PAULUS 
 
 the future of our Cause. We liave been like 
 blind men — I see it now — waiting for a guide : 
 or like ignorant men in a labyrinth trying all 
 ways but the true way. What use to us have 
 been our Chicks and our Medlocks? What 
 power had they ? What control over the 
 spirits ? None. You have been sent by 
 those you call your Friends to show us the 
 way. It is no longer by the fitful light shown 
 by deceitful and vicious spirits that we sliall 
 try to advance, but by the steady glow of the 
 lantern held up to us by your Friends, We 
 thank your Friends through you. We have 
 tried to maintain the constancy of our faith, 
 but there have been times, I confess it, when 
 our feet have seemed to be placed on the 
 shaky and uncertain turf of a hidden quag- 
 mire. Now, thanks to your Friends, we stand 
 at last on Solid Eock. At last, I say, on Solid 
 EocK ! ' 
 
 ' You stand, indeed, upon the Solid Eock,' 
 repeated Herr Paulus, gently. 
 
 'Long ago, before I half understood
 
 GOOD NIGHT 153 
 
 whither our steps would lead us, I resolved 
 that this house and all in it should be dedi- 
 cated to the sublime Eesearch of Spiritual 
 Truth. I have adhered to this resolution. I 
 have given up my ambitions, my time, and 
 my friends. My wife has given up her whole 
 life cheerfully to the work. I have dedicated 
 and set apart my daughter to be the Vestal 
 Virgin of this great Cause. If there is aught 
 else that I can give, command me in that as 
 well.' 
 
 'My Friends will take what is useful,' 
 Herr Paulus replied, with a quick glance at 
 Sibyl, the Vestal, in whose eyes and in the 
 quick flush of her cheek he saw rebellion. 
 ' Perhaps they will ask of you less than what 
 you are willing to give. But your reward 
 will be tenfold what you can give.' 
 
 ' And what — oh ! what can we give you 
 yourself? ' asked Lady Augusta. 
 
 'Nothing, except your friendship, and — 
 perhaps — your love. I want no money. My 
 friends keep me supphed with all that I need.
 
 154 HERR PAULUS 
 
 See. This is my purse.' He drew it out and 
 opened it. There were three or four small 
 foreign copper coins in it. 'That is my slender 
 store. Food you can give me and shelter.' 
 
 'All the house shall be at your service,' 
 said Mr. Brudenel. 
 
 ' Let me come and go unquestioned.' 
 
 ' You shall have perfect liberty.' 
 
 ' There are times when I may have to 
 keep my room for days or even weeks to- 
 gether, if my Friends desire my presence, and 
 I have to be absent in the spirit.' 
 
 'You shall do in all things as you wish,' 
 said Lady Augusta. 
 
 ' Do you take meals hke other people ? ' 
 Sibyl asked, coldly. ' Do people absent in the 
 spirit eat ? ' 
 
 ' The earthly body takes food.' 
 
 ' In that case, Herr Paulus, let us descend 
 once more to earth. Please remember that 
 breakfast is served at half-past nine and 
 luncheon at half-past one. There are no 
 gongs in this house. Tea goes on here at 
 five, if you care for tea. Good night, Herr
 
 GOOD NIGHT 155 
 
 Paulas.' She bent lier head slightly and 
 without the least enthusiasm. She had had 
 time to recover from her surprise, and 
 reflected that, after all, he was but a Medium. 
 ' Come, Cicely, dear. Good night, mamma.'
 
 is6 HERR PAULUS 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 THE SMOKING EOOM. 
 
 Ix Tom Langston's study, or workshop, the 
 two young men, the Prophet of the Ancient 
 Way and the Student of tlie Modern Way, 
 sat on opposite gides of the fire. No two 
 young men, apart from their professions, 
 could be more unhke in appearance. The 
 one ruddy, healthy, athletic, tall of stature, 
 long of limb, and broad of shoulder, toughened 
 and hardened by a thousand athletic sports, 
 cricket matches, football matches, lawn-tennis 
 matches, and boat races, brave and comety and 
 tenacious : the other thin and slight of figure, 
 yet not fragile, as active and as springy 
 as a young Frenchman, his tread as alert as a 
 leopard, his eyes as quick as a hawk's, his fea- 
 tures as delicate as those of any girl, his long 
 nervous fingers never for a moment in repose.
 
 THE SMOKING ROOM 157 
 
 They both had cigarettes. Hermes, Thrice 
 Greatest, would himself take tobacco if he 
 lived in these days, and so would the two 
 Bacons, Eoger and Francis. Before each 
 stood a glass of effervescent water, innocent 
 of whisky. 
 
 They sat in silence and looked at each 
 other furtively, for one was suspicious and 
 the other was conscious of the suspicion, and, 
 besides, was now for the first time in his life 
 alone with a young English gentleman, a 
 creature he had never before encountered. 
 Apart from a natural irritation at feeling him- 
 self the object of suspicion — a thing which 
 every Prophet has to face — he was asking 
 himself, whether, with all the trouble he had 
 taken to overcome certain early-contracted 
 manners and customs, he had really acquired 
 the tone which this young man possessed, of 
 belonging naturally and by birth to polite 
 society. 
 
 ' You are thinking of me,' he said presently. 
 
 ' That is not a difficult piece of thouglit 
 reading,' Tom rephed. ' I was.*
 
 158 HERR PAULUS 
 
 'You were wondering who I am.' 
 
 ' More than that. I was wondering how 
 you do it, first ; and why you do it, next.' 
 
 ' And you mistrust me.' 
 
 ' That also is not so difficult to perceive. 
 I mistrust every man who pretends to super- 
 natural powers, whether he calls himself Me- 
 dium or Mumbo Jumbo.' 
 
 ' And you cannot clear your mind of the 
 suspicion that I am come to plunder your 
 guardian, and that I live by the exhibition 
 of certain — may I say — Powers — or shall I 
 say— Arts ? ' 
 
 ' Well,' asked Tom, ' let me ask the question 
 once for all, why the Devil do you go about 
 the world masquerading and pretending ? ' 
 
 ' What do I pretend ? ' 
 
 ' You assume a name which does not be- 
 long to you. It is a German name and you 
 are an American.' 
 
 The young man reddened shghtly. There 
 is always a weak point in every man's armour, 
 and he wished that his nationality should not 
 be discovered by his speech.
 
 THE SMOKJXG ROOM 159 
 
 'I have not pretended to be a German. 
 I pretend to no country. Believe it or not — 
 my name was imposed upon me by my 
 Friends. It is not, of course, the name of 
 my birth. If I were to tell you my whole 
 history, you would regard me as a greater 
 humbug than you do at present.' 
 
 'Why?' 
 
 ' Because I should have to tell you so 
 much that you could not possibly, with your 
 prejudices and ignorances, even pretend to 
 believe. How else, pray, do I pretend ? ' 
 
 ' You pretend that your performances of 
 this evening were the work of spirits.' 
 
 ' Let me remind you that I did not say so. 
 I said they were the work of my Friends.' 
 
 ' You spoke of a message.' 
 
 ' True. I have a message. From my 
 Friends. I am here to deliver it. My mes- 
 sa2:e is for all who will hear it — to those of 
 this house just because I have come here first 
 — to you if you please.' 
 
 ' Well, then, take another cigarette. If 
 it was the work of your Friends you will not
 
 i6o HERR PAUL US 
 
 mind, I daresay, getting them to repeat it in 
 this room. Let us have a flight of papers 
 from my ceihng, or a little music in the air ; 
 or you may, if you please, try to make me 
 think what you please.' 
 
 Herr Paulus shrucfs;ed his shoulders. 
 
 ' My message,' he said, ' is not for the 
 incredulous. Let me look in your eyes. 
 Steady. Look me straight in the eyes. So. 
 Why I might spend a lifetime upon you 
 without any result. You would never be 
 able to understand that there was anything 
 in the world beyond what you see. You 
 have not the first and most elementary sense 
 required of those who try the Ancient Way. 
 You believe in nothing but phenomena.' 
 
 ' Thank you ; yet I do not believe all that 
 I see.' 
 
 ' You saw that I compelled two ladies to 
 think as I chose.' 
 
 ' That was pure mesmerism. Old Chick 
 saw through that at once.' 
 
 ' You mean the spirit rapper. Yes, I 
 know his kind. It was by something of tlie
 
 THE SMOKLXG ROOM i6i 
 
 nature of that force which yoii call nies- 
 merisni that these ladies were moved to think 
 and act as they did. Many people of the 
 lowest kind have this force, but cannot use 
 it aright. In the hands of a person hke your 
 friend Chick, it is like the electricity of a 
 machine exhibited at a fair to make the 
 rustics gape. In the hands of my Friends it 
 is a force far subtler, far more potent than 
 you can even conceive. This force is the 
 basis of all spiritualistic influence.' 
 
 'It sounds pretty, but isn't it rather a waste?' 
 
 'Without this force,' Herr Paulus went 
 on, regardless of this rude interruption, ' the 
 communion of minds is impossible, and the 
 understanding of speech would be impossible ; 
 living men could not influence and advise 
 and lead each other ; the power of oratory 
 would be gone : the poet's words would have 
 no meaning : the writer would write in vain : 
 spirits living would no longer be able to con- 
 verse with spirits dead : distant friends could 
 not converse ' 
 
 ' Come, I say.' 
 
 VOL. I. M
 
 I62 HERE PAULUS 
 
 ' You believe nothing. You think that 
 all is answered when you explain a thing by 
 saying that it is mesmerism. Scientific men 
 thought that all was explained when they 
 discovered the law of gravity. But the 
 discovery of the law does not explain the 
 force which is governed by the law. So the 
 explanations of phenomena by referring them 
 to mesmerism do not really explain them. 
 Not at all. Mesmerism of the hig-her kind is 
 the machinery by which we work. Ask your 
 friend Chick to do what I did to-night. He 
 can, I suppose, mesmerise in the old-fashioned 
 clumsy method, and on patients who are 
 easily moved. But when he has got them into 
 the mesmeric trance what can he do more ? 
 Nothing. Why? Because he has got to the 
 end of his power.' 
 
 ' Do something with me, now ; let me 
 prove your powers ? ' 
 
 ' No ; I can do nothing with you or for 
 you. Why should I try to convert you ? It 
 is not my business. If all the world refuse 
 to beheve, it will not harm me.'
 
 THE SMOKING ROOM 163 
 
 ' Then why did you come here ? ' 
 
 'To speak to those whom it may concern. 
 To give my message.' 
 
 ' Did you make any inquiries about us 
 before you came ? ' 
 
 ' Of course. On my way from St. Peters- 
 burg I was informed by my Friends of many 
 particulars concerning this family. I will tell 
 you some of them. I do not pretend to know 
 more than I am told. Mr. Cyrus Brudenel, 
 your guardian, is a man who ardently desires 
 to be a Spiritualist and to acquire power. He 
 is not, however, a medium, and he never will 
 be. He has been greatly imposed upon, and 
 yet he has done excellent service in preparing 
 the minds of men and women, against all 
 kinds of ridicule, for the reception of higher 
 truth. Lady Augusta, again, is a fervent 
 believer, and yet is not a medium. But she 
 too has done good service by her unwavering 
 faith : and she has social position which has 
 also proved and will continue to prove useful. 
 Miss Brudenel is not a believer, though as yet 
 she has not ventured to confess her infidelity. 
 
 11 2
 
 1 64 HERR PAULUS 
 
 The vole of Vestal imposed iTj)on her by her 
 father will never be played by her, nor will 
 she ever become an oracle. Yonr cousin, 
 Miss Cicely Langston, deplores continually the 
 loss of her brother who is not dead. He went 
 away from liome, giving up his title and his 
 fortune, five or six years ago, intending to 
 take up his lot with the common people ; and 
 he has never since made any sign of life. 
 You are the heir of his j^roperty and of the 
 baronetcy if he is dead. But I think you will 
 not succeed yet, because he Avill return. I 
 shall take his sister to him unless he comes to 
 her.' 
 
 ' Where is he tlien .^ And when will he 
 return ? ' 
 
 ' He is on board a sailing ship bound from 
 London to Quebec. I shall be told in good 
 time when he returns. Why should I trouble 
 to find out things when my Friends tell me 
 what is wanted ? As for you, your fortune 
 will be given to you by j^our guardian, Mr. 
 Brudenel, in about a month's time, when you 
 arrive at your twenty-fourth birthday — ex-
 
 THE SMOKING ROOM 165 
 
 actly on the same day your cousin will be 
 twenty-one and will receive her fortune. 
 You have a mechanical turn, and you occupy 
 your time when you are not in the Physical 
 Laboratory in making those pretty little 
 inojenuities in brass which I see on the table 
 there. I confess that I know nothinf;^ about 
 them. Have I told you enough ? ' 
 
 ' You undoubtedly know a great deal. 
 But you might have learned all that by 
 inquiry. My people are not quite un- 
 known.' 
 
 ' Then I will tell you more about yourself. 
 You have been touched by the prevalent 
 Socialist ideas, like your cousin. Sir Percival ; 
 you think that every man ought to live by 
 the work of his own hands.' 
 
 ' Yes,' said Tom, now really surprised. 
 ' I think it is for most men the greatest 
 misfortune in the world to be born rich.' 
 
 ' You would not think so, perhaps, if you 
 had been born poor. You think, besides, and 
 you have constantly asserted your belief, that 
 we are on the eve of the greatest Revolution —
 
 i66 HERR PAULUS 
 
 a universal Eevolution — that tlie world lias 
 ever seen.' 
 
 ' I do. How do you know that ? ' 
 ' You are right, and yet the Eevolution 
 will not be what you think. Yes,' his eyes lit 
 up and his whole face smiled, ' it will be the 
 greatest Eevolution that the world has ever 
 seen. A Eevolution in everything, the rich 
 will become poor, yet not as j-ou think, and 
 the prizes will once more fall to the strongest 
 hand, yet not as you think. You believe this, 
 and you have said it more than once among 
 your friends.' 
 
 ' I have. How do 3-ou know it ? ' 
 ' Certainly I liave never talked with any 
 of your , friends. How did I know it? By 
 mesmerism ? How did I learn the facts about 
 your family? By mesmerism? How did I 
 learn the existence of your cousin? Was it 
 all by mesmerism ? ' 
 
 He threw away the end of his cigarette 
 and walked over to the table where lay cogs 
 and wheels all in shiny brass of some curious 
 and beautiful machine which Tom was makinij.
 
 THE SMOKING ROOM 167 
 
 ' I understand nothing, for my part, about 
 machinery. Wlieels and mechanical contri- 
 vances of all kinds bewilder me. I cannot 
 even try to understand how cogs and springs 
 produce effects so marvellous. Yet I give 
 you credit when you tell me there is use in 
 machinery, and that you understand its laws 
 and can make it your servant.' 
 
 Tom laughed. 
 
 'You have me there. You mean that I 
 should give you credit for understanding 
 something that I cannot.' 
 
 The Philosopher looked him straight and 
 full with the eyes of an honest man. 
 
 ' That is precisely what I mean.' 
 
 'It's half-past twelve,' said Tom, looking 
 at liis watch. ' See now — are you going to 
 stay long in this house ? ' 
 
 ' I think a month or two. Perhaps more. 
 There is talk of a great Conference.' 
 
 ' And will there be much hanky-panky ? ' 
 
 ' Perhaps a great deal.' 
 
 ' Old Cliick, before he took to drinking, 
 used to fill the place with spirits. They were
 
 i68 HERR PAULUS 
 
 the very worst kind of spirits you ever saw. 
 And they talked the very worst kind of drivel. 
 They did, upon my honour. If you knew 
 what a lot of humbugs and impostors my 
 uncle has been harbourinf? and encouramnGj — 
 if he found one out, it was only to welcome 
 another — you would not be surprised at my 
 distrust.' 
 
 ' I am not in the least surprised. Wlien 
 I meet Avith persons like Mr. Emanuel Chick 
 I am surprised at the strength of the cause, 
 since it survives even him.' 
 
 ' That's all right, then. Don't play more 
 than you can upon the women's feelings. But 
 if you really bring back my cousin — poor old 
 Percy — I'll forgive you everything. And — • 
 and ' — Tom said this very unwillingly — ' you 
 are not like the ordinary run of 'em ; your 
 voice rings true : and — well — look here, now, 
 we'll be friends, unless I find you out. Mind, 
 I shall always be on the look out for 5'ou.' 
 
 The Messenger laughed pleasantly. 
 
 ' I tell you how I work, but you do not 
 believe me. It is through my Friends beyond
 
 THE SMOKING ROOM 169 
 
 the seas. We shall be friends, then, until you 
 find me out. Give me your hand. Now, 
 since you will never find me out, we are 
 friends for life.' 
 
 Ten minutes later Tom laid himself between 
 the sheets in the room adjoining his study. 
 He was a young man absolutely without the 
 least sense of the supernatural : he never felt 
 the air around him grow still and his heart 
 tremble with the vague terrors which assail 
 some men even in places and at times when 
 they least expect to feel that phantoms of the 
 outer world are around them. He would 
 have slept in a charnel-house surrounded by 
 skidls and skeletons without a tremor : all the 
 associations possible of murder, cruelty, and 
 guilt and remorse would have failed to move 
 him. Therefore, when just as he was dropping 
 off to sleep he heard strange music over his 
 head, seemingly in the room, he was not 
 terrified at all, but only startled. He sprang 
 out of Ijed swiftly, lo(dved the door, and took 
 out the key. TJien he struck a light. There 
 was no one in the room and the music ceased.
 
 170 HERR PAULUS 
 
 He blew out the candle and got into bed 
 asfain. Then the music beo^an once more. 
 
 ' It's deuced clever,' said Tom. ' For a 
 trick, it's as good as anything I ever saw, and 
 it seems a pretty kind of tune — soft and 
 melting — twice as good as old Chick's accor- 
 dion. Well, if his Friends mean to be polite 
 they haven't been long in making up their 
 minds. Very pretty indeed it is. Very 
 pretty. I take it kind of them.' 
 
 Then he fell asleep, and I have never 
 heard how much longer the supernatural 
 music was continued.
 
 171 
 
 CHAPTER YIIL 
 
 THE SUBMISSION^ OF THE LEADER. 
 
 After breakfast — always, in tins house, a 
 hushed and solemn function — Mr. Brudenel 
 led the way to his study. He was more than 
 commonly ponderous this morning, and more 
 than commonly nervous. The events of the 
 preceding night would have filled him with 
 delight but for that unfortunate revelation 
 about the novel. It has been often proved 
 that tlie gravest and most reverend of men 
 have been, in their lifetime, devourers of 
 novels, but it is disconcerting when a revered 
 Leader is charged with spending the time, 
 supposed sacred to the study of Magic and 
 Mystery, in reading Ouida. Moreover, it 
 was a true charge, and since Herr Paulus 
 could only have known its truth by super-
 
 172 HERR PAULUS 
 
 natural powers, tlie charge must have been 
 brought forward either as a rebuke or as a 
 threat. If a rebuke it was presumptuous to 
 the last degree in so young a man, and if a 
 threat — how much did the young man know? 
 
 ' This is — ah ! — my small library, Herr 
 Paulus,' he said, pointing witJi proud humility 
 to the shelves filled from top to bottom with 
 works on the subject to which his life had 
 been given. ' You will — ah ! — have my full 
 permission to make any use you please of this 
 small collection. Here you will find, I think, 
 all the Masters in the art, Cornelius Agrippa, 
 Barrett's " Celestial Intelligence," the Eomance 
 of the Eose, Eliphaz, Lilly and Dee, Manetho's 
 Fragments, Salverte's " Science Occulte," 
 Naude's "Apologie," the recent works of 
 Blavatzky, Olcott, and Sinnett.' He stopped 
 short in his communication because he per- 
 ceived tliat the young man was looking at 
 him and not at the books. 'Perhaps,' he 
 said, coldly, ' you already know the contents 
 of these books.' 
 
 ' On the contrary,' said Herr Paulus.
 
 THE SUBMISSION OF THE LEADER 173 
 
 ' Outside certain lines I am a most ignorant 
 person. I have, it is true, studied Solomon's 
 Book of Wisdom, but these works of mediasval 
 and oriental pretenders I have not taken the 
 trouble even to look into. Only it amuses me 
 that you, the Leader of Spiritualism in the 
 country, should seriously invite an inspection 
 of these writers.' 
 
 ' Yet the results of mediosval research ' 
 
 ' There were no results.' The young man 
 spoke with a dogmatism wdiich would have 
 been offensive but for the calm assurance of 
 his manner. ' There never were any results. 
 The books are absolutely without value.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel put up his eyeglasses and 
 looked at the books on Avhicli he had spent so 
 many hundreds of pounds. Would no spirit 
 issue forth to contradict this arrogant young 
 man ? 
 
 ' No — no results ? No value ? ' 
 
 ' Well, there is the value of history. These 
 
 men, provided with a fragment of truth, 
 
 groped about in the dark and found nothing. 
 
 The books preserve the history of their
 
 174 HERR PAULUS 
 
 researches. If that is valuable the books are 
 valuable. If not ' — he shru(T(yed his shoulders. 
 
 ' Have you read them ? ' 
 
 ' Not one.' 
 
 ' How, then, do you know ? ' 
 
 'I know because I know. It is part of 
 the Wisdom of the Ancient Way to distinguish 
 between truth and falsehood. How many 
 of them have you read yourself, Mr. Brudenel ? 
 You do not reply. I will tell you. Not one. 
 You have turned over pages which you could 
 not understand. You have not read one. 
 Burn 5^our library, Mr. Brudenel. Burn it all.' 
 
 ' Burn my unrivalled collection ? Sir, you 
 presume too far. I would have you to 
 knoAV ' 
 
 ' You have not read one single book, Mr. 
 Brudenel. You know nothing of the subject. 
 Here is a book which professes to show you 
 how to raise spirits.' He took a volume from 
 the shelves. ' Do you know the method ? 
 Have you ever tried to raise a spirit ? Here 
 is another book which teaches you how to 
 find the Pliilosopher's Stone. Have you
 
 THE SUBMISSION OF THE LEADER 17s 
 
 found it ? Here are the secrets of astrology. 
 Can you cast a nativity ? ' 
 
 ' But — but — do you pretend that the 
 chiims of all the mediaival philosophers have 
 been baseless ? ' 
 
 ' Not quite baseless. In the same way the 
 modern so-called Occult Philosophers and 
 Esoteric Buddhists are not baseless. Their 
 pretensions rest on the fragments which were 
 brought to the East from Syria. So the 
 pretensions of the mediaeval Seekers rest upon 
 the fragments preserved by the learned Jews 
 of Spain and Morocco, and handed down from 
 father to son. But in Abyssinia we have the 
 perfect Book, the King's own Book, brought 
 to us by Prince Menelek.' 
 
 ' It is somethinfy to be told that we have 
 fragments,' said Mr. Brudenel, coldly. 
 
 ' Yes : you have fragments. They have 
 enabled you to get a little way, but you can 
 go no farther. Consider ! You have been a 
 Seeker for thirty years, and what do you know 
 now, more than you knew wlien first you 
 began ? '
 
 176 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' There are some who think we have made 
 great advances.' 
 
 ' You liave made no advance at all,' said 
 Herr Paulus firmly ; ' and if you continue in 
 your present line you will make no further 
 advance.' 
 
 ' After all,' the Leader objected, but 
 without much force, ' one cannot overthrow 
 the fabric of thirty years on the dictum of a 
 strange youth.' 
 
 ' Fabric ! ' Herr Paulus drew himself up 
 and assumed the aspect of one who teaches 
 and admonishes. ' Fabric ! What fabric ? 
 You have none. You have not even the 
 dream, the simulacrum, the deceptive image 
 of a Fabric. In your thoughts at this moment 
 I read the secret consciousness of failure. 
 Confess ! Failure. Your whole life has been 
 a failure. You have been buoyed up by 
 false hopes ; you have trusted in one impostor 
 after the other. Deceptions have met you at 
 every turn. Confess. Your whole life has 
 been a failure. You have nothing sohd — 
 nothino- — nothinir. Confess.'
 
 THE SUBMISSION OF THE LEADER 177 
 
 His dark eyes flashed, his accent was stern, 
 his forefinger was menacing. Heard one ever 
 before of a Leader thus rebuked ? His aspect 
 was severe. Mr. Brudenel turned away as if 
 afraid to meet those eyes, and hung his head 
 and stammered something about the Joy of 
 Eesearch. But it was very feeble. 
 
 ' Your hfe has been a faikire, and you 
 know it and feel it. Confess. Look in my 
 face — look at me. So.' Mr. Brudenel obeyed 
 slowly and unwillingl}^, as if he was compelled. 
 He raised his eyes and met the steady, fervent 
 gaze of the masterful young man. ' Confess 
 all that is in your mind.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel sunk into a chair. All his 
 dignity was gone and his stifiening. He 
 collapsed. And still his eyes were fixed and 
 held by those of his guest. 
 
 ' I do confess,' he said. ' My life lias been 
 a failure. For long years I have known it, 
 but I was ashamed to acknowledge it. And 
 I was surrounded by believers who looked up 
 to me. Had I confessed the truth, it would 
 liave been a dreadful l)low to my wife and to 
 
 VOL. I. .\
 
 178 HERR PAULUS 
 
 everybody. Every year I have fell it more 
 and more. I have lost my self-respect. I 
 have been a wretched humbug, pretending to 
 believe. I have come here, every morning, 
 pretending to study, but in reality to read 
 novels and to forget the cant of the Spiri- 
 tualists.' 
 
 ' It is enough. Say no more. Own, how- 
 ever, tliat I read your thoughts rightly.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel, the power of those eyes 
 removed, began to recover a little. He sat 
 up in his chair and put up his glasses. 
 
 ' I have told you, Herr Paulus,' he said, 
 ' what I never thought to tell any man. You 
 have the secret of my life. Respect it, 
 sir.' 
 
 ' Indeed, Mr. Brudenel, I had the secret of 
 your life before. Do not doubt that I shall 
 respect it.' 
 
 ' I am glad to have told you. Xow you 
 know all, and there is no longer any occasion 
 for us two to talk about the phenomena. 
 Perhaps, some day, you will tell me how you 
 did the things last night. I seem to know
 
 THE SUBMISSION OF THE LEADER 179 
 
 liow most of tliem do their tricks, but yours, 
 I confess ' 
 
 'You are terribly wrong — most terribly 
 wrong, Mr. Brudenel. If I have been sent to 
 you in your hour of deepest dejection it was 
 not only to tell you that your efforts have 
 been unavailing, nor was it to perform tricks." 
 
 'The time was,' the Leader continued, 
 without listening to this interruption, ' when 
 I rejoiced in my researches, and looked joy- 
 fully forward to the fuller light wliich was 
 certain to come. Alas! that time lias now 
 gone, and I have nothing but regrets that I 
 have thrown away my life among enthusiasts 
 and common cheats. I confessed to you. 
 Herr Paulus, because — you are young, but 
 you seem honest — because you compelled me. 
 That is done. Go on and frighten the women, 
 and conie here when you please to laugh at 
 the whole business with me.' 
 
 'Again, it is not my object to frighten the 
 women and to laugh with you. Your past 
 life is done witli. ])Ut a new life begins if 
 
 you wish for some splendid ' 
 
 If a
 
 I So HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' Oil ! liow am I to trust any one ? ' cried 
 Mr. Brudenel, helplessl}' . ' I want no new 
 life, man. Henceforth I will go on like the 
 rest of mankind. I shall cease to inquire into 
 the other world. T shall go to Church with 
 my wife and the girls. No new splendours 
 for me, thank you. I have done with it all.' 
 
 He threw out his arms with an expressive 
 gesture. 
 
 'Done with it, Herr Paulus. Done with 
 it, I say.' 
 
 ' Permit me, Mr. Brudenel. I read in your 
 looks — nay in your mind — I read your dejec- 
 tion last night. You expected nothing but to 
 be bored. Then you were surprised out of 
 yourself. Then you expressed what you felt 
 at the moment ; but this morning another 
 cold wave of doubt lias fallen upon your soul. 
 You no longer trust your eyes.' 
 
 ' That is so.' 
 
 'The credentials which I exhibited have 
 satisfied the rest of those who saw them — 
 except your Avard and — and perhaps one 
 other. But you, rendered suspicious by fre-
 
 THE SUBMISSION OF THE LEADER i8i 
 
 qiient disappointments, recall them with doubt 
 and questioning. The music in the air : the 
 silver bells — you have heard something like 
 them before in the darkened seance : they 
 were produced by your Chicks and your 
 Medlocks, with their concertinas : girls in a 
 trance have been seen before : clairvoyance is 
 no new thing ; perhaps the picture of tlie 
 very scenes which had passed through the 
 girls' minds — which they actually saw — is an 
 old trick too.' 
 
 ' No — no — I do not say so. Tlie things 
 Avere new and strikino-.' 
 
 ' Very good. Now, Mr. Brudenel, I am 
 sent to you especially. It is to you that my 
 message is given. If you are not convinced I 
 will show you more credentials. What do 
 you ask? Do not be afraid. Ask boldly.' 
 
 ' Do for me,' said Mr. Brudenel, ' what the 
 Occult Philosophers have not done. Put in 
 my hands an Indian newspaper of this very 
 day.' 
 
 'That is very easy,' replied Ilerr Paulus. 
 He put his hand in his coat pocket and pro-
 
 1 8? HERR PAUL US 
 
 diiced a paper stamped by an Indian post- 
 mark, addressed to Cyril Brudenel. ' Here it 
 is. Here is the Friend of India of this morn- 
 ing. Before you open it I must make a con- 
 dition. There are in the paper all kinds of 
 news — political — social — deaths — marriages — 
 share markets — things not thought worthy of 
 the telegraph — which must not be read before 
 the day when in the ordinary course the 
 paper would arrive. Open this paper. Satisfy 
 yourself that it is the paper of this very day, 
 which w^ill arrive in London this day four 
 weeks : then lock it up in some place acces- 
 sible only to yourself, and do not look at it 
 again until tlie day when all the world can 
 see it. Do you promise this ? ' 
 
 ' I would rather have its contents pub- 
 lished to all the world.' 
 
 ' Consider. There may be things in it 
 which it will be best to be learned at their 
 proper time. To publish the paper may 
 cause the ruin of merchants. Do you pro- 
 mise ? ' 
 
 ' I promise.'
 
 THE SUBMISSION OF THE LEADER 183 
 
 * Then open the paper.* 
 
 Mr Brudenel tore open the cover, which 
 Herr Paulus tossed into the fire. He looked 
 at the date. Saturday, March 20th, 1887. 
 The date was printed on tlie front and on 
 every page. He folded it up again with a 
 deep sigh. 
 
 'You have actually done this wonderful 
 thing,' he said. 
 
 ' Lock up the paper in the safe. So. 
 That draAver will do. Lock the drawer and 
 put the key on your ring. No one has access 
 to the safe but yourself, of course. You will 
 get the paper out and read it on the day 
 when it is due by the mail, and not before. 
 No one but yourself will know until then of 
 its existence. Eemember, you are not to look 
 at the paper or to open the drawer until the 
 time comes.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel did as he was told. 
 
 'And now sit down and let us talk.' 
 
 It was then eleven o'clock. 
 
 At half-past one Herr Paulus and Mr. 
 Brudenel came to luncheon
 
 1 84 HERE PAULUS 
 
 The ladies became instantly aware that 
 something had happened. I mean, of course, 
 something important. Mr. Brudenel plainly 
 showed that something had happened to him. 
 In that house they were always expecting 
 something out of the common, and last night's 
 events had shown that they were on the eve 
 of something very great indeed. Therefore 
 Lady Augusta's heart beat faster when she 
 saw tliat her husband had things to commu- 
 nicate. 
 
 ' My dear,' he whispered, just before they 
 sat down, ' the most wonderful, the most 
 stupendous manifestations have occurred. I 
 will tell you about them after luncheon.' 
 
 ' Were they — were they — of the nature of 
 last night's appearances ? ' 
 
 ' No, no ; quite different. Herr Paulus 
 has done for me alone what the Occult Philo- 
 sophers have never been able to do ; and I 
 have been translated in the spirit to Abyssinia. 
 I have spent two hours — it seemed to me to 
 be five-and-twenty — on a hill side with the 
 sole living possessor of the Wisdom which
 
 THE SUBMISSION OF THE LEADER 185 
 
 Herr Paiilus calls the Ancient Way. Augusta, 
 we shall not only be the happiest people in 
 the world, but we shall also be the most 
 powerful and the most celebrated. Be very, 
 very kind to him, Augusta. We are on solid 
 KOCK at last — at last — on solid eock ! ' 
 
 At luncheon Mr. Brudenel could eat 
 nothino; beino- still under the influence of the 
 morning's mystery. His cheek was flushed, 
 his eyes were humid : the eager, nervous look 
 was changed for one of satisfied assurance : 
 his voice was soft. Some OTeat chanire had 
 passed over his spirits. 
 
 As for Herr Paulus he attacked the lun- 
 cheon with the appetite of four-and-twenty, 
 and as if there were no dinner ahead. But 
 the girls, Cicely and Hetty, waited for further 
 information ; and Sibyl looked suspicious. 
 
 In the afternoon Mr. Brudenel, worn out, 
 perhaps, by the exertions of the morning, fell 
 fast asleep in his study. 
 
 He slept frorqi two o'clock until half-past 
 four, in the deep and comfortable chair by 
 the fireside in which he was wont to read
 
 i86 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Ouida while they thought he was pursuing 
 Cabahstic or other research. At half-past 
 four he awoke with a violent start, springing 
 to his feet. 
 
 ' Good heavens ! ' he said, ' was it only a 
 dream ? ' 
 
 He rushed to his safe, unlocked it and 
 opened the drawer where he had laid the 
 paper — the Friend of India of that morning, 
 brought all the way to England in an liour or 
 two by Herr Paulus's friends. 
 
 He had laid the paper in the drawer. 
 He was certain he had, there could be no 
 doubt in his mind about it. 
 
 But the paper was gone ! There was not 
 a trace of the paper left. Stay, at his feet 
 was a scrap of the paper which had wrapped 
 it, with a piece of his name, ' — el, Esq.,' and 
 a corner of the Indian stamp. It was no 
 dream, and then he remembered his promise 
 that he Avould not open the drawer until the 
 time came. He had broken the promise and 
 lost the paper. Good Heavens ! he had 
 actually fooled away the most stupendous of
 
 THE SUBMISSION OF THE LEADER 187 
 
 modern miracles by curiosity unworthy of a 
 school girl ! The paper was gone. He had 
 held in his hands that very morning a paper 
 brought all the way from India since day- 
 break. And it was oone ! What a miracle ! 
 What a misfortune !
 
 HERR PAULUS 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 THE COXQUEST OF THE HAREM. 
 
 ' We spoke yesterday of the Ancient Way,' 
 said Herr Panlus. ' Perhaps you would hke 
 to hear something more definite.' 
 
 It was the afternoon of tlie same day, 
 about half-past five. Tea was going on, and 
 there were present only the ladies of the 
 house, with Hetty Medlock. The twilight 
 was falling, but the lamps were not yet lit 
 nor the curtains drawn. 
 
 ' The son of King Solomon and Queen 
 Slieba,' he began 
 
 'What?' Lady Augusta was not often 
 surprised, but this beginning startled her. 
 
 ' The son of King Solomon and Queen 
 Sheba,' Herr Paulus repeated, ' was, as every 
 Abyssinian knows, the Prince Menelek. He 
 was born in the Queen's capital, and was
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE HAREM 189 
 
 brought up ill liis native country. It is said 
 that it was his mother's sole dehglit and 
 solace, as soon as the boy could understand 
 anything, to fill his mind with stories of the 
 greatness and glory of his father, the Wise 
 King of Syria. When he grew to manhood 
 he resolved to visit the city where his father 
 had been King, and with a great retinue he 
 set off. His route has been preserved, with 
 many details, which are curious, but you 
 would not care for them. He went down the 
 Nile as far as the site of the modern Cairo, 
 and then journeyed through the desert by the 
 Serbonian Lake and the Pdver of Egypt to 
 El Arish, Gaza, and Joppa, Avhence he 
 journeyed to the Holy City. 
 
 ' He entered the gates of Jerusalem at 
 break of day. He had not gone far when the 
 people began flocking round him, the old men 
 weeping, the women crying for joy, and the 
 young men shouting. For his resemblance to 
 Solomon was so great that they thought the 
 old King had come back again to them with 
 renewed youth.'
 
 I90 HERR PAULUS 
 
 'Xo part of this story,' Sibj^ intGrposcd, 
 severely, ' is in the ' 
 
 ' My dear ! ' said Lady Augusta, ' we have 
 here, perhaps, a contemporary Chronicle.' 
 
 ' The tumult,' Herr Paulus continued, 
 ' was heard in tlie Palace where the King was 
 sitting with his Council. They heard the 
 people cry " King Solomon has come back 
 again. May the King live for ever ! " and sent 
 a messenger to learn the cause. At hrst it 
 was proposed to send soldiers to kill the man 
 who presumed to be so much like the dead 
 King ; but it was finally agreed to bring him 
 before the King, and to question him. Now, 
 when he stood before the King, those who 
 Avere old cried aloud, like the people in the 
 streets, for astonishment, because it seemed to 
 them that it was Solomon himself in tlie 
 beauty and strength of his youth, who stood 
 before them. But the young man bore him- 
 self modestly, and made obeisance to the King, 
 and when he had caused presents to be 
 brought, he asked leave to speak, and said : — 
 *' King, I am Menelek, the son of Solomon
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE HAREM igi 
 
 tlie Great and Queen Sbeba of Abyssinia, from 
 which country have I come, bringing gifts to 
 thee, and desirous of seeing the great and 
 glorious Temple which tlie King my fatlier 
 caused to be built, and his Palace and all his 
 glory, and then to return in peace into mine 
 own country, if it please the King to suffer mc 
 to depart." 
 
 ' And it was done as he asked, and the 
 King entertained him courteousl}-, and all his 
 following, for thirty days. And at the end 
 of that time Prince Menelek would depart. 
 Therefore, the King ordered all manner of 
 precious things to be given to him, in order 
 to show his friendship and goodwill toward 
 his brother, and among the gifts thus prepared 
 was a copy, so exact that you could not tell 
 that it was not the original, of the Ark which 
 is in the Temple, and it contained exact copies 
 of all that was in the Ark. And here, the 
 Abyssinians say, a strange thing happened, 
 for there was in the Temple a priest named 
 Isaac, a man stricken in years but full of learn- 
 ing, one who knew the Hidden Way. The
 
 192 HERR PAULUS 
 
 priest, by much conversation with Menelek, 
 fell into so great an affection for the young 
 man that nothing would do but he must go 
 back to Abyssinia Avith him, he and all his 
 house. Nay, so greatly did he love him, 
 partly because he was the son of Solomon, his 
 master, and partly becaus'e he was a goodly 
 youth, and oiie who loved to talk of things 
 hidden from the multitude, that he did a 
 strange and wonderful thing, of which the 
 Jews to this day are ignorant. For, by the 
 power of the Hidden Way, he threw a charm 
 over the watchers and guardians of the 
 Temple, so that they slept, or rather so that 
 they saw, but saw not, and in the morning 
 had forgotten, for they walked to and fro in 
 their watch as if they were awake, and chal- 
 lenged each other and called the dawn, and 
 sang the morning Psalms, while with his sons 
 this old priest brought into the Temple the 
 imitation of the Sacred Ark and exchanged it, 
 takim^ awav with him the real Ark and leav- 
 ing in its place that which had been made for 
 Menelek. And this, they say, would have
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE HAREM 193 
 
 been impossible in the lifetime of the King, 
 partly because his servants, the Jinns, Avho 
 day and night worked for him in and about 
 the Temple, would have prevented it, and 
 partly because the Shechinah above the Ark, 
 which left it when Solomon died, would have 
 blinded those who touched it. They brought 
 away the Ark, therefore, with the tables of 
 stone, and laid it on a camel, covered with a 
 carpet, and led it away with Menelek and his 
 train when he left Jerusalem. And the old 
 priest took with him secretly the Book of the 
 Wisdom of the Great King, the loss of which 
 was never suffered to be known unto the 
 people unto this day ; and many of the Jews 
 went with him because they would rather 
 serve Menelek than Eehoboam ; and their 
 descendants, who are now called Falashas, 
 remain in the land of Abyssinia to this day, 
 worshipping after the manner of their an- 
 cestors. And to this day the Ark itself is in 
 the hands of the Abyssinian King. And the 
 Ijook of Wisdom, by some called the Book of 
 the Hidden Way, and by others the Book of 
 VOL. I. o
 
 194 HERR PAULUS 
 
 the Ancient Way, is in the hands of that 
 priest's descendants to this day. This Book 
 is our Book : this Wisdom is our Wisdom : the 
 descendant of the priest, Isaac, is my master, 
 Isdk the Falasha, called Iscik Ibn Menelek : 
 and the Ancient Way is the Wisdom of King 
 Solomon himself.' 
 
 There were four women listening to this 
 story. Three of them, like Queen Dido, 
 listened with eager eyes and beating hearts. 
 To them already this young man was an 
 infallible Prophet, before whom they were 
 contented to surrender whatever of judgment, 
 reason, and critical faculty they possessed. 
 Is it wicked — I mean in the modern sense — to 
 advance tlie doctrine that most women are 
 entirely devoid of the critical faculty ? Less 
 than four-and-twenty hours had sufficed to 
 make this young man the master of these 
 three women. That he had not also become 
 the master of the fourth was solely due to the 
 extraordinary dislike with which this girl re- 
 garded all pretenders to supernatural powers, 
 so that at the very aspect and first appear-
 
 l^HE CONOUEST OF THE HAREM 195 
 
 ance of one she hardened her heart and stif- 
 fened her soiiL But with regard to the others 
 Herr Pauhis came and conquered. His victory 
 was due to his appearance and his manners 
 almost as much as to the exhibition of his 
 powers. If he had been the tobacco-reeking 
 German they expected, badly dressed and 
 badly-mannered, uncouth and vulgar, his 
 powers would have been acknowledged, 
 but there would have been no enthusiasm 
 for him. 
 
 'Itw^as from Isiik,' Herr Paulus continued, 
 ' that I learned all I know. It is he who 
 continues to teach me. I am in conversation 
 with him every moment ; even now, while I 
 am speaking, I am receiving messages of in- 
 struction and support.' 
 
 ' Oh ! it is wonderful ! ' Cicely murmured. 
 ' And I have seen my brother ! ' 
 
 Sibyl looked furtively at the man who 
 dared to talk like this. Many men liad come 
 to that house and talked. Many pretentious 
 assertions had been made ; in every one she 
 had recognised some old famihar stroke, some
 
 196 HERR PAULUS 
 
 familiar stage business, and in every one there 
 was at bottom the commercial element. Here 
 the language and the pretensions were equaUy 
 new to her, and the commercial element was 
 — so far — wholly wanting. She hardened 
 her heai't with resolution and looked at him 
 again. BQs eyes met hers with a strangely 
 searching and commanding look. Then a 
 sensation fell iipon her : one quite new and 
 terrifying : she felt her brain overshadowed 
 as by a cloud : she was drawn towards this 
 man as by a rope : it was by a desperate 
 effort that she seemed to snap that rope and 
 to drive away the cloud fi'om her brain. 
 Again she met his eyes, and this time he 
 turned away. 
 
 ' There are many women,* he said, ' as 
 there are many men, who cannot, if they 
 would, tread this path. There are others — a 
 few — who have the gifts but refuse to use 
 them.' 
 
 'They know, while they are free,' said 
 Sibyl, ' what thev are and what thev do. 
 They know not what may happen to them
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE HAREM 197 
 
 when they have surrendered their freedom 
 and their will ' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' murmured Lady Augusta, setting 
 the worst possible example, ' when a Prophet 
 leads, wdio would not follow and surrender 
 all?' 
 
 Cicely and Hetty sighed, and the latter 
 blushed a rosy red. as if there were too much 
 happiness only in the thought of perfect 
 slavery and submission. 
 
 Only four-and-twenty hours since he 
 arrived. To be sure he had lost no time, nor 
 did he fool around : but by methods known 
 only to himself he dominated those three 
 women and made them all his slaves. What 
 he had said to each separately I know not. 
 But now they were his. 
 
 'It is wonderful,' said Cicely again, to 
 whom new worlds were opening. * It is truly 
 wonderful ! ' 
 
 ' I was selected — I know not why — nor 
 where — for the work by Isiik himself.' 
 
 ' Were you taken in infancy ? ' asked Lady 
 Augusta.
 
 198 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' No,' lie laii2;lied i^entlv. ' I am ^qavl^ to 
 tax your credulity to the utmost.' 
 
 ' Oh ! after last night is there anything 
 which we would not believe ? ' 
 
 'Thank you, Lady Augusta. It Avas for 
 you and for this house that the manifestations 
 of last nig;ht were "ranted. In themselves 
 they were trifles light as air ; but they 
 served for credentials. You will believe 
 me, therefore, when I tell you that the 
 earliest thing I remember is when I was 
 seventeen years old. As for my previous life, 
 where it was spent, what was my name, who 
 were my parents, what was my country, 
 I cannot tell you. Isak called me Paul. I 
 could not speak a word of the language at 
 first.' 
 
 ' What is their language ? ' 
 
 ' The Falashes preserve the knowledge of 
 Hebrew ; but among themselves they speak 
 Amharic. My education was in that 
 language. But, to us, all languages are 
 alike. When we find ourselves in a foreign 
 country we speak its language.'
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE HAREM 199 
 
 ' Anna Petrovna says that you speak 
 Eussian like a native.' 
 
 ' While in Eussia I did, no doubt. If you 
 asked me for a Eussian sentence now I 
 suppose I could not give you one. But there 
 is one thino; whicli makes me think that 
 English is my native language. It is that I 
 am sometimes taken for an American. This 
 seems to me to show that my childhood may 
 have been passed in the United States, and 
 that when I speak English I return to the 
 tongue of my forgotten years.' 
 
 ' It is possible,' said Lady Augusta 
 thoughtfully, as if she had heard of many 
 similar cases. ' But how long ago is it since 
 you found yourself in Abj^ssinia ? ' 
 
 'Again, I do not know. There are cases 
 in which a man may spend his whole life 
 upon the study and never advance beyond 
 the gates of the Ancient Way. Tliere are 
 other cases in which a man may develop the 
 highest powers in a year or two. There are 
 other cases in which a man can never acquire 
 anything, however long he may study. It is
 
 200 HERR PAULUS 
 
 with mankind, as regards the Ancient Way, 
 just as in the Heaven revealed to the Swede, 
 in which the spirits find their levels, and 
 some are contented to remain for ever in the 
 lower levels, while others are continually 
 rising to higher planes. I do not know how 
 loner I have studied, but I think I am still a 
 young man. There is no reason why we 
 should interfere witli the course of nature, in 
 which age and decay of the body are but 
 incidents in the long eternal life. The men 
 lose for a while their strength of body and of 
 mind : the women their beauty. It is but an 
 incident, strength and beauty will return 
 again, and the onward march to Wisdom will 
 be renewed with greater joy.' 
 
 ' Do women walk alone upon tliat road .^ ' 
 
 Herr Paulus hesitated. 
 
 ' It is the modern fashion,' he said, ' for 
 women to claim independence and equality. 
 But in the Ancient Way they do not walk 
 alone. AVe will talk of this further : at 
 present you will perhaps be content to walk 
 with me.'
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE HAREM 201 
 
 Lady Augusta looked as if she would have 
 liked to inquire further into this interesting 
 topic, but she reserved it for a more fitting 
 time — when the three girls would not be with 
 them. 
 
 ' I will lead you,' he went on, ' until you 
 are so far advanced as to choose another 
 leader. You will then know all who are on 
 the Ancient Way, whether living or dead. 
 As for myself, it will not be long, perhaps, 
 before I shall be recalled to the quiet joys of 
 study and meditation among the Abyssinian 
 mountains.' 
 
 ' But there is the glory of the missionary,' 
 said Lady Augusta. ' You must not forget 
 that.' 
 
 Herr Paulus turned his sad but not re- 
 proachful eyes upon her. 
 
 ' You speak out of your ignorance,' he 
 said, ' else you would know that with us there 
 are no such words as glory or honour. 
 What is it to be well or ill spoken of by men ? 
 We are taught to despise all earthly shows ; 
 titles, rank, honour, wealth, have no meaning
 
 203 HERR PAULUS 
 
 for us. These things do not advance us upon 
 the Way. I came reluctantly because I was 
 enjoined to come. I shall stay with less 
 reluctance, because I have met with a re- 
 ception so warm and hearts so s^niipathetic' 
 
 ' Yes — yes,' Lady Augusta murnuired, 
 giving him her hand, ' you must stay with us 
 a long while. We have so much to learn : 
 we are so ignorant : we are as yet hardly on 
 the threshold. Oh ! you must stay with us a 
 long while, Herr Paulus.' 
 
 'Make my name English,' he said. ' Call 
 me Paul. And you, my sisters, I will call by 
 your own names too.' 
 Sibyl shook her head. 
 ' You will except me, if you please,' she 
 said. 
 
 ' Sibyl ! ' It was Cicely who expostulated. 
 ' Be it so,' said Paul, with a sigh. ' In 
 everything human there is the touch of 
 discord — one wonders why.' 
 
 ' Promise to stay with us,' Lady Augusta 
 urged. ' Stay with us, Paul — Paul, our 
 Master.'
 
 THE CONQUEST OF THE HAREM 203 
 
 ' Stay with us ! ' said Cicely. 
 
 ' Stay with us ! ' murmured Hetty. 
 
 ' Yes — I will stay until ' — his eyes met 
 
 the gaze of Hetty, whose eyes were fixed 
 upon him as those of a n3'mpli of Delos might 
 have been fixed on Apollo, had that god 
 vouchsafed to appear to her, with as much 
 awe, respect, and submission. 
 
 ' I will stay,' he corrected himself, ' a long 
 wliile. I will stay — until you yourselves 
 order me to depart.' 
 
 ' Paul ! ' said Lady Augusta, clasping her 
 hands, do you know — do you understand 
 wliat you have promised ? ' 
 
 ' Yes,' he repeated firmly, but looking at 
 Hetty. * I will stay until you yourselves 
 order me to depart.'
 
 BOOK TEE SECOND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IN THE STUDIO. 
 
 Two girls were talking together in a studio. 
 
 It was not a very magnificent studio, such 
 as one may visit in Fitz John's Avenue or in 
 St. John's Wood on Eoving Sunday. There 
 were no pieces of tapestry, no bits of armour, 
 no mediajval weapons, no galleries and stairs 
 of carved wood ; not at all ; it was a simple 
 room built out at the side of the house ; not 
 originally intended for a studio, but yet serv- 
 ing very well for one. The house to which it 
 belonged was an old-fashioned, square, red- 
 brick house, still surrounded by a bit of its 
 old garden, which had been extensive, and 
 could still show apple and pear trees ; and
 
 2o6 HERR PAULUS 
 
 still had some of the old red-brick wall stand- 
 ino- at the end of it, moss and lichen covered, 
 crowned with wallflowers. The studio served 
 at the same time for a keeping room. But it 
 was a studio first. There was an easel at 
 which one of the girls was standing ; on a 
 table beside it were the usual implements of 
 the craft : a quantity of drawings and sketches 
 and half-finished things were pinned against 
 the wall and lay piled upon the chairs and 
 even stacked upon the floor. A lay figure — 
 nothing so horribly human as a lay figure or 
 so piteous and ghostly in its silence and the 
 horror of its helplessness — stood in a corner, 
 its head serving as a peg for a bonnet, while 
 its arms carried stifily, as under protest, a 
 jacket and a silk handkerchief and a veil. 
 On the residential side, so to speak, of the 
 furniture, there were a few chairs, a shabby, 
 worn carpet, a small round table, and a hard, 
 black sofa. But the hardness of the sofa was 
 mitigated by soft and pretty wraps, shawls, 
 and woollen things which made it look Orien- 
 tal and splendid, and the shabby carpet was
 
 IN THE STUDIO 207 
 
 hidden by rugs, while the general poverty of 
 the room, whose paper and paint had not been 
 renewed for many years, was redeemed by 
 the pretty things hanging from the wall or 
 standinsj on the mantelshelf. And there was 
 everywhere such a heavenly htter as proved 
 that the occupant could never have belonged 
 to a large family of girls, all living in the same 
 room, and therefore taught as girls in a large 
 family must be taught that real religion is 
 always proved by tidiness. The occupant was 
 clearly a girl, apart from the evidence of the 
 young lady at the easel — gloves and a veil lay 
 on the table, and there was a feminine atmo- 
 sphere in the room. She was also a girl, one 
 could perceive, who read a good deal, for the 
 sofa Avas piled Avith books, and there were 
 hanging shelves also fUled with books and 
 mafjazines. Most of the books belonixed to 
 the dear, delightful, much-abused tribe of 
 novels. The room, in fact, made a comfort- 
 able keeping-room large enough to walk about 
 in and to hold plenty of things and to contain 
 quite an extensive litter ; it did very well also
 
 2o8 HERR PAULUS 
 
 for a studio, with a strong light in the proper 
 quarter, but it had been built for a very dif- 
 ferent purpose. In the house adjoining, Mrs. 
 Lavinia Medlock in the old days when slie 
 was more than illustrious — everybody can be 
 illustrious, but not everybody can be fashion- 
 able — lield every day her now historical 
 seances. Those days are gone — this is not 
 wonderful because all old days are gone — and 
 with them is gone Lavinia's s:reatness. She 
 then wore the finest and newest of satin dresses 
 and received the best of company. Her 
 friends came all day long, they came in omni- 
 buses, in cabs, in broughams, and in stately 
 chariots, they had all kinds of titles to their 
 names from plain Miss or Mistress, to Gracious 
 Duchess and even Serene Highness ; they came 
 by appointment and without, they would not 
 be denied, and because the drawing-room was 
 not large enough — it had been formerly the 
 front parlour — Lavinia built a salon at the side 
 of the house for the reception of her friends, 
 those in the flesh, and those out of it. The 
 former, who concealed as much of the flesh
 
 IN THE STUDIO 209 
 
 as they could in furs, jackets, cloaks and 
 other things so as not to make the spirits 
 jealous by the show of what they themselves 
 lacked, were not attracted to the house by 
 Laviuia's appearance, which was homely, 
 nor by her conversation, which was plain, 
 nor by her manners, which spoke of certain 
 omissions in early training, but by the repu- 
 tation she possessed of being the finest in- 
 terpreter in the world of things said and done 
 out of it, and the most favourite Medium 
 known to the spirits. Certain it is that you 
 could, by Lavinia's help, converse with any 
 spirit you chose to call. So affable and con- 
 descending were they, or so powerful was the 
 influence of Lavinia, that the most illustrious 
 spirit possible to name would come if invited, 
 and converse with the most obscure, and 
 ansAver any question, even the most imperti- 
 nent, as to their own happiness or the happi- 
 ness of their friends. The immortal Homer, 
 the equally immortal Bard of Avon, Sir Walter 
 Scott, Lord Byron, Milton himself, or Charles 
 the Eirst, would not disdain to rap out a mes- 
 VOL. I. p
 
 2IO- HERR PAULUS 
 
 sage, dictate a poem, or show personal ac- 
 quaintance witli the inquirer's great-aunt. 
 Oh ! these are old stories, but I am talking of 
 old days : yet they are but as the day before 
 yesterday. Do we not remember how scoffers 
 used to call attention to the fact that our 
 knowledge of the other world was never ad- 
 vanced an inch, and that the messages were 
 idle trash ? Do we not remember how the 
 spirits were proved to have told the most 
 barefaced lies, and to have perpetrated the 
 most astounding blunders? Do we not re- 
 member how Lavinia herself was shown up in 
 scientific journals for having caused to speak 
 one spirit of a living person and another of a 
 person who had never lived ? Nay, we may 
 rememl^er more tlian this. For it is on record 
 that none of these exposures and attacks seemed 
 to injure Lavinia until a fatal thing happened 
 to her. She ceased to be the fashion. She drew 
 no longer : she excited no more curiosity. As 
 for the credulity of people, that can never be 
 exhausted, and any man among you, my 
 brothers, who desires to get notoriety and to
 
 IN THE STUDIO 211 
 
 live in clover, has only to pretend to do what 
 he cannot do, and to be what he is not, in 
 order to gain his desire for a while. Lavinia 
 ceased to be talked abont. Then the people 
 all went off to the next show and deserted her, 
 and she began to fall into poverty. All that 
 she had in the w^orld was this house, which 
 she had fortunately bought during the time of 
 fatness, and a small and yearly diminishing 
 clientele of those who still believed in her, just 
 as they would have believed in Joanna South- 
 cote, and employed her, as they would have 
 employed a wise woman, and inquired of the 
 oracle, after the fashion of the ancients, in the 
 conduct of their affairs. 
 
 She now received this scanty remnant in 
 the old ' front parlour,' and let the studio and 
 a bedroom to an artist when she could find a 
 lodger. Her present lodger was an American 
 girl, who lived alone and travelled alone, with 
 more than the average independence of her 
 country. She had lived thus alone in Eome 
 and in Florence, and was now working at her 
 profession alone in London. But she was 
 
 V 2
 
 212 HERR PAULUS 
 
 a girl who made many friends, and was never 
 really alone. 
 
 The clause in the Creed of women which 
 says, ' We believe that it is impossible for a 
 girl to live alone,' has been of late years so 
 much questioned and attacked that some 
 think it will have to be struck out of the 
 creed altogether, in which case, asks the 
 Conservative, what will become of the rest of 
 that Sacred and Ark-like monument? In 
 fact, women who work for their living have 
 long since discovered that it is a clause which 
 has no foundation in the Eternal Verities, be- 
 cause in every town there are girls who must 
 live alone. In London there are thousands ; 
 they live with each other, sharing rooms ; 
 they live in the places where they work ; they 
 live in boarding houses. When they are ricli 
 enough they live, as this young lady lived, in 
 their own lodf^ino-s, with a sittinf? room as 
 well as a bedroom, and in a solitude which is 
 pleasing after the work of the day. Thou- 
 sands and thousands of girls in this city, not 
 work girls, like certain poor friends of ours.
 
 IN THE STUDIO 213 
 
 but girls of respectable parents and responsi- 
 ble brothers, whose self-respect is as great as 
 that of any young lady who lives at home. 
 They are artists of all kinds, musicians, 
 singers, governesses of every degree, writers, 
 chiefly of small fiction, reviewers and jour- 
 nalists, shop girls, sales-women, copyists, 
 translators, type-writers — I say nothing about 
 actresses, because they have long since flung 
 the Women's Creed to the winds — women 
 of all professions and trades. They live 
 alone : they have the latchkey : they go 
 where they will : they ask for and they need 
 no protection : they are not in the least afraid. 
 As for one of these girls, the slighter of 
 the two, the girl with the light brown hair and 
 the hazel eyes, you have seen her before when 
 she was painting in an American garden, and 
 talking to a poetic youth. This is Bethiah 
 Euysdael, who is mostly known to her friends 
 as Kitty, I believe because she thinks Kitty 
 prettier than Bethiah, as it is, perhaps, though 
 not so uncommon. The other girl, the girl 
 with the great black limpid eyes, and the
 
 214 HERR PAUL US 
 
 pale clieek and full figure, is the daughter of 
 Lavinia the Great — Hetty Medlock. She had 
 been standing for a model, a kerchief tied 
 about her head, and the early spring sunshine 
 fell through the window and painted her face 
 throufjh the crimson silk, and made her cheek 
 glow and her eyes burn like coals. She was 
 standing for a Neapolitan, I believe ; or per- 
 haps it was a Bohemian, or an Irish peasant, 
 or indeed an Andalusian or a Catalonian. 
 But, in reality, the picture came out a very 
 fine likeness of Hetty, and a very beautiful 
 portrait it Avas, though the painting had faults 
 of colour. The carnations, some said, were 
 brutal. The light some said — but what 
 matter what they said? 
 
 ' Now, Hetty dear,' said the American girl, 
 'you must be tired. Take a rest.' 
 
 Hetty threw off the handkerchief and came 
 round to the easel to look at the picture. 
 
 'Kitty,' she said, 'it is beautiful.' 
 
 'You like it, really? Yes. I do think 
 it is pretty good. How glad I am that I 
 painted out the first hideous thing ! '
 
 IN THE STUDIO 215 
 
 ' Yes. But it was like, too.' 
 
 ' Oh ! like ' the artist repeated, im- 
 patiently. ' I dare say it was like But 
 
 you were dull and downcast, Hetty. And 
 now you have changed. It seems to me as 
 if another look altogether had come into your 
 face since I began to paint you a month age. 
 You are ten times as lovely, Hetty.' 
 
 Hetty blushed. Another look, she knew, 
 had come into her face. 
 
 ' I suppose,' she said, still blushing, ' it 
 is because we have all become so much 
 happier.' 
 
 ' Oh ! You mean the German person who 
 pretends.' 
 
 ' Don't, Kitty. Oh ! You don't know what 
 he has done.' 
 
 ' Why, dear, he is only a — — ' 
 
 ' No, Kitty, he is more — far more than 
 that. It is no common spiritualism. The 
 most wonderful things happen every day. 
 He takes Mr. Brudenel into far-off coun- 
 tries ' 
 
 ' Hetty ! '
 
 2i6 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' And lie teaches Lady Augusta the most 
 wonderful things, and he talks to Cicely and 
 to me as nobody, I am sure, ever talked 
 before.' 
 
 ' Oh, but Hetty ' 
 
 ' He is not at all a solemn person, with 
 airs and pretences ; but just a young man 
 full of life and s])irits. Even Tom and Sibyl, 
 who will not confess that they believe in him, 
 like him. The house is so lively that you 
 would not know it again. We talk and laugh 
 at dinner. Mr. Brudenel is no longer pom- 
 pous, and Lady Augusta laughs with us. And 
 there is no more question at all about con- 
 versing with spirits. Paul says that we may 
 converse with as many as we like, but that 
 on the lower plane they will only mock at us 
 and deceive us. When we reach the higher 
 plane we are to be brought face to face with 
 the spirits who cannot lie.' 
 
 ' Hetty, do you believe all this ? ' 
 'Kitty,' the girl dropped her voice to a 
 whisper ; ' I declare that if there is anybody 
 in the world who ought to hate spirituahsm
 
 IN THE STUDIO 217 
 
 it is myself. Oh ! I cannot tell you all. It 
 has ruined my mother and driven away my 
 father, and made my name a by-word. Oh ! 
 one day last winter somebody read aloud in 
 my presence Browning's ' Sludge the Medium,' 
 and I prayed that the earth would open and 
 swallow me. But even I cannot doubt any 
 longer the power that Herr Paulus possesses.' 
 
 ' What does he do with his powers ? Why 
 does he come here? If a man really had 
 such powers he would employ them, surely, 
 to make some fresh discovery for the welfare 
 of the human race. Consider, my dear, if 
 he would only destroy one single disease.' 
 
 ' I can only believe in what he says. He 
 has been sent by his Friends to teach philo- 
 sophy in the West.' 
 
 ' Why has he been sent ? ' 
 
 ' I do not know.' 
 
 'All the things you have told me about 
 him are wonderful. But so is conjuring. It 
 is wonderful when a plum pudding is made 
 in a hat.' 
 
 Hetty shook her head.
 
 2i8 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' You do not understand. Oli ! we have 
 been all our lives living close to the other 
 world, within the reach of conversation, but 
 we have never been told anything worth hear- 
 ing, and this man comes and tells us the most 
 beautiful things, and does the most wonderful 
 things.' Hetty paused. ' When I think of 
 the things he tells us my brain will not work. 
 I cannot tell you what they are : but while 
 he is speaking your heart glows and you are 
 full of the most lovely thoughts. Cicely says 
 that he opens the gates of Heaven — but we 
 forget when we come back to earth what we 
 have seen there. Oh ! it is wonderful.' 
 
 ' Hetty — take care.' 
 
 ' Every day he makes Cicely see her 
 brother at sea. Sometimes he reads our 
 thoughts, sometimes he makes me — but only 
 in our own room — say and do all kinds of 
 things ; sometimes he — yes, Kitty — he works 
 miracles for us. Eeading, he says, is too 
 slow for us, and he makes us feel in a mo- 
 ment, and ten times as strongly, all that one 
 feels when one reads a beautiful poem. And
 
 IN THE STUDIO 219 
 
 he is so handsome. There is not a man in 
 the world so handsome as Paul. Xot broad- 
 shouldered and jolly-looking like Tom Lang- 
 ston, but delicate and pale, witli eyes which 
 go right into your very soul.' 
 
 ' Hetty ! ' Kitty repeated, ' take care ; this 
 is danfyerous.' 
 
 Hetty blushed, but she laughed. 
 
 ' Dangerous ! Oh, no ; tliere is no danger. 
 I dare say any girl might fall in love with 
 him, but he — oh ! he is far, far above any 
 <yirl : she mi^ht as well fall in love with the 
 moon.' 
 
 'Fortunately, Miss Langston cannot see 
 those eyes of his.' 
 
 ' She can feel them. And in a moment 
 she becomes his servant.' 
 
 ' Does Mr. Brudenel know of all this ? ' 
 
 ' Why, of course, he does not lay his will 
 upon us before people — since the first even- 
 ing. But Mr. Brudenel is as much under 
 him as we are. He has conquered the whole 
 house. He cures the servants of toothaches 
 and things. Yesterday he overpowered the
 
 220 HERR PAULUS 
 
 butler and made liim confess, in the presence 
 of Cicely and myself, his whole past life and 
 bis rogueries — he is the master of the house.' 
 
 ' Strange ! ' said Kitty. ' I wonder how 
 it will end.' 
 
 ' He will go away soon and leave us all 
 miserable for life,' said Hetty. 'AVell, one 
 will remember. And oh ! how stupid and 
 dull all other men seem beside him. I think 
 — Kitty, I am quite sure — that he has lived 
 for thousands of years, and that his name is 
 Apollo.' 
 
 ' Well, dear, I hope he will go away soon. 
 It seems to me that the atmosphere of the 
 house must be unwholesome.' 
 
 ' Yes, he will go away soon. And then — ' 
 Hetty broke off with a sigh. ' Don't let us 
 talk about him any more,' she said. 
 
 She began idly to turn over some sketches 
 in a portfolio. Suddenly she started and 
 snatched up a drawing in chalk. It was a 
 study of a head, showing the back and giving 
 a little outline of the cheek. 
 
 ' Who is this ? ' she asked.
 
 IN THE STUDIO 221 
 
 ' That is the head of a very old friend of 
 mine — a schoolfellow. Poor, dear Ziph ! ' 
 
 'It is exactly like the head of Herr 
 Paulus.' 
 
 ' Is it ? I drew it in the garden one day 
 before Ziph went away to New York.' 
 
 ' Wliat did he 2^0 there for ? ' She still 
 kept looking at the picture. 
 
 ' He was a poet. He went there to sell 
 his poetry.' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' Hetty put down the picture. 
 ' Only a poet ! ' 
 
 'And I fear he came to grief, because 
 after three or four months nothing more was 
 heard of him. And his parents could never 
 get the least clue to what became of him. 
 They think that he failed, and took to drink, 
 and died. He was always delicate, and drink 
 kills very rapidly in America. Poor, dear 
 Zipli ! He was going to do such splendid 
 things. He had a portmanteau full of poems, 
 and he was going to become famous, and he 
 promised he would write to me and tell me of 
 his grand successes. But he never told me of
 
 222 HERR PAULUS 
 
 any, and that portrait is all I have of my 
 schoolfellow.' 
 
 ' Were you in love with him ? ' 
 
 ' No, Hetty, I think not. But I was fond 
 of him. He wanted sympath}^ and some one 
 to talk with and confide in, and I was handy 
 for him. I was very proud of him. But not 
 in love ; at least, I suppose I was not. Poor 
 Ziph ! ' 
 
 ' What was his name ? ' 
 
 ' Ziphion B. Trinder. I called him Ziph. 
 His father kept a store — what you would call 
 a general shop — in the little town where my 
 father was a lawyer. But Ziph would not 
 weigh out tea and sugar, and measure yards 
 of calico ; nor would he study law, which, in 
 our country, is the only way to become 
 President.' 
 
 'Ziphion Trinder. It is a funny name. 
 Oh ! how like the head is to Paul ! ' 
 
 ' In New England some of us still have 
 funny names. They christened me Bethiah, 
 for instance, though you call me Kitty. I 
 changed my Christian name, you see, because
 
 IN THE STUDIO 223 
 
 Betliiali is, somehow, impossible out of New 
 England. Poor Zipli ! He is a genius, and 
 the least fit person in the world to struggle 
 for himself. He must be dead, or I should 
 have heard somethino; about him lono; since. 
 Poor Ziph ! ' 
 
 A tear stood in her eye as she laid down 
 the picture. 
 
 ' It is so like Paul,' said Hetty. ' It is 
 wonderful.'
 
 224 HERR PAULUS 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN THE OTHER ROOM. 
 
 A HOUSE is a theatre with many stages, on 
 wliich many plays may be going on all at the 
 same time, with no ' front,' unless M. le Diable 
 Boiteux takes out a side of each room. Thus, 
 while two girls full of their future talked in 
 the studio, two old people with little but their 
 past talked in the front parlour, which no 
 longer pretended to be a drawing-room. 
 Here Lavinia Medlock still carried on, but 
 in a small way, the business of wise woman, 
 adviser, and Interpreter for the InteUigences. 
 In this country, if a woman lives in a back 
 street and tells fortunes by cards, the police 
 run her in, and the magistrate gives her two 
 months, and her house is broken up, and her 
 children are ruined for life, and she goes
 
 IN THE OTHER ROOM 225 
 
 to the workhouse, and foretells misfortunes to 
 the other collegians, for even in the workhouse 
 there are still fresh misfortunes to encounter 
 in the shape of aches and pains, and twists and 
 tortures, before the chaplain finally puts on 
 his surplice to do them honour by walking 
 before them in a short procession. Which 
 shows how determined we are to suffer no 
 witch to live in the land. But if a woman 
 lives in a respectable house, and calls herself 
 a medium and the chosen confidante of the 
 spirits who dwell in the other world, she may 
 do whatever she pleases without fear of police 
 or masristrate. Which shows that we know 
 how to distinoruish. 
 
 Spirits are well known to choose for their 
 favourite resorts, places and chambers which 
 appear little desirable to cultivated man. It 
 is no business of ours. This room, for 
 instance, was very shabby and humble. Yet 
 to think of all that had gone on in it — the 
 seances, manifestations, levitations, table-turn- 
 ings, rappirigs, messages, counsels, oracles, 
 letters, verses, incarnations, spirit photo- 
 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 HERR PAULUS 
 
 graphs, spirit songs, spirit Inimours, spirit 
 hands, spirit kisses, spirit pinches, spirit 
 tweakinc^s, — wonderful to think of. And the 
 room was just the same as it was before the 
 spirits came at all, while lier husband was still 
 a clerk on a hundred and twenty pounds a 
 year, and they let the first and second floors 
 to pay the rent and taxes, and anything else 
 they could get. The same chairs with black 
 horsehair seats, the old black sofa, the same 
 old red paper, now faded and patched with 
 other colours laid on by Time, who is a 
 painter as well as a destroyer, and the same 
 cupboard beside the fireplace — Hetty's heart 
 sank every morning at sight of it — the 
 same great cupboard filled with stores of 
 groceries and food. People who live in one 
 room, generally keep their tea, sugar, coffee, 
 jam, cakes, pies, bacon, ham, butter, bread, 
 and wine — only there never is any wine — in 
 the big cupboard beside the fireplace. Last 
 year I paid a visit to the Marshalsea Prison 
 and saw how Mr. Dorrit and his companions 
 lived. In every room there were great cup-
 
 IN THE OTHER ROOM 227 
 
 boards beside the fireplace for the reception 
 of household stores, a fact which throws a 
 flood of light upon the imprisonment of 
 debtors. And as it was in the Marshalsea 
 Prison, so it was in Mrs. Medlock's ground 
 floor front, except that there was no bed in it. 
 
 Mrs. Medlock sat in her professional chair 
 at her professional table. She was ex- 
 ercising her profession. She was answering 
 questions, solving difficulties, and consulting 
 the spirits for her clients. Even in consulting 
 the spirits there is a fashion. Many of them 
 who once came to consult them regularly had 
 gone off in other directions. They are now 
 faith healers, captains in the Salvation Army, 
 believers in the ten tribes, astrologers, votaries 
 of palmistry, not to speak of Esoteric Budd- 
 hists. Somehow or other they get the same 
 excitement, though in different ways. But 
 they consult the spirits no longer. It is only 
 in New York that the spirits are still consulted 
 in the practical conduct of life. 
 
 Tliis morning, however, Lavinia Medlock 
 had two visitors. 
 
 a2
 
 228 HERR PAULUS 
 
 The first was an elderly lady, richly dressed, 
 who came in her carriage. She came once a 
 week regularly, and used the spirits as a way 
 of getting secret tips as to Stocks. She came 
 in her own carriage : she was quick and im- 
 perious in her manner, and her eyes were 
 exactly like small bright beads. 
 
 ' Well, Lavinia,' she said, sitting down, 
 ' I'm very well satisfied on the whole with the 
 last week's work. The spirits were right for 
 once.' 
 
 ' You know them too well,' replied the 
 Medium, humbly, ' to expect them to be 
 always right.' 
 
 'After the awful losses they've caused 
 me, I certainly do, Lavinia. Not that 
 I blame you for it, you poor thing. You 
 can't help it, though sometimes I think there 
 must be sometliing wrong about your life, or 
 your thoughts, or sometliing. More holiness, 
 Lavinia, more personal holiness, now, might 
 attract a better class of spirit. Can't you 
 try for more holiness — early celebration, say 
 — or a hair shirt — or somethino-? Your
 
 IN THE OTHER ROOM 229 
 
 usefulness — and your income — might be 
 trebled.' 
 
 Lavinia shook her head. 
 
 'Well, never mind — now listen.' She took 
 a pocket-book out of her bag and extracted a 
 paper. ' Now, get an answer to all these 
 questions.' 
 
 This lady, in foct, spent her whole life and 
 gave her whole thouglits to sjDeculations on 
 the Stock Exchange. She was a suspicious 
 person, and mistrusted her broker, and as she 
 had no knowledge of her own she turned for 
 help to the spirits. 
 
 Presently, after the usual business, and 
 having got her answers, she gathered up her 
 bag and pocket-book and muff, and rose to go. 
 
 ' Lavinia,' she said, ' think of what I said. 
 More personal holiness, my dear.' 
 
 Half an hour later she had a second visitor. 
 This time it was her old friend, Mr. James 
 Berry. He was a little spare old man, one of 
 those who dry up as they grow older, and 
 shrink. His head was ornamented with a 
 thick crop of grey hair, and a couple of white
 
 230 HERR PAULUS 
 
 and shaggy eyebrows. When Mr. James 
 Berry began to consult Lavinia, thirty years 
 before, that grey hair was black. Otherwise, 
 there was no change in him at all, either in 
 dress or manner. As for the latter it was 
 slow and precise. He was certainly a method- 
 ical man — probably something in the city. 
 Lavinia did not know what his profession 
 might be. His convictions, based on certain 
 startling replies to questions proposed, were 
 now unalterable in spite of many rubs, and 
 although the spirits sometimes treated him 
 with mortifying neglect and even mendacity. 
 In all times of difficulty and doubt, when most 
 men find out the wisest course by examination, 
 weighty argument, reason and wakeful thought, 
 Mr. James Berry cast himself upon the spirits. 
 That he was now, at sixty-five years of age« 
 retired from active work, his savings all in- 
 vested in shares of the Compan}'- in whose 
 service he had been employed for fifty years, 
 these shares producing fifteen per cent, on 
 their first price, was acknowledged by himself 
 as due solely to the prudent counsels bestowed
 
 IN THE OTHER ROOM 231 
 
 upon liiiii by the sjoirits. That prudence, 
 caution, good conduct, and thought had also 
 something to do with it, may also be conceded. 
 ' The spirits,' he said, ' may sometimes, when 
 waggishly disposed, deceive and lead astray, 
 and a wise man will look out for jokes, but in 
 the long run they truly serve and advance the 
 interests of those who trust them.' 
 
 When Mrs. Medlock's popularity began to 
 wane, this excellent disciple remained faithful ; 
 when actual poverty fell upon her, he gave 
 her money, and now, though his affairs seemed 
 concluded, he still came to consult the oracle, 
 because this method of guiding your Hfe is 
 like the practice of Auricular Confession, or 
 the taking of opium or chloral. It relieves a 
 man of personal responsibility, and drugs the 
 conscience and deadens the will. 
 
 ' Mam,' he said — not Madame or Madam — 
 the variety of speech which we sjdcU Ma'am, 
 but plain short Mam — ' I have come here to- 
 day to consult you upon very petic'lar business 
 — very petic'lar indeed.' 
 
 ' Well, Mr. Berry, you know that I am
 
 332 HERR PAULUS 
 
 always ready and willing, tliougli the spirits 
 do sometimes, I allow ' 
 
 ' They certainly do take liberties ; but not, 
 I hope, this morning. Katie's last mistakes I 
 am willing to put down to skittisliness, and 
 young folks will be ^^oung, whether spirits 
 or flesh. But not this morning, Mam. If 
 
 Kitty is in the room ' He looked about 
 
 and there came three sharp raps from 
 behind the fireplace — ' then I beg of her to be 
 serious or to go. Because this is a serious 
 matter.' 
 
 Again three raps were heard. 
 
 ' I think, Mr. Berry,' said Lavinia, ' that 
 you may trust Katie this morning.' 
 
 ' I hope I may. Mam.' He put his hat on 
 the floor and took ofl* his overcoat and com- 
 forter. ' I hope I may ; for this is a very 
 serious morning with me, Mam, the most 
 serious, I may sa}^ in my life.' 
 
 ' Good gracious. Mr. Berry,' — Lavinia 
 was startled at the haggard look in his face, 
 which was generally comfortable and con- 
 tented — ' what has happened ? '
 
 IN THE OTHER ROOM 233 
 
 'Notliing, Mam, yet. But a great deal 
 may happen.' 
 
 'Well, sit down, Mr. Berry, and tell me 
 all that's in your mind.' 
 
 Mr. Berry looked round the room. 
 
 ' Ha ! ' he said, ' I've been very uneasy — 
 I've been awake two lono- nights thinkin"' of 
 it. But there's a holy calm in this room. It 
 soothes my mind only to be here. Mam — I feel 
 better already.' 
 
 The shabbiness of the furniture did not 
 appeal to him, nor the poverty-stricken aspect 
 of the place ; he knew all about poverty, and 
 shabbiness of furniture had been with him, so 
 to speak, from childhood ; and the artistic 
 side of his character, if he had any, was 
 wholly undeveloped. This was the room 
 where he had conversed with the spirits ; it 
 was sanctified to him by the awe with which 
 even the most frivolous messages struck his 
 soul : it was to him as sacred and as holy 
 a place as any Baptist chapel to a fervent 
 believer. 
 
 ' It is my own business that I am come
 
 234 HERR PAULUS 
 
 about, Mrs. Medlock. Mam ' — lie leaned for- 
 ward, breathing hard, ' It may be ruin and the 
 workhouse. Listen carefully. Don't let the 
 spirits make so much as a single rap till you 
 have heard the case right through. Do you 
 know what my profession has been ? ' 
 
 ' ISTo, sir, I do not. That is a question 
 which I never put to any spirits.' 
 
 ' I have been all my life, Mam, a clerk in 
 the service of a great company.' He paused 
 to let his words produce their full effect. 
 ' Never mind the name of that company. It 
 was formerly a big house of business, owned 
 by a single man, who made a great fortune 
 and died. Then his sons turned it into a 
 Limited Company. I've been in that house, 
 under the father and the sons and the Board 
 of Directors, for fifty years.' 
 
 ' Well, Mr. Berry ? ' 
 
 ' I was always a careful man, and had no 
 wife to spend and squander. I saved money. 
 When I retired from the Company's service 
 last year they gave me a small pension ; and 
 one of the Directors offered me, very kindly.
 
 IN THE OTHER ROOM 235 
 
 as I thought, as many shares in the Company 
 as my savings would buy. They give fifteen 
 per cent, on the issue price, and I get, at the 
 price I bought them — for they've gone up 
 since — six-and-a-half per cent, ; so that I 
 thought I was doing pretty well.' 
 
 ' You certainly did very well, Mr. Berry.' 
 
 ' Yes, so I thought. But yesterday I got 
 news which knocked me over. It came from 
 an old friend in the house. He says he has 
 found out the truth. He says that the house 
 — it's a shipowning company — has been shaky 
 for years. And now it may go any minute. 
 On the other hand it may keep afloat and even 
 weather the storm.' 
 
 'Well, Mr. Berry?' 
 
 ' That is one man's statement. But another 
 man, an older friend who is in the confidence 
 of the Directors, tells me that the Company 
 never was so safe and the shares never so high 
 and never so certain to o;o hio;her.' 
 
 'Well?' 
 
 ' Well — what am I to do ? If I believe the 
 second man I may be ruined if he is wrong.
 
 236 HERR PAULUS 
 
 If I believe the first man I shall have to sell 
 at once, and I shall have to put up with three 
 and a half or four per cent., instead of six and 
 a half ; and if he is wrong 1 shall have shown 
 that I had no confidence in the old house 
 where I have made my living. Advise me, 
 Mrs. Medlock. It's life or death to me, to do 
 the right thing now. I never asked you 
 before on anything half so serious. Life and 
 death it is. Tell me if the Company is safe. 
 Put it fair and square to them. Oh ! it is life 
 or death or the workhouse to me. All my 
 savings — all — are in the Company.' 
 
 Mrs. Medlock put the question. But she 
 trembled and turned pale, because this, she 
 saw, was a juncture beyond her powers to 
 control. And if she misdirected her old 
 friend — one may be a Medium and yet have 
 affections and passions — she would consign 
 him to a workhouse. And she could not rely 
 upon her spirits. Therefore she awaited the 
 result with terror. 
 
 The answer began with a hailstorm of 
 raps, apparently from all parts of the room at
 
 IN THE OTHER ROOM 237 
 
 tlie same time. Presently they all ceased 
 except from under the table, and the message 
 began. 
 
 It is slow work receiving messages by 
 raps, and it is greatly to be desired that the 
 spirits would adopt the tape system, which is 
 rapidly and easily read. 
 
 Presently, after many futile messages, and 
 seeing Mrs. Medlock's face growing paler and 
 more dejected, Mr. Berry sprang to his feet. 
 
 'It's too much,' he said. 'There is ruin 
 before me, and she tells me nothing but 
 that she is happy and so is her grand- 
 mother. Damn her grandmother, Mrs. Med- 
 lock ! ' 
 
 Lavinia burst into tears. 
 
 ' I am so sorry,' she said. ' Of late I seem 
 to have lost my power. I am the sport of 
 the spirits. Oh, my poor old friend, what 
 shall I do for you ? what can I do for you ? 
 Oh ! and after all these years ! And when I 
 ought to guide you in your difficulty ! Oh ! 
 it's no use to go on — not a bit of use.' She 
 wrung her hands while Mr. Berry sat down,
 
 238 HERR PAULUS 
 
 and gazed at her blankly. Then an idea 
 struck her. 
 
 ' Mr. Berry,' she said. ' There's a 
 wonderfid young man staying with Lady 
 Augusta Brudenel.' 
 
 ' With whom ? ' he asked, sharply. 
 
 'With Lady Augusta and Mr. Cyrus 
 Brudenel. Let me ask him.' 
 
 ' No, no ; not the Brudenels — not the 
 Brudenels.' 
 
 'I don't want to ask them. I will not 
 mention any names. I will only say — " Herr 
 Paulus, here is a case," and I will telKhim 
 your case. " Advise me on it for this gentle- 
 man " — and perhaps he will advise — " and say 
 nothing to anybody about it," and he will keep 
 the secret. Oh I Mr. Berry, it's our only 
 chance. Let me ask him. Let me. Oh ! my 
 poor old friend, you have done so much for 
 me ; let me try to do something for you. 
 Let me ask him ! ' 
 
 ' But hide the name,' said Mr. Berry. 
 
 ' I will ask him this very day. I will go 
 to him this afternoon, and unless he is in
 
 IN THE OTHER ROOM 239 
 
 Abyssinia — sometimes he spends his after- 
 noons in Abyssinia — he will give me an 
 answer. I am sure he will.' 
 
 ' It's the workhouse, Mrs. Medlock. Think 
 
 of that ! Ruin and the workhouse unless 
 you get a true reply.'
 
 240 HERE PAULUS 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHEKE. 
 
 Me. Cykus Beudenel, engaged with his new 
 instructor in the Study, Avas greatly changed 
 in one short week from the Cyrus Brudenel 
 who had proudly introduced Herr Paulus to 
 his priceless collection of books on spiritualism, 
 magic, sorcery, astrology, alchemy, and the 
 great world of Jargon and Pretended Power. 
 The brain reels only to think of the Colossal 
 Lies which are bound up in these volumes, 
 and of all the Mendacious Literature of Magic, 
 and of the multitudes who have been dragged 
 into the paths which lead inevitably to more 
 Lies and more Pretence. Mr. Brudenel's own 
 chief Lie had been comparatively harmless ; 
 it was merely a Pretence of reading and 
 studying these books, truly terrible in their
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 241 
 
 stupidity, weariness, and falsehood. Now, 
 even that Pretence was abandoned : the 
 books stood nntoLiched upon the shelves ; 
 the papers and journals relating to the old 
 spiritualism were unopened : Mr. Brudenel no 
 longer caught at some miserable platitude as 
 a message from a glorified spirit ; the whole 
 current of his thoughts was deranged. 
 
 As for his Study, it was a large and noble 
 room, built out at the back of the house, 
 where was a broad and noble garden, as 
 generous in its proportions as if the house 
 had been miles away from London instead of 
 in St. John's Wood, and flanked with great 
 trees, as well as with lawns and flowerbeds. 
 There were two windows to the Study, one at 
 the end of the room and one at the side ; and 
 they were fitted with double saslies, to keep 
 out the noise of the outer world. 
 
 The silence of the Study was almost as 
 perfect as if it had been placed in the middle 
 of Dartmoor, save that there was no distant 
 tinkling of a sheep bell and no song of the 
 lark in the sky. If any sound reached this 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 HERR PAULUS 
 
 retreat it was nothing louder than the low 
 rumbling caused by a coal-waggon, or by a 
 Parcel Post cart from the road outside. The 
 books were arranged in mahogany book-cases, 
 built out as in great libraries, but low, except 
 at the back, wliere the shelves went up to the 
 ceilino'. There were busts of ^rreat magicians 
 placed about ; and before the fire there was 
 a large table with one or two chairs. The 
 silence of the room ; the air of mystery 
 which its use imparted to it — you may feel 
 the same thing in an empty Freemasons' 
 Lodge ; the books, Avhich looked as learned 
 as if they contained the works of Plato and 
 all his disciples instead of the Pretenders and 
 the Liars : all fitted the room for the Message 
 which was being delivered in it. 
 
 Mr. Cyrus Brudenel sat in one of the 
 chairs to receive the Message. On the table 
 at his right hand was a little pile of unopened 
 letters. His face was troubled by something, 
 but a great and remarkable change had fallen 
 upon it. All the pomposity had gone ; that 
 was immediately apparent. His eyes were no
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 243 
 
 longer irritable and suspicious ; it was a face 
 which betokened submission. 
 
 The Leader had wholly submitted himself. 
 He was now led. He was a disciple ; he had 
 no longer any authority. The young man 
 who stood before him was his master. 
 
 ' So,' said Paul, ' it still troubles you, does 
 it ? I thought we talked it over yesterday.' 
 
 ' It is so extremely mysterious. Every 
 day, with your help, I go away and receive 
 instruction. Every day, when I come back, 
 it is with the most glowinej heart and with a 
 mind full of happiness and gratitude. I 
 cannot describe to you the infinite joy I 
 experience at that moment.' 
 
 ' I know it myself,' said Paul. 
 
 ' And then, immediately, while I seek to 
 recall what I have been taught, it vanishes 
 away, and I cannot recall it. Nothing could 
 possibly be more bafiling and disappointing.' 
 
 ' It must be purposely done. You ad- 
 vance, without knowing it, in those hours 
 when you are not with the Master. There 
 goes on in your brain a process of uncon-
 
 244 HERR PAULUS 
 
 scions growth, Unfelt by yourself, the things 
 you have learned are gradually taking root 
 while the soil is being prepared for their 
 growth.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel shook his head doubtfully. 
 
 ' I cannot understand it,' he said. 
 
 ' Some day you will remember suddenly 
 and fully. Then you will have enough to 
 think about. But as to the manner and the 
 time — leave it to the Master.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel shook his head doubtfully. 
 
 ' It is not for me,' he said, ' to question 
 any methods that may be adopted. I looked, 
 when the instruction began, for slow progress, 
 because I am not naturally quick of appre- 
 hension. But I am tenacious. When I was 
 a boy they all owned that I was tenacious. 
 And yet I have retained nothing.' 
 
 ' You must have patience.' 
 
 ' I am no longer young, and the time is 
 flying.' 
 
 ' Mr. Brudenel.' Paul, Avho was standing, 
 shook an admonitory forefinger. 'All this 
 comes of an unwillingness to put away the old
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 245 
 
 ideas. Time ? Youth ? What are these 
 among our people ? What does it matter if 
 months or even years pass away before you 
 acquire even the rudiments of the perfect 
 knowledge ? Do you suppose that Izdk the 
 Master does not know what happens ? Do 
 you think that he would suffer it to go on if 
 he did not approve of it? Eemember that 
 you are in new hands, receiving new ideas. 
 Why, your mind is not cleared of the old 
 ones even yet.' 
 
 ' Truly, it may be so.' 
 
 ' May be so ? ' repeated Paul impetu- 
 ously. ' Why, of course it is. It must be 
 so.' 
 
 ' You always bring me hope, my friend.' 
 
 ' What else have I come for except to 
 bring you hope as well as wisdom ? Patience, 
 patience. Presently all will be at your feet. 
 Truth, which is Power ; Knowledge, which 
 you can use for the benefit of your fellow- 
 men. You will heal and prevent disease. 
 You will lengthen life. You will solve the 
 difficulties of social life. Why, sometimes I
 
 246 HERR PAULUS 
 
 — who beloncr to the School of Meditation — 
 think that yours is tlie happiest lot of all.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel's cheek flushed and his eyes 
 brightened. 
 
 ' If I could always beheve this. But there 
 are times, Paul — I confess — when I crave just 
 as I used to crave for a fuller manifestation — 
 even fuller than this.' 
 
 ' Glutton ! what more can you have ? ' — 
 Paul showed a smiling face, full of reassuring 
 cheerfulness. ' Yet a fuller shall be sliown to 
 you, and that before long. As for me, I 
 could never use tlie power as you will use it, 
 because to me the acquisition of knowledge is 
 sufficient, whilst to you the exercise of power 
 is everything. So in science, there are men 
 who spend their lives in following pure 
 mathematics, for the sake of the things con- 
 tinually revealed to them ; while others must 
 stop at every step to make a practical appli- 
 cation to the uses of the world of what they 
 have discovered. I am the pure Mathemati- 
 cian ; you, Mr. Brudenel, are the Practical 
 Applier. Now — silence ; it is the time.
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 247 
 
 Listen. When you hear the voice of the 
 Master, fix your eyes upon mine intently : 
 separate your thouglits from all earthly 
 things : speak not : move not.' He raised his 
 hand and looked up as one who waits to hear 
 a signal. ' Master ! ' lie cried. ' Izak ibn 
 Menelek ! ' 
 
 Then, far, far away, yet distinct and clear 
 and audible, there followed the reply, ' My 
 children, I am read}^' 
 
 ' He is waiting. Now. Oh ! move not : 
 speak not : think not : a moment more, and 
 you will be gone, swifter than thought, swifter 
 than electricity, to tlie hills of Abyssinia.' 
 
 As he spoke he leaned over and met his 
 pupil's eyes with his own, black and lustrous, 
 commanding and compelling. In less than a 
 minute Mr. Brudenel's head bent forward, liis 
 face grew rigid, his eyes dilated, and his 
 frame stiffened. Paul stood up and breathed 
 deeply ; then he pushed up an eyelid and 
 looked at the glazed eye, as one who 
 administers chloroform and wishes to as- 
 certain if it has yet taken full effect.
 
 24S HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' You are now, my friend/ lie murmured, 
 ' on the high road to Abyssinia. Izdk ibn 
 Menelek has much to say to you. Stay there 
 awhile.' 
 
 Thirty years of Physical Eesearch had 
 perhaps made Mr. Brudenel a ready, as well 
 as a willing subject to certain influences 
 which some call by one name and some by 
 another. They may all be reduced to one 
 and the same force. He was now, as Paul 
 had promised him, in Abyssinia, or some- 
 where else far away from his own Study, 
 apparently lifeless and unconscious. 
 
 Paul stood looking at him for a few 
 moments. It is not everyone who can assist 
 his friends to go in an instant to Abyssinia, 
 and he might fairly have shown some pride in 
 the achievement. But he did not. The 
 smile had left his lips and his face was grave 
 and full of business, and he proceeded to 
 behave in a very strange and remarkable 
 manner. First, he went to the door of the 
 study and locked it, though no one in the 
 house would have dared to disturb Mr.
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 249 
 
 Brudenel in his study. Then -he drew the 
 heavy curtain across the door so that no one 
 should be able to see through the keyhole, 
 though not even a housemaid would have 
 dared to do such a thing. 
 
 Paul next took up the handful of letters 
 which had arrived that morning, opened them 
 all, read them, and laid them in the basket 
 which received the day's correspondence until 
 it was answered. Apparently, the letters 
 yielded him no information. 
 
 Mr. Brudenel's bundle of keys lay on the 
 table beside the letters. Paul took it up and 
 opened the safe which stood against the wall 
 in the far corner. It was full of papers, legal 
 documents, and such things. Paul laid 
 everything upon the table and leisurely exam- 
 ined all the papers. This took him half-an- 
 hour, during which the unconscious man 
 moved not so much as an eyelash. 
 
 ' There isn't,' he said, ' a single scrap of 
 paper to help. Yet I am perfectly certain, 
 from what Lavinia said, that the old man 
 meant Brudenel and Comj)any, the shij)-own-
 
 250 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ing company, the man who made his fortune 
 by the business, the same who retired and 
 made it into a Limited concern — it must be 
 Brudenel and Company.' He considered a 
 Httle. 
 
 ' I just liate to do it,' he said. ' If there 
 was any other way — but it does him no harm 
 — and knowledge is power. Come, old boy.' 
 He made a gesture and Mr. Brudenel moved 
 and half opened his eyes. ' No, not yet, you 
 can come back from Abyssinia, but you have 
 £Tot to do some work for me before vou wake 
 up. Turn your chair round to the table.' 
 Mr. Brudenel sat in one of those chairs which 
 revolve uj^on their seats without altering the 
 position of the legs. ' So, that will do, take 
 up your pen. Now tlie notepaper. Write at 
 my dictation in your own handwriting.' Mr. 
 Brudenel, still with closed eyes, obeyed. 
 That is to say, he took certain sheets of note 
 paper and wrote one after the other, at Paul's 
 dictation, a few short letters in his usual hand- 
 writing, signing in the usual way. Paul read 
 the letters and laid them in the basket.
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 251 
 
 ' There,' he said, ' you will never know 
 how these letters came to be written. Now 
 you must answer a few questions if you please.' 
 
 The sleeping man sat bolt upright in his 
 chair with eyes closed and pale cheeks. 
 There was not the least sign of hfe in him, 
 or of attention, or of hearing what was said 
 to him. 
 
 ' Tell me,' said Paul, ' what fortune does 
 your daughter possess in her own right and 
 apart from anything you may leave her ? ' 
 
 ' Sibyl has ten thousand pounds,' Mr. 
 Brudenel replied. One unaccustomed to those 
 things would have shuddered and trembled. 
 For his voice sounded weak and far away. 
 He spoke with no more movement than the 
 mere opening and shutting of his lips ; when 
 he finished his answer his lips closed with a 
 snap. It was like insulting Eoger Bacon's 
 famous head ; it was like questioning a corpse. 
 The answer came — a true answer — but one 
 felt that the will was held captive, and the 
 brain was unconscious. 
 
 ' Are you her sole guardian ? '
 
 252 HERR PAULUS 
 
 • I am.' 
 
 ' Where is her money invested ? ' 
 
 ' It is all in Brudenel and Company.' 
 
 ' Are you also sole guardian and executor 
 for the two Langstons, Cicely and her cousin 
 Tom?' 
 
 ' I am.' 
 
 ' What fortunes have they ? ' 
 
 ' Tom has fifteen thousand pounds. Cicely 
 has twelve thousand pounds. If Tom's cousin, 
 Sir Percival, should prove to be dead, he will 
 succeed to the property and the title. Tom 
 is to have his at the age of five-and- twenty. 
 Cicely at one-and-twenty. Their birthdays 
 fall on the same day. Consequently, they 
 will both come into possession of their pro- 
 perty on April the twenty-third. 
 
 ' And it is now March the thirtieth. Where 
 is their money ? ' 
 
 ' It is all invested in shares of Brudenel 
 and Company.' 
 
 ' As for your own money, now. Have you 
 any shares in the company ? ' 
 
 ' No. I sold out to buy land.'
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 253 
 
 * And Lady Augusta's fortune ? ' 
 
 ' It is in the hands of trustees.' 
 
 'Brudenel and Company has been a great 
 House, has it not? ' 
 
 ' Yes, a very great House.' 
 
 'You have trusted it entirely, have you not?' 
 
 ' Entirely.' 
 
 ' Do you know the present Secretary ? ' 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 ' Go to his office. Is he en£[af?ed ? ' 
 
 ' The Chairman of the Company is with 
 him. The books are open on the table. They 
 are talking.' 
 
 ' Tell me what they are saying.' 
 
 ' The Secretary says, "I do not see how 
 the smash can be averted another month. It 
 must come then — it may come before." ' 
 
 Then the narrator changed his voice and 
 became the Chairman, and from the agitation 
 of his voice you would have inferred the 
 mental anxiety of the Chairman. 
 
 ' Not another month ? It is a terrible 
 situation. And the shares keep up. Not a 
 breath outside.'
 
 2 54 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' That breath may blow any moment. 
 You had better think of the position of the 
 Directors when the smash does come ! If we 
 do not declare the truth before long you may 
 all be put in the Dock. As for me, I suppose 
 I am only a servant.' 
 
 ' Yet — yet — for God's sake let us keep the 
 position of the company secret as long as we 
 can. While there is Hfe there is hope.' 
 
 ' That will do,' said Paul. He considered 
 for a few minutes. ' There is a great deal 
 more here,' he said, ' than the interests of 
 poor old James Berry. There is a Thing to 
 do, here, which may be a grander feat than 
 any I have ever dreamed of. Tell me,' he 
 addressed the inanimate Cyrus Brudenel, ' tell 
 me where you have put your share certificates.' 
 ' They are at the Bank.' 
 ' Oh ! I wonder if they are necessary. 
 Hang it ! A man ought to know everything. 
 I wonder how long an operation of this sort 
 takes, and how it can be done. Tell me,' 
 aLfain he addressed Mr. Brudenel. ' Who are 
 your Brokers ? '
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 255 
 
 'I have none. The Bank would do any- 
 business for me if I wanted it done.' 
 
 ' Oh ! Turn you chair round, and write 
 one or two letters, now, in your own hand- 
 writing.' 
 
 He dictated two or three letters. Then he 
 took the cheque-book out of the safe and made 
 his patient sign three blank cheques. 
 
 ' So,' he said, ' that is accomplished. I 
 wonder if anything will happen to prevent the 
 thing from coming off ? Why should anything 
 happen?' 
 
 ' One question more,' he asked. ' Do you 
 know anything of one James Berry ? ' 
 
 ' There was a James Berry in my father's 
 service. He went into the Company's service 
 afterwards. He was in the Accountant's De- 
 partment ? ' 
 
 ' Has James Berry any shares in the Com- 
 pany ? ' 
 
 ' Yes. He has invested all his savings in 
 the Company.' 
 
 ' Humph ! My conjecture was right then, 
 and Brudenel and Company are going to smash.
 
 256 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Fifteen thousand for Tom, twelve thousand 
 for Cicely, and ten thousand for Sibyl, and all 
 the old man has got is an estate which can't 
 be sold. That's bad for Tom and Cicely and 
 Sibyl. On the other hand, if the Thing comes 
 off — oh ! it's wonderful. Lavinia, I owe you 
 a good turn for this ; and, somehow, I'll pay 
 you back, though at present I don't see any 
 way. And now,' he said, putting the three 
 cheques and the letters very carefully into liis 
 pocket-book. ' Unless I am very greatly mis- 
 taken, here will be a bigger coup than any- 
 thing ever before attempted or accomplished 
 by medium, clairvoyant, or occult philosopher. 
 Paul, my boy, when this thing is noised abroad 
 your head shall touch the skies. And then, 
 when all the world is talking about you, in the 
 very nick of time, when everybody is expecting 
 something even greater, and they are prepared 
 for any miracle, you will suddenly vanish, go 
 back to Abyssinia, or else to the old place — they 
 can't think of looking for so great a man in the 
 old place — and to live for ever in the memory 
 of men. How to support the rest of life ? Well,
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 257 
 
 I don't know. That's a problem wliicli must 
 
 wait. Meanwhile ' lie shook his head 
 
 as if there was a side of the question which he 
 did not care to look at. 
 
 Then he sat down and pondered for a 
 whole quarter of an hour. Beside him sat the 
 figure of a man who might have been a corpse, 
 so still and white and silent was he, so rigid 
 and so regardless. 
 
 ' Is it worth the trouble ? ' he asked him- 
 self. ' A month or so of glory and success, 
 with all the people wondering and staring, and 
 all the scientific men angry and disconcerted, 
 and a thousand pens set agoing, and the 
 Spiritualists triumphant at last. Then they 
 will look for more, and there will be no more, 
 because I cannot expect any more coinci- 
 dences, and the worker of miracles must retire, 
 if possible, without being seen to go. He 
 must vanish like a goblin in a story. And he 
 must never come back again. To be seen 
 again would be fatal. He must be never 
 more heard of. Well, I think I know a place 
 which is obscure cnougli and forgotten enough 
 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 HERR PAULUS 
 
 for anyone to live unknown and concealed. 
 It will be miserable enoiio:li after all I have 
 seen and done ; but after all it will not be half 
 so miserable as if I had stayed there all the 
 time, no better ofl than the obscure folk who 
 live out their dull and monotonous lives there, 
 and are buried at last in the cemetery. I 
 shall at least have the memory of the great 
 stir that I have made in the world. 
 
 ' Chatterton,' he went on, walking back- 
 wards and forwards, ' had his gift and he used 
 it. Nobody blames him now for the deceit 
 which he employed. He had his gift. I have 
 mine. There is not a man in the world who 
 can do what I can. Not one. They can all 
 mesmerise, but they cannot make the patient 
 see things far oif, report secrets long since 
 hidden away, hear conversations and repeat 
 them, and think as I choose them to think. 
 I use my gift in my own way, and for the 
 same purposes as those of Chatterton. I want 
 honour, not money. 
 
 ' No one sliall ever say I wanted money. 
 I came here without asking for any, and I
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 259 
 
 shall go away with clean hands. Money? 
 Why, what money could repay the services I 
 shall render this household if the couj) comes 
 off. And I suppose that unless I tell them, 
 no one ever will know why I came or why I 
 did it, or how I did it. And now for Mr. 
 James Berry.' 
 
 He sat down at the table and wrote a 
 short letter. 
 
 ' Dear Mrs. Medlock, — I have thought 
 over the difficulties of your friend and have 
 been enabled to help him. Tell him to lose 
 no time in selling out — but to do so secretly. 
 Let him tell none of his friends what he has 
 done. As you have not told me the name of 
 this Company it is not possible for me to 
 advise you more exactly in this matter. Tell 
 him, however, that he must sell and that im- 
 mediately. 
 
 ' Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' Paulus.' 
 
 'That,' he said, 'is the first step in the 
 history of the great coup'
 
 26o HERR PAULUS 
 
 He looked round the room. The table 
 was covered with papers which he had taken 
 from the safe. These lie replaced carefully. 
 
 ' The dj-awer of the safe,' he said, ' reminds 
 me that the day after to-morrow tlie Indian 
 paper is to be discovered there. I thought 
 that was rather clever, but the new surprise 
 beats it hollow.' He locked up the safe, put 
 the keys into Mr. Brudenel's pocket and 
 arranged the table exactly as it had been 
 before unconsciousness fell upon him. 
 
 When he was quite satisfied, he bent over 
 Mr. Brudenel as lie had bent over the heads 
 of the two girls. 
 
 'You have been in Abyssinia,' he said. 
 ' You have been conversing' with an as^ed 
 philosopher, standing under a palm tree 
 beside a fountain ; on every side arose mighty 
 mountains; there were no signs of human 
 life ; the sun was hot and the skies cloudless. 
 No one was with you but the Philosopher. 
 As he talked with you your heart leaped up 
 and your eyes glowed. For he spake of 
 things which filled you with awe and wonder
 
 IN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 261 
 
 and a trembling joy. And he promised that 
 you, too, in the future Awake ! ' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel opened his eyes and looked 
 about him. Suddenly he understood where 
 he was, and he seized Paul's hand and clasped 
 it warmly. 
 
 ' Oh ! my friend — my friend — ' he cried, 
 ' I have come back too soon. I have been — I 
 have been — in a Heaven of joy and happiness ' 
 — it is rare, indeed, that an elderly man is 
 forced to exhibit the outward and visible 
 signs of joy. We know them in youth. 
 Many causes may make the cheek burn, the 
 pulse to beat faster, the heart to glow, the 
 breath to come and go, the eyes to be dimmed 
 and dewy — dear me ! I have known a young 
 man taken in this way, just because a girl 
 has allowed him to kiss her. But I have 
 never seen any old man except Mr. Brudenel 
 exhibit these signs of youthful joy and happi- 
 ness. ' Paul ! ' he cried out in an ecstasy, 
 *I have never, never, enjoyed such a morning.' 
 
 ' Tell me about it.' 
 
 'I was received by the Master in the
 
 262 HERR PAULUS 
 
 bottom of a valley beside a spring of water — 
 there was a palm tree or two — on all sides 
 rose great mountains. He taught me all tlie 
 morning. He filled me witli a joy unspeak- 
 able. He promised tliat, before long, I 
 too ' Here he stopped. 
 
 ' You too ? ' 
 
 ' It is the same thing always,' Mr. Brude- 
 nel cried, the joy going out of his face. 'When 
 I return I forget all that I have been told.' 
 
 'Again, you forget. It is as I told you. 
 Your mind is not yet saturated. You have 
 not 3^et shaken off the old prejudices and 
 traditions. My friend, you have spent two 
 hours ' — he looked at his watch — ' two hours 
 and a half in Abyssinia. You have meantime 
 sat in this chair, to all appearance, dead. 
 Now remember. You came here after break- 
 fast ; you read your letters ; you appear to 
 have answered some of them ; you then 
 received me.' 
 
 ' I remember that. But I have forgotten 
 the letters.' 
 
 Paul handed him the basket. Yes, there
 
 JN ABYSSINIA AND ELSEWHERE 263 
 
 were the letters in his own handwriting. 
 ' You then detached your thoughts from 
 things earthly and were transported to 
 Abyssinia. 1 went with you and stood with 
 you, invisible to yourself, and returned with 
 you. I would repeat the whole conversation, 
 but I must not. It is not allowed. Patience, 
 however. A few more days and you shall be 
 master of the whole. And oh, I had nearly 
 forgotten. It is the day after to-morrow that 
 you are to present the Indian newspaper to 
 your friends.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel coloured, and became con- 
 fused. ' Paul — I must confess. What will 
 you think ? ' 
 
 'There is no need to confess anything. 
 You have been to the drawer, tempted by 
 curiosity to break your promise ; what did 
 you find ? ' 
 
 ' Nothing.' 
 
 ' You see what comes of trying to deceive 
 your friends.' 
 
 ' I deserve everything. I have fooled 
 away the most wonderful manifestation.'
 
 264 HERK PAULUS 
 
 ' Certainly — you deserve everything. Per- 
 haps it is on account of your brother's pro- 
 mise that you are stricken with forgetfulness 
 every clay. But do not despair. The Master 
 is not implacable. You may invite your 
 friends just the same as if you had not looked 
 in the drawer. By the way, you are quite — 
 quite certain ' — Paul's eyes were of searching 
 severity — ' that no one could possibly have 
 had access to the safe ? ' 
 
 ' No one could possibly open tlie safe 
 except myself.' 
 
 ' Then, Mr. Brudeuel, invite whom you 
 please, and enjoy a triumph which has yet 
 been achieved by no spiritualist or so-called 
 occult philosopher. It is a mark of signal 
 favour and, believe me, my dear friend ' — 
 Paul clasped his hand warmly — ' not the last 
 — not the last — that you will receive.'
 
 265 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 SHOULD THIS IIAPrEN? 
 
 Once more the two young men were 
 sitting at midnight in Tom's workshop, but 
 their bearing towards each other was now 
 changed. There was no diffidence on the one 
 hand nor suspicion on the other. Diffidence 
 had changed to confidence, and in place of 
 suspicion was avowed enmity on pubhc 
 grounds with allowed friendship on private 
 grounds. 
 
 ' People are clamouring for more of your 
 confounded miracles, old man,' said Tom 
 presently. 
 
 ' So I gather. They will not be satisfied. 
 At least — well, there is one thing I promised. 
 If you are at all interested in what you call
 
 266 HERR PAULUS 
 
 miracles, you may be present to-morrow 
 
 evemng. 
 
 ' You mean the great Indian trick ? Yes ; 
 my guardian lias invited his friends to witness 
 it. He says you gave him the paper a month 
 
 ago. 
 
 ' He asked for a copy of that day's " Friend 
 of India." So it came. That is very simple.' 
 
 ' Perfectly simple. Quite simple ; what 
 happens every day, in fact. Nothing miracu- 
 lous about that, is there ? ' 
 
 ' He then placed it in a safe, of which he 
 alone keeps the key, and he undertook not 
 to show it to anyone until the day when the 
 mail should bring that day's paper to London. 
 It will arrive to-morrow, and his copy can be 
 compared with that received in the usual 
 way.' 
 
 'I see. But it seems rather a pity — 
 doesn't it ? — that he waited a whole month ? ' 
 
 ' You mean ? ' Paul knew perfectly well 
 what Tom meant, but yet he asked this ques- 
 tion. 
 
 ' A miracle, my dear boy, in order to be
 
 SHOULD THIS HAPPEN? 267 
 
 perfectly conclusive, should leave no loophole 
 at all for doubt as to the fact. That is the 
 whole essence of a miracle, and it is here that 
 your Friends go bungling. Now, if you pro- 
 duced to-day's " Friend of India " in open 
 court, so to speak, before a body of scientific 
 men, who might photograph it, so as to 
 multiply copies, and if you on the same day 
 had the whole contents of that day's paper 
 telegraphed from Delhi, the question would 
 then be, not whether the thing had been done, 
 about which there could be no doubt, but 
 whether there was any way of explaining it 
 other than miraculous. For instance, the old 
 slate trick ' 
 
 ' Oh ! but everybody knows how that is 
 done.' 
 
 ' True, but the fact is that it was done. 
 We recognised that, and had only to find out 
 how it was done. How about your miracle 
 of to-morrow ? ' 
 
 ' I did not say it was mine.' 
 
 ' Your friends' miracle then. You see 
 they haven't complied with the first conditions
 
 268 HERR PAULUS 
 
 of a miracle, that the fact itself must be be- 
 yond doubt. My guardian says that four 
 weeks ago he received a copy of that very 
 day's " Friend of India." Very well, it rests 
 on his word, not on yours as well, does it ? ' 
 Tom looked up curiously as if he was trying 
 to get some admission. 
 
 ' If necessary, my word would perhaps not 
 be wanting.' There was the least possible 
 absence of heartiness in the answer. 
 
 ' Quite so, if necessary. Very well then. 
 He says he jiut it in the safe. Why did he 
 not instantly produce the sheet and confound 
 the infidel? Can't you see that a more 
 miraculous thing than the transportation 
 of a newspaper ten thousand miles in an 
 hour was never even attempted in the 
 palmiest days of witchcraft and magic ? 
 Don't you know that the occult philosophers 
 have been asked over and over again to 
 do this, and that they have always refused to 
 doit.?' 
 
 ' You forc^et one thincf, that if such a thin^? 
 was done it midit be made subservient to
 
 SHOULD THIS HAPPEN f 269 
 
 commercial purposes and an object of self- 
 interest.' 
 
 ' That is what the occult philosophers say. 
 It is only worth considering on the supposi- 
 tion that everybody could perform the miracle. 
 If your friends have the secret in their own 
 hands they can keep it and make the perform- 
 ance a rare and interesting event. Come, 
 now, put it to them frankly. Let us have, for 
 once, a miracle that cannot be attacked any- 
 how. My guardian deposits this precious 
 paper in his safe and keeps it there for a 
 month. He saj^s that nobody can get at that 
 safe except himself. Eather than believe in 
 this miracle I am prepared to disbelieve his 
 assertion. Come, now, old man, I don't mind 
 being frank with you. I think you are up to 
 some game which may be anything, but isn't, 
 I am sure it isn't, the old vulgar game of 
 plunder. I rather believe you are trying by 
 the exercise of certain gifts and clever dodges 
 to make yourself a great man. Very well, I 
 have a similar ambition about myself only in 
 another direction altogether. You are going
 
 270 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ill for miracles. It isn't worth while carrying 
 on the stale old spiritualistic humbug. You 
 know that, and you are trying to strike out a 
 new line. Give us a real, genuine, indisput- 
 able miracle, the fact of which cannot be 
 denied.' 
 
 ' I am pleased to have your good opinion, 
 Tom,' Paul laughed, cheerfully. 'Whatever 
 my ambitions may be, they do not work in 
 the direction of plunder. You shall never be 
 able to say that of me. And as to what you 
 
 think ' he paused. ' Tom,' he said, 
 
 earnestly, ' you were so very frank with 
 me at the outset as to tell me you thought 
 I was a humbug like the rest of them. 
 You knoAv, now, that I liave no intercourse 
 with their world of lying spirits. I do not 
 send round the hat for a little collection. 
 Yet, believe me, Tom, there is far more 
 in the world than you have yet understood. 
 Til ere are powers of which you know no- 
 thincf,' 
 
 'That,' said Tom, ' I do not deny.' 
 
 ' Would you believe in those powers if I
 
 SHOULD THIS HAPPEN? 271 
 
 were to give you wliat you call an undeniable 
 miracle ? ' 
 
 ' I should accept the fact and try to find 
 out how it was done.' 
 
 ' Very good,' Paul laughed again. ' I 
 think I may hope. I do not promise to work 
 sucli a miracle as will satisfy even you. That 
 is to say, you will not be able to deny 
 the fact, and you will not be able, the least 
 bit in the world, to find out how it was 
 accomplished. No natural force with which 
 you are acquainted will be able to account 
 for it. No explanation will occur to you, or 
 to any of your scientific friends, that will in 
 the least satisfy you. I say that I don't 
 actually engage myself to do this thing, but 
 there seems a chance that I may do it.' 
 
 ' I should be very much obliged to you if 
 you will. I shall take it as a personal com- 
 pliment, and a great kindness to myself. A 
 genuine miracle, I confess, would be received 
 by the whole world, scientific and otherwise, 
 with considerable satisfaction. Nothing in 
 the way of mesmerism, though.'
 
 2)2 HEkR PAVLVS 
 
 ' Very well. Mesmerism, however, must 
 not be despised. It is a natural force entirely 
 outside the investigations of scientific men, 
 and neglected by them. It would be well if 
 you were to consider the subject. I could 
 teach you a good deal in it, for instance, 
 which might astonish you and lead you to 
 follow it up.' 
 
 ' I will be your pupil perhaps, but not 
 now.' 
 
 ' As for my miracle, now. Conceive of 
 some event happening which would seem at 
 first absolutely destructive of your dearest 
 wish.' 
 
 ' What is my dearest wish ? ' Tom replied, 
 quietly, with a flush in his cheek. 
 
 ' I will tell you. I believe tliat there is 
 no one in this house or outside it who knows 
 or suspects that you are engaged to Miss 
 Brudenel.' 
 
 Tom started. ' How do you know that ? ' 
 
 ' How do I know a great many things ? 
 I know, you see, the dearest wish of your 
 heart.'
 
 SHOULD THIS HAPPEN? 273 
 
 ' Well, you have found out somehow what 
 we thought was unknown to anybody but our- 
 selves. It is true we are engaged. And now, 
 I hope, you can keep the secret you have dis- 
 covered.' 
 
 ' I can. Miss Brudenel, I told you long 
 ago, will never be the Vestal Virgin of the 
 cause. Suppose, however, that something — 
 I know not what — interfered between you. 
 I talk at random, perhaps — say, something 
 which would prevent your marriage for years 
 — perhaps altogether — suppose it required 
 nothing short of a miracle to remove that 
 obstacle.' 
 
 'Well?' 
 
 ' Well, suppose that miracle performed — 
 would you still disbelieve ? ' 
 
 ' I should. No doubt I should accept the 
 miracle in such an event with profound grati- 
 tude, but I should then want to know how it 
 was done. Because, you see, everything in 
 the world is worked by laws, and your miracle 
 could only be worked by some law unknown 
 to myself.' 
 
 VOL, I, T
 
 274 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' Lady Augusta and her friends,' said Paul 
 smiling, ' would follow the unscientific method. 
 They would accept the Miracle just as you 
 would, and they would then ask for More.'
 
 275 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION. 
 
 The Second Great Manifestation, though more 
 brief in its duration and simpler in character 
 than the first, was universally acknowledged 
 to be of far greater importance. Nothing, in 
 fact, not even the events which followed — to 
 be sure, these were chiefly of a private nature, 
 and could only be whispered — did more to 
 raise Herr Paulus to that eminence which for 
 a brief season he enjoyed, and might have 
 been still enjoying but for circumstances which 
 will be duly narrated. The first Function was 
 undoubtedly sweet and precious, both to 
 behold and to describe afterwards. It 
 thrilled, but the emotions excited were on 
 familiar lines : it awed and impressed those 
 who assisted, but it did not actually take one 
 
 X 2
 
 276 HERR PAULUS 
 
 unexpectedly. Things like unto it had been 
 seen before. Invisible bells had been rung, 
 invisible music had been played — indeed, 
 Mediums always bring along a concertina or 
 an accordion for fear the spirits — who cannot 
 play anything else, not even a harp — should 
 forget to brino; an instrument ; invisible hands 
 have often done very astonishing things : 
 papers have before now fluttered about the 
 room, descending like tlie rain from a clear 
 sky : there has been the exhibition of spirit 
 photographs and pictures: there has been 
 telegraphing : there has been clairvoyance : 
 all such feats have an historical character. 
 Stories of a like nature could be adduced, 
 narrated, and compared. In point of pictu- 
 resqueness, and beauty, and fitness, however, 
 the first function left nothing to be desired ; 
 while its operator appeared to be of a much 
 higher character than any of those who ac- 
 complish their results in the dark. One could 
 not imagine Ilerr Paulus stooping to impose 
 upon his audience by the common and well- 
 known methods ; even those who were least
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 277 
 
 credulous acknowledged this immense supe- 
 riority. 
 
 But, as regards the Function of this evening, 
 as Mr. Brudenel truly said at its close — it is 
 only the anticipation of a few pages — ' The 
 Thing '-^he modestly called it a Thing — 
 ' which we have this day been privileged to 
 witness, is an achievement beyond a parallel 
 in the History of Spiritualism.' You will 
 acknowledge as much when you hear what it 
 was. 'It marks an Epoch. It announces our 
 arrival upon a Higher Plane : it shows that 
 we have left behind us for ever the days of 
 lying and mocking spirits : our labours have 
 not been in vain : it is the first visible step of 
 our New Departure : it shows us clearly that 
 our feet are standing at last upon the Solid 
 Eock : it teaches us without a doubt that 
 our faces are turned towards the way of 
 Truth.' 
 
 Truly, as you will see, Mr. Brudenel ex- 
 aggerated not a whit. Those who witnessed 
 this stupendous conquest over time and space, 
 went home awed and humbled. The longer
 
 278 HERR PAULUS 
 
 they dwelt upon it the more it impressed their 
 imagination ; the more they pondered over 
 the possibihty of deception the more they 
 were bewildered. Even the sceptics were 
 for the moment confounded. Nothing, how- 
 ever, really confounds the sceptic. He is 
 like those little figures made of painted pith 
 resting on little globes of lead wliich spring 
 to their feet with only the greater elasticity 
 and resolution the harder you knock them 
 down. The best miracle in the world is 
 wasted on a sceptic. You might as well tell 
 ghost stories to a lawyer. 
 
 The company invited to witness this 
 manifestation was less numerous than that 
 which gathered together for the first, but it 
 included all the important people. There 
 was no dinner party, and they were invited 
 for nine. When they arrived, they were 
 shown into Mr. Brudenel's study, where Sibyl 
 received them. It was understood that Lady 
 Augusta and Mr. Brudenel would appear at 
 the right moment with the hero of the 
 evening.
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 279 
 
 All the well-known leaders of tlie spiritual- 
 ists were there, including Mr. Athelstan 
 Kilburn and the Eev. Amelius Horton. The 
 Society of Psychical Eesearch was represented 
 by a Deputation, specially invited, from 
 Cambridge. It consisted of a Junior Fellow 
 of Trinity and a certificated graduate in 
 honours from Newnham. On the way — it 
 has nothing to do with the story — the Depu- 
 tation fell in love with each other, and got 
 engaged on the way back, but fell out over 
 the Eeport which they had to draw up, and 
 so the marriag;e never came off. Science, 
 always suspicious, was represented by a Pro- 
 fessor of the highest distinction. He was 
 known to be hostile to everything which he 
 could not reduce to the realm of known 
 physics, and always went about to such 
 manifestations with the avowed intention of 
 exposing the trick — he always called it a 
 trick — and he never did expose anything, 
 because he knew nothing of legerdemain, 
 although he was learned in electricity. The 
 profession was represented by Mr. Emanuel
 
 28o HERR PAULUS 
 
 Chick and Mrs. Lavinia Medlock, as usual — 
 there are few recent additions to the old 
 school of spiritualists. The Eev. Benjamin 
 Eudge was also present, prepared to chronicle 
 whatever took place. There were also 
 present a large number of the ladies who 
 ' take interest ; ' among them the ardent 
 believer, who has always something to 
 whisper, some new mysterious utterance or 
 promise ; the woman who only half believes, 
 but trembles and thinks it is wicked ; the 
 woman who loves to be startled and prefers a 
 seance to a melodrama ; the woman in search 
 of a New Gospel — she is very common in 
 these days ; the woman who talks the language 
 of the esoteric Buddhist ; the woman of un- 
 satisfied soul who yearns for a fuller life — 
 with others. I suppose that the purely in- 
 credulous world was represented by Tom 
 Langston, who changed his mind and came — 
 to meet the Professor, he said, but I think he 
 was anxious to see what would be done. 
 Cicely Langston sat retired, with Hetty beside 
 her.
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 281 
 
 'I understand, Miss Brudenel,' said Mr. 
 Eudge, in a loud and masterful voice, ' that 
 we are summoned here to-night in order to 
 witness what will be — if we are rightly in- 
 formed — a truly stupendous event, and the 
 most remarkable manifestation of spiritual 
 power ever witnessed.' 
 
 'Pray, Mr. Eudge,' Sibyl interrupted 
 shortly, ' ask me nothing. I know nothing. 
 I can promise nothing.' 
 
 'It is rumoured, then — ' Mr. Eudge 
 smiled with amicable forgivingness, because 
 he was used to be snubbed by Miss Brudenel 
 — 'we will only say then, that it is rumoured, 
 that we are this evening to behold a docu- 
 ment which has been transported from some 
 part of India to this house with the swiftness 
 of an electric message. If this be so ' 
 
 Mr. Emanuel Chick sniffed loudly. He 
 looked not only shabby this evening, but 
 hungry. In fact he was hungering for Paul's 
 blood. It was the first note of hostile incre- 
 dulity. 
 
 ' Oh ! ' cried Lavinia, clasping her hands.
 
 282 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' It will be the exercise of a power far beyond 
 anything ever vouchsafed to me. And yet 
 there was a time ' 
 
 ' Before we all go off into ecstasies,' said 
 Mr. Emanuel Chick, ' we had better see 
 what happens. On the last occasion there 
 were fireworks — I call them fireworks — with 
 mesmerism. Perhaps Ave shall only have, 
 after all, more fireworks with mesmerism.' 
 
 ' It cannot be said,' said Mr. Athelstan 
 Kilburn, ' that our young friend receives 
 either sympathy or encouragement from his 
 professional brethren. Surely they are above 
 the i^etty feeling of jealousy.' 
 
 ' He will get no encouragement from me,' 
 Mr. Chick replied. ' I pretend to nothing but 
 the good old lines. I am a Medium — only a 
 Medium. Xo fireworks for me, sir. You 
 know what to expect from me. If the spirits 
 wish to speak through me, they can. That's 
 all. I believe some people have received 
 messages which spoke for themselves, and 
 were a little more important than a lady in a 
 mesmeric trance. We shall see.'
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 283 
 
 'Hetty,' Cicely whispered, 'it is that 
 odious man who always makes me feel as if 
 he carried evil spirits about with him. Do 
 you think that his presence will afiect Paul's 
 powers ? ' 
 
 'No, I am sure it will not. But, oh ! I 
 wish it was over ! And oh ! I wish he would 
 not show off to a great room full of people.' 
 
 ' Perhaps he must.' 
 
 ' His powers should be kept sacred, and 
 
 shown to none but but the people he 
 
 loves,' Hetty murmured. ' Oh ! to make 
 a trade and a show and a means of gain 
 out of such a power as his ! It would be too 
 dreadful.' 
 
 ' Whisper me everything, Hetty dear, just 
 as he does it. Oh ! if he would only make me 
 able so see it. He could if he chose. Perhaps 
 this evening — but tell me all, Hetty.' 
 
 ' I suppose,' said the Professor of Science 
 to Tom Langston, quietly, ' that there will be 
 an opportunity afforded one of submitting any 
 experiment we may be privileged to witness 
 to the ordinary tests.'
 
 284 HERR PAULUS 
 
 *0h! yes,' Tom replied. 'Why not? 
 Herr Paulus's performances are unexpected, 
 but they are all done in the light. I don't 
 quite see how anything he has done as yet 
 could be tested. You see things, and you 
 wonder how they are done ; that is all.' 
 
 ' Tell me about him.' 
 
 ' He is a young man. He has been staying 
 here a month now. In this house, you know, 
 we are always up to our necks in magic and 
 mystery, but since he came we have learned 
 to despise the old things. ^Ye do not care 
 about rapping ; we no longer ask if our grand- 
 mothers are happy. We do not look for in- 
 carnated spirits. We have no dark seances.' 
 
 ' All this seems distinct s^ain,' said the 
 Professor. 
 
 ' Yes ; in their place we have acquired a 
 beautiful freedom of transport. We converse 
 with anybody, all over the world. We find 
 out what is going on everywhere. Mr. 
 Brudenel, my guardian, goes off to Abyssinia 
 every morning for instruction, and arrives 
 home in time for luncheon. Lady Augusta
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 285 
 
 is going through a course of King Solomon's 
 Wisdom ; the girls are always more or less 
 mesmeric ; the housemaids no longer go to' 
 the dentist when they have got a toothache. 
 Herr Paulus leaves his earthly body on his 
 bed while he goes off to have a crack with 
 his friends in Eussia, in Thibet, in Africa.' 
 
 The Professor laughed. 
 
 ' You cannot test any of these things,' he 
 said. ' If people choose to believe in com- 
 mon cheats and impostors ' 
 
 ' Pardon me, Professor. Herr Paulus is 
 not a common cheat and impostor. I do not 
 quite know what he is, but he wants no 
 money to begin with.' 
 
 ' That is unusual.' 
 
 'It is, in this house, at least.' 
 
 ' But they talk of a newspaper, or some- 
 thing interesting, brought here in a single 
 moment from an enormous distance.' 
 
 ' Ten miles would be as good as three 
 thousand, but it wants a big distance to strike 
 the imagination. In fact. Professor, I have 
 reason to know that the claim set up this
 
 286 HERR PAULUS 
 
 evening will be the power to convey things 
 — not only messages, or by the wire — but 
 actual things — parcels — what you please, at 
 any moment to any distance by unseen 
 agency.' 
 
 'In that case,' said the Professor, 'I am 
 come on a fool's errand indeed.' 
 
 ' At Simla, only last year,' — it was the 
 Eev. Benjamin Eudge, in his loud, coarse 
 voice, which irritated some people beyond 
 endurance — ' some of the so-called occult 
 philosophers were invited to bring over a 
 copy of that day's "Times." They refused 
 to do so, on the ground that every request 
 for a miracle could not be complied with, 
 and that to ask such a thing showed mere 
 curiosity. The refusal and the excuse made 
 scoffers laugh. If a man claims to have great 
 powers, he must prove them. Our young 
 Prophet, if I may call him so, has claimed 
 very great powers on behalf of his Friends. 
 He has shown us certain things which we 
 should have called manifestations of a very 
 high order. If he actually does the thing of
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 287 
 
 which we have heard, he will establish him- 
 self and his Friends on the highest pinnacle 
 which science and j^hilosophy have yet re- 
 ahsed. Time and space will be annihilated, 
 and even the power of electricity will be 
 surpassed.' 
 
 He had spent the afternoon rounding off 
 this and a few other sentences, with a view 
 to a letter announcing the Miracle, if it should 
 come off. That letter was duly sent, and 
 being signed by himself, and backed by 
 another from that well-known, sober, and 
 well-balanced intellect, the Eev. Amelius 
 Horton, it met with universal incredulity, 
 and smiles and snorts and jeers. But when 
 the Professor himself gravely and soberly 
 described what had taken place, so far as his 
 senses enabled him to see and to hear, a sensa- 
 tion was produced as of a new revelation ; 
 and everybody asked who was Herr Paulus, 
 and nobody knew, and all the world waited 
 eagerly for more. 
 
 ' When is he coming, Hetty ? ' asked 
 Cicely.
 
 288 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' Very soon, I believe. Oh ! How can 
 he do things in the presence of people who 
 want to make him out an impostor ? ' 
 
 ' Tell me all — whisper everything, dear.' 
 
 ' The explanation,' said Mr. Amelias Hor- 
 ton, ' will, of course, be found in the develop- 
 ment of will energy. The unknown force is 
 will energy. It is to be the force of the 
 future. It will be cultivated like strength 
 of body, and we shall take rank in the future 
 according to the strength of the will energy.' 
 
 'Who is that person?' the Professor asked 
 Tom. 
 
 'It is the Eev. Amelius Horton, Senior 
 Fellow of King Henry's, Cambridge.' 
 
 ' Oh ! Is that the result of classical study 
 or of mathematical research? Well, let us 
 begin, and let us keep our eyes wide open. 
 Of course it is all nonsense about Time and 
 Space, There will, I suppose, be a good deal 
 of talk to wrap up the real thing.' 
 
 'Yes. The only thing I have yet found 
 out about our man,' said Tom, ' is that he 
 has a curious power of mesmerism. That
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 289 
 
 awakens suspicion, but it does not explain 
 anything.' 
 
 ' Mesmerism,' repeated the Professor. ' Yes ; 
 it is a strange power, and ought to be taken 
 out of the hands of quacks and impostors. 
 It is an undoubted power. Everybody who 
 can persuade other people that he says or 
 does things impossible, must liave something 
 of that power. But I think he w^ll not mes- 
 merise me. Perhaps thought-reading is only 
 a form of mesmerism, so that the patient is 
 forced to think what the operator compels 
 him and forces upon him. Has he mes- 
 merised you ? ' 
 
 ' No ; he has tried. But he can't.' 
 
 ' I remember,' the Professor continued, in 
 his quiet and reflective way, ' going to see a 
 performance by a certain Dr. Slade about ten 
 years ago. He did all sorts of foolish things 
 first — quite insulting to common understand- 
 ing, and then he did the famous slate trick.' 
 
 ' I know. Showed it to you clean ; put 
 it on the table, presently turned it over, and 
 showed it covered with writing.' 
 
 VOL. I, u
 
 290 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' Quite so. That is exactly what I saw, 
 and precisely as I described it. The writing 
 itself was pure drivel. It seemed to me a 
 most mysterious thing, only to be explained 
 by some hypothesis about writing which should 
 be invisible until after a certain time. And 
 this was on tlie face of it absurd. But the 
 man I had brought with me was a profes- 
 sional conjuror, one Hellis by name, who is 
 now dead, and he enlightened me. Dr. Slade 
 caught my eye and held it. He thought he 
 had caught my companion's as well, but 
 there he was mistaken. And Hellis saw him 
 actually changing the slate for another, and 
 shoving the first one into a receptacle under 
 the table. He did it quite coolly, being con- 
 fident that he held the eyes of both. Well, 
 the audacity of the announcement of what we 
 are going to see this evening reminds me of 
 Dr. Blade's slate. It is so beautifully simple, 
 and at the same time so impossible.' 
 
 Tom laughed. ' We must not, however, 
 rank Herr Paulus with Dr. Slade He has 
 not converted me, and I am convinced that
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 291 
 
 he is playing some game. But I cannot find 
 him out. Meantime, we are very good 
 friends, and lie knows that I am watching 
 him. Hush ! here they come.' 
 
 At that moment Lady Augusta entered on 
 Herr Paulus's arm. The ancient Philosopher 
 looked like nothing more than an extremely 
 handsome young gentleman of the modern 
 time. Mr. Brudenel, who followed, looked 
 assured and easy, without any of his custom- 
 ary nervousness. 
 
 The guests divided right and left, and 
 they advanced, taking up a position in the 
 middle of the room. Mr. Brudenel's table, 
 in the drawer of which lay that novel by 
 Ouida, which he had not found time to finish 
 since the Abyssinian tour had commenced, 
 was pushed back, and a clear space was 
 formed. 
 
 Lady Augusta greeted her guests and sat 
 down ; some of the ladies did the same. 
 Others, too much excited by the expectation 
 of what was to come, preferred to stand. 
 
 u 2
 
 292 HERR PAULUS 
 
 Mr. Brudenel, his face glowing with 
 triumph — after thirty years of psychical 
 research it is indeed a triumph, one never 
 before vouchsafed to any man, to stand on 
 the Living rock — his eyes full of joy and his 
 voice full of confidence, raised his left hand, 
 and spoke : 
 
 ' My friends,' he said, with a quiet dignity, 
 new to him, 'some of us have worked 
 together in the pursuit of Spiritual truth for 
 many years ; we have grown grey in our 
 researches ; we have been continually baffled ; 
 we have been deceived and disappointed ; we 
 have been dejected ; there have been times 
 when it was difficult to maintain a cheerful 
 front in presence of so much disappointment 
 and so much ridicule.' 
 
 ' We have known many such times, 
 Brudenel,' said Mr. Athelstan Kilburn. 
 
 'At one of the moments of deepest 
 humiliation, I was found by Herr Paulus ; 
 you remember how, on the very first night, 
 he filled our hearts with new faith, and 
 kindled new enthusiasm within us.'
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 293 
 
 ' We remember that night very well,' Mr. 
 Kilburn again interrupted. 
 
 ' Perhaps it happened to some of you as 
 to me, that in the morning a cold wave of 
 doubt followed the hope and enthusiasm of 
 the evening.' 
 
 ' It did,' said Mr. Kilburn. ' It always 
 does.' 
 
 ' What we had seen we thought nothing 
 but the effect of mesmeric power, with the 
 exhibition of certain phenomena by no means 
 new.' 
 
 ' By no means new,' said Emanuel Chick. 
 
 ' Though brilliantly executed and in the 
 full light for all to see. I say, my friends, 
 that some of you felt as I did.' 
 
 There was a general and sympathetic 
 murmur at the recollection of these un- 
 pleasant symptoms. They were perhaps a 
 common experience among spiritualists. 
 
 ' In the morning, therefore,' Mr. Brudenel 
 went on, ' I repaired to this study, oppressed 
 and dejected. Herr Paulus followed me. He 
 began by reading my thoughts accurately and
 
 294 HERR PAULUS 
 
 exactly, a thing which should of itself have 
 reassured me. He then voluntarily proposed 
 to give me a private proof of his credentials, 
 and begged me to ask him something — any- 
 thing apparently impossible. I asked him to 
 place in my hands an Indian paper — the 
 " Friend of India " — for that very day. He 
 reminded me that the difference of time 
 between London and Delhi is about six 
 hours, so that at ten o'clock in the morning 
 with us it is already four in the afternoon 
 with them. If, he said, I had asked for 
 a copy of the paper at midnight, I might 
 have had one just hot from the press of 
 the next morning. As it was — I know not 
 how the paper came into his hands — he 
 handed me the " Friend of India " of that very 
 morning.' 
 
 ' This is an interesting statement,' said the 
 Professor. 
 
 ' I opened the paper and read it from be- 
 ginning to end ' — here Mr. Brudenel's memory 
 played him false, because in fact he had really 
 read no more than the title and the date.
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 295 
 
 ' It had already been cut, and, I presume, had 
 been read six hours before. In one corner 
 was a brown stain as of spilt coffee. I then, 
 at the request of Herr Paulus, folded the 
 paper, placed it in an envelope, tied it round 
 with ribbon, to which he affixed his own seal, 
 and deposited it in a drawer of my safe. No 
 one, remember,' he added solemnly, ' has a 
 key to that safe but myself. That key never 
 leaves my possession.' 
 
 ' And now,' said the Professor, ' you are 
 going to open the drawer and to show us the 
 paper. But, first, how are we sure that no 
 one has got at the safe ? ' 
 
 ' You have my word.' 
 
 'Precisely. But how do you yourself 
 know it? ' 
 
 ' I repeat that no one has a key except 
 myself, and that no one knew of the deposit 
 of this paper except myself.' 
 
 'You are now going to show it to us. 
 Permit me to say, Mr. Brudenel, that it would 
 have been more satisfactory had we seen it dn 
 the day that you received it.'
 
 296 HERR PAULUS 
 
 'Much more satisfactory,' said Emanuel 
 Chick. 
 
 ' Permit me one more question,' this heck- 
 Hng Professor continued. ' Have the copies 
 of this paper been sent round by the Post 
 akeady ? ' 
 
 ' I beheve not,' Mr. Brudenel rephed. 
 ' They will be received by London subscribers 
 to-morrow morning.' 
 
 'That is highly important and will have 
 to be ascertained. Now, sir, we will, if you 
 please, proceed to the verification of the 
 document.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel drew forth his bunch of keys. 
 Then he turned pale suddenly, and whispered 
 a word in the ear of Herr Paulus. 
 
 ' The Friends have forgotten and forgiven,' 
 said this oracular young man. ' Have neither 
 doubt nor fear.' 
 
 Mr. Brudenel gave his daughter his bunch 
 of keys. 
 
 ' Sibyl, my dear,' he said, ' go and open 
 the safe. Get me the packet in the left-hand 
 drawer.'
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 297 
 
 Sibyl obeyed. In the left-hand drawer 
 there lay a packet of brown paper tied up 
 with ribbon, and sealed. 
 
 ' It was sealed in my presence,' said Mr. 
 Brudenel, ' by Herr Paulus. He will examine 
 the seal before it is broken.' 
 
 The Professor looked at the seal. 
 
 'There is a pentagon with some Hebrew 
 letters on it,' he said. 
 
 ' Here is the seal.' Paul drew a ring from 
 his finger. ' It is my own — the seal of Prince 
 Menelek.' 
 
 Then the Professor opened the packet. 
 Within it was the ' Friend of India,' four 
 weeks old, the ])aper which would be de- 
 livered in tlie morning. 
 
 The Professor looked at the paper sus- 
 piciously : he marked the brown coffee stain, 
 he read the telegrams — they were dated four 
 weeks ago — the date at the top of the page 
 was four weeks old. Everything seemed 
 genuine. Yet he doubted. 
 
 ' It seems to be — I suppose it is! ' he said, 
 ' the paper of the date named.' He gave it
 
 298 HERR PAULUS 
 
 to Tom Langston, wlio examined it with equal 
 care. 
 
 ' It is very odd,' lie said, glancing quickly 
 at Herr Paulus, who received the look and 
 the remark without apparent emotion. ' It is 
 extremely odd — it is, in fact, wonderful. The 
 paper has been lying in the drawer of the 
 safe for a month ; it came oversky, so to 
 speak, all the way ; yet it smells of the ship 
 or of the letter-bag just as Indian papers do 
 always smell. Foreign letters have all got a 
 double smell in fact,' — he smelt the paper 
 curiously. ' One of the place where they 
 come from. There's a Calcutta smell and a 
 Bombay smell, and a Delhi smell for instance ; 
 of course every city has its own peculiar 
 smell. And there's the smell of the voyage 
 as well. Now this paper has never been on a 
 ship at all and yet it has this smell of the 
 voyage. How are we to explain that ? ' 
 
 ' As for me,' Paul replied cheerfully, ' I 
 explain nothing. I am not responsible for 
 the paper or for the way in which it came.' 
 
 ' Why try to explain?' asked Mr. Brudenel.
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 299 
 
 ' The fact is before us. Everyone here can 
 testify to that. And now,' he looked round 
 with an air of assurance and triumph, ' I pre- 
 sume that no one will doubt my statement of 
 the case. And I hope — I trust — that this 
 Miracle, I can account it as nothing less — will 
 remove the last shreds of doubt if any re- 
 main as to the mission of my young friend 
 here.' 
 
 All those who had any right to be con- 
 sidered persons of authority here stepped for- 
 ward and shook hands, first with Mr. Brudenel 
 and then with Herr Paulus. 
 
 It was at this point that Mr. Brudenel de- 
 livered himself of the speech which has already 
 been mentioned. It was a purely spontaneous 
 and unpremeditated speech, springing straight 
 from the joy and triumph of his heart. And 
 everybody felt that he had the right to make 
 that speech. 
 
 Sibyl, who preserved her presence of mind 
 and remained unmoved, looked inquiringly at 
 Tom, who only shook his head mournfully. 
 The case was beyond him. It seemed for the
 
 30C HERR PAULUS 
 
 moment as if the scoffers were silenced. 
 Certainly, his laboratory contained no such 
 secret as would enable him to annihilate time 
 and space, except by means of the electric 
 spark, which does not convey a book and 
 parcels. The Professor, however, rallied. 
 He was beaten down but not conquered. 
 
 ' I admit,' he said, ' that you have a very 
 strong case, particularly if it could be shown 
 that no one could receive a copy of the paper 
 by post in time to place it in the safe. Until 
 that is proved I cannot acknowledge the 
 genuineness of this miracle. We must not 
 accept the impossible as accomplished until 
 there remains no room for doubt. Have you 
 anything to add, sir ? ' He turned to Herr 
 Paulus. 
 
 ' I ? Nothing.' The young Philosopher 
 was standing carelessly, as if he was not at all 
 interested in the case. ' Nothing at all. If 
 you cannot accept Mr. Brudenel's statement, 
 it is waste of time adding mine by way of 
 corroboration. Perhaps, as you say, the safe 
 has been tampered with. Yet the tampering
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION %o\ 
 
 must have been effected between the earhest 
 possible thne when the paper would be re- 
 ceived, and nine o'clock, the time when every- 
 body here arrived. Let us get our limits of 
 time exact. I ouglit to add, however, that it 
 is not my business to perform conjuring 
 tricks, even of this kind. But it was thought 
 necessary to impress upon people by some 
 such manifestations the reality of certain 
 messages. I am not a Medium in the ordi- 
 nary sense of the word.' 
 
 ' You are not,' said Emanuel Chick. 
 
 ' My Friends converse with each other 
 freely, whether they are dead or ahve : 
 whether they are together or apart.' 
 
 ' Are we not mixing things ? ' asked the 
 Professor. 
 
 ' No — if I succeed in showing you exactly 
 what I claim to bo and to do. If you come 
 here expecting the ordinary raps and things, 
 you are mistaken. The arrival of this paper 
 is not due to any spirit, but to a living 
 person.' 
 
 ' Humph ! ' said the Professor.
 
 302 HERE PAULUS 
 
 ' The original intention of that hving 
 person has been carried out. Mr. Cyrus 
 Brudenel has no longer any doubt at all.' 
 
 ' None,' said that gentleman ; ' none what- 
 ever. We stand upon the Solid Eock — upon 
 the Sohd Eock.' 
 
 The repetition of this assertion unfortu- 
 nately weakened its strength. It seemed 
 as if the incredulity of the Professor had 
 taken something from the Solidity of the 
 Eock. 
 
 ' There are some,' said Herr Paulus, ' who 
 are so prejudiced that they will never believe. 
 Come, sir,' he turned sharply to the Professor. 
 ' What is it you would like to have ? ' 
 
 ' Give me this day's paper.' 
 
 ' Well, I gave it Mr. Brudenel, but you 
 won't beheve me. Still, if you are not 
 contented, and if my Priends are wilhng to 
 gratify a sceptical mind — not that you will 
 
 believe a bit the more — but still ' He 
 
 said this very slowly, and with meaning, 
 insomuch that there was once more a hush of 
 expectation, and all eyes were turned upon
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 303 
 
 him. ' See ! ' lie cried, throwing forward his 
 right arm with the same gesture that he had 
 employed on the first evening. Then he 
 raised his left hand and caught something 
 folded — how it came or whence, no one saw. 
 It was a folded paper, and he handed it to the 
 Professor. 
 
 ' What is it ? ' he asked. 
 
 The Professor opened the paper, looked at 
 the title and at the date. 
 
 ' Good heavens I ' he cried, ' it is TO- 
 DAY'S PAPER 1 ! ! ' 
 
 ' Oh ! ' Everybody said that. 
 
 ' To-day's paper,' he repeated, again look- 
 ing at the title and the date. ' The '* Friend 
 of India " published at Delhi this very day. 
 Is it possible ? ' 
 
 Herr Paulus took the paper from his 
 unresisting hand and gave it to Lady 
 Augusta, who gave it to Hetty, who passed 
 it on to another, and so it passed from hand 
 to hand, for everybody wanted to see for 
 themselves this most wonderful thing. 
 
 ' Tom,' Sibyl whispered, ' I feel as if my
 
 304 HERR PAULUS 
 
 head was going round. What does it all 
 mean ? Can there be any reality in it ? ' 
 
 ' I believe,' Tom replied, ' that we are all 
 mesmerised, and that he makes us see and say 
 and testify exactly what he likes. Keep your 
 head steady. Dodo. The Professor looks like 
 the proverbial stuck pig. Put a pin into me 
 if I begin to look like that.' 
 
 ' I should like,' said the Professor, re- 
 covering a little, ' to see the paper again. 
 May I take it away and keep it ? ' 
 
 ' Certainly,' Herr Paulus replied. ' Where 
 is it ? Who has got the paper ? ' 
 
 Wonderful to relate, nobody had it. The 
 paper had vanished. Some there were who 
 thought that the Eev. Benjamin Eudge had 
 taken it for literary purposes, but he declared 
 that he had done no more than read the title 
 and the date, hke the rest. Others, again, 
 thought that Mr. Emanuel Chick might 
 have slipped it into his pocket in order to 
 hide the evidence of superior skill ; but he 
 denied the charge. Everybody had seen it ; 
 everybody had passed it on : and no one
 
 THE SECOND FUNCTION 305 
 
 could find out who had it last. It was gone 
 — lost — and it has never been seen sine e 
 
 ' Shall we offer our pockets to be 
 searched ? ' asked Herr Paulus. 
 
 ' Oh ! Nonsense,' said the Professor. 
 
 ' My dear sir,' said Herr Paulus, ' those 
 who sent the paper here could take it away 
 again. Understand, sir ' — for the first time 
 this evening he abandoned the easy half- 
 careless manner and became grave and 
 admonitory — ' understand that my Friends do 
 not suffer dictation. They have chosen to 
 show you this Wonder. Believe it or not as 
 you please. Put any construction upon it 
 that you please. And now there will be no 
 further manifestations.' 
 
 ' Herr Paulus,' the Professor replied, ' I 
 have no reply to make and no explanation 
 now to suggest. But I always remember Dr. 
 Blade's slate,' he added in a whisper. 
 
 ' Herr Paulus.' It was Mrs. Hanley 
 Tracey. ' Eemember, you promised to seek 
 us out on Sunday evenings. Come next 
 Sunday.' 
 
 VOL. I. X
 
 3o6 HERR PAULUS 
 
 ' Dear Lady Augusta ' — it was Mrs. 
 Medlock — ' you must keep him here. Oh I 
 that College of which we spoke. How gladly 
 would I hellup ! I have been asked to lecture 
 for the new Society for the Extension of 
 Psychical Learning. It is a most interesting 
 and attractive subject, full of ghosts. But 
 oh ! how much rather would I hellup your 
 College ! ' 
 
 ' Old man.' It was Tom who laid his 
 hand on Paul's arm, and whispered. ' It was 
 wonderful — truly wonderful ! It was beauti- 
 fully done. How the Devil did you do it ? 
 And what became of the paper ? ' 
 
 EXD OF THE FIRST VOLUME. 
 
 PRIXTED BY 
 
 SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE 
 
 LONDON