‘You look tired, Miss Marburg,’ said Mrs Percival. ‘Won’t you have some tea?’
She handed me a cup which I took mechanically. I was still thinking of Miss Haldane and her eyes. I felt quite sure that no one could see her without thinking of her eyes alone, the rest of her beautifully moulded face, graceful pose and slim young figure being all forgotten in the effect that the eyes produced.
In the drawing-room just before dinner I was introduced to Miss Haldane’s brother. To my astonishment he was in every respect her opposite. He was a fair haired, stoutly built, ugly man. He was not only ugly but his expression was absolutely unpleasant. Nevertheless, he too had his charms. When he spoke you forgot the ugly features, the sunken eyes, the leer round the mouth. His voice was good, nay, beautiful. His intellect was undoubtedly powerful, and he had a sympathising manner which appealed more or less to all those to whom he spoke. He happened to be my neighbour at dinner on that first evening, and before the meal came to an end I had arrived at the conclusion that he was a most remarkable and most interesting man.
On the next day several of the guests took their departure, and Esther Haldane and I found ourselves alone. We went for a walk together on the Downs and afterwards sat in the cosy boudoir where she made tea for me.
‘You must allow me to congratulate you,’ I said suddenly. ‘You are a very lucky girl.’
‘What do you mean?’ she asked.
‘Need you ask? You have won the affections of Sir Penn Caryll. You are about to marry him. I have known him since I was a child. You are in luck, Miss Haldane. You are going to marry a good man.’
She fixed her eyes on me, the pupils dilating until they looked black; then, very slowly, the lovely eyes filled with tears. She dropped on her knees beside me.
‘You are a clairvoyante,’ she said; ‘so, for that matter, is Karl. I am afraid of Karl, and very little would make me afraid of you. Will you look at my hand?’
She held it out as she spoke. I examined it attentively. I saw, to my regret, many bad points. The Mount of Mercury was sunken, the heart-line was chained, and Jupiter was remarkable for his absence. All these things proclaimed this girl, according to my creed, to be unscrupulous, even cruel. She did not look cruel, and I had no reason up to the present to doubt her honour. Nevertheless, I dropped her hand with a sigh. It was quite an unusual one for a girl to possess.
‘What is the matter?’ she asked. ‘Am I so very bad?’
‘I have seen more promising hands,’ I answered.
‘Tell me what you see?’
‘Do you really wish to know?’
‘Yes.’
‘Forewarned is forearmed,’ I said, after a moment’s pause. ‘Your circumstances are happy, Miss Haldane, and there is no reason why you should not lead a good and honourable life to the end of the chapter. Nevertheless, your hand points to a certain unscrupulousness in your character. For instance, I should not care to submit you to a very great money temptation.’
‘Oh, you are horrible!’ she cried. Her face grew very white. ‘You frighten me; you talk nonsense, and yet, and yet it is nonsense that Karl believes in.’
She began to rub the offending palm.
‘I am going to my room,’ she said. ‘Your words have worried me.’
Her manner was somewhat that of a spoilt child. I smiled to myself, but an unaccountable weight of suspicion and dread was hanging over me. Why should I believe anything evil of a beautiful girl like Esther Haldane? What object could she have in injuring the man whom she was about to marry? I felt ashamed of my own suspicions; nevertheless they would not quite go away.
On the next day the trial of Sir Penn’s horses would take place, and on that evening just when dinner was coming to an end, Miss Haldane raised her voice and called across to her brother, who was sitting at the other end of the table.
‘Karl,’ she cried, ‘Sir Penn has been asking if you will not give us a séance this evening. You have been very disagreeable not to do so before. You will oblige, I think I may say, all the company. Will you not consent on this occasion?’
The ladies bowed and smiled, and the men bent forward to watch what Haldane would do. I thought – or was I mistaken? – that he gave his sister a sudden glance of understanding. Then he said with that slow sort of drawl which now and then characterised him:
‘I shall have much pleasure in doing what the company wish.’
Sir Penn expressed his satisfaction, and there was a chorus of approval from one and all.
When we met in the drawing-room Haldane came to the front.
‘Ladies and gentlemen,’ he said, ‘I have been asked to give tonight a demonstration of thought transference. This I am willing to do on a condition. I want you all to be absolutely satisfied that there is no deception. I will therefore leave the room in company with someone now present, who shall remain with me until I return.
‘While I am away, a certain sentence employing intelligible words shall be
