we to see it more clearly?”
Barnes said, “I’m afraid I don’t know much more about science than I do about the supernatural. In fact, they often seem about the same to me.”
The witch nodded and smiled, perfect teeth flashing in her dark face. “They are indeed closer than most scientists—or most mystics—are willing to admit, Mr. Barnes. If I have provided your first lesson in science, let me give you your first in mysticism also. It is that we live surrounded by signs—signs we are often too blind to read. I am such a sign and you are such a sign and that bed on which you sit is a sign. If we knew what all the signs mean, we should be creatures of a higher order. If we knew only what many of them mean, we should have power and great riches. Do you understand?”
“I think so,” Barnes said.
“The air and light of the living are signs then, and the dirt and dust of death. If we who can see the stars cannot see what is higher, how shall those who dwell beneath the roots of the trees in a land of worm and stone and water see it? I say to you, Mr. Barnes, that knowledge comes to those who seek to learn, sight to those whose eyes are opened, understanding to those who ponder the mysteries.”
“That’s wonderfully put,” Barnes said. “I can see why you believe it, ah …”
“My name is Madame Serpentina. You may call me that.”
“I know. Only I thought maybe … well, for instance, it might be more friendly if you were to call me Ozzie.”
“Very well, I will call you Ozzie, and you will call me Madame Serpentina.”
“Of course, Madame Serpentina, if that’s the way you want it. I was going to say that now that I’ve heard you put it so well—that is, if I could sell my merchandise the way you do your ideas, why I’d be rich. I believe it, too. Only I don’t know what it is you want from me.”
The witch smiled again. “You are a wonderful man, my Ozzie. You are practical, you are persuasive, you have to an unusual degree the masculine force of character. What would any woman want of you?”
Barnes’s eyes strayed to the stack of letters on the table. “Well, as you said yourself, Madame Serpentina, what most of them are after is money.”
“Your protection, your courage, your strength, and your cunning at her side. But, Ozzie,” she leaned forward and caught his hands in her own, which seemed to him as cold as ice. “You must first understand that I am what I say I am. I have been called a witch, and indeed I have called myself that—it is the closest word English has for what I am. Do you know what it means? Wit meant knowledge once. To wicken was to enchant, only a thousand years ago. To wikken was to prophesy. Wih meant holy.”
She said all these words rapidly, so that
“I am indeed, my Ozzie; you speak more truly than you know. I have often noticed that when others speak to me—doubtless it is my aura. But what you must understand is that I am one who has lifted the veil. I am enlightened. We spoke, you and I, of seeing a higher world. I have on occasion glimpsed it, or its reflection. I have made the study of it my life.”
Barnes nodded solemnly.
“You are here now, and I am here, Ozzie, in a house on the brink of destruction. Why are we here?”
“Well,” Barnes said slowly, “I can’t really speak for you, Madame Serpentina. But me, I always read the classifieds, especially the personals. And a couple of days ago, I saw this ad in the Sunday paper that said free rooms. I cut it out, and I believe I’ve got it here someplace.”
“You need not search for it.”
“Anyway, it said there would be free rooms at this address until the building came down. To tell the truth, I’d been having some trouble where I was staying then. I owed rent, and once they padlocked my door, only I was able to show the woman that unless I could get my sample cases and present a respectable appearance, I couldn’t ever make the rent, and she let me back in. So when I saw this, I went after it. Old Mr. Free was turning away undesirables, and my impression was that we would all be respectable people here, which I should say we all are, except one.”
The witch waved the cavil aside. “Let me tell you now how I came.” She paused, and for a moment appeared to see something over Barnes’s left shoulder that he would not himself have seen. “I had observed certain portents, in the stars and elsewhere. Because of them I was excited. You may think me, my Ozzie, a woman of the indurated kind, but it is not so—I am capable of feelings that would burst the hearts of many. Like you, I had experienced certain difficulties; at times I am wakeful for long periods and at odd hours. I enjoy music that is—shall we say—an acquired taste, and my visitors are sometimes unconventional.”
Barnes nodded solemnly, having observed something of all these himself.
“Although I paid an excessive rent for an inadequate apartment, I was no longer welcome. I saw the advertisement you saw, and despite its appearing too small a stroke of good fortune for the promises extended to me, yet it was a favorable day, and I came.”
“Let’s say the good fortune was ours, Madame Serpentina.”
The witch ignored this compliment. “All the rest of the day I waited the blessing promised. It did not appear. I returned to my old building hoping some message had come; there was nothing. That night I watched the stars again. I had not been mistaken. You may believe I wondered long over that.”
Barnes nodded again. “I can see how you would.”
“After you left us tonight, I talked with our host. He told me something of his sorrows, his fears. Much more, I think, than he thought himself to tell, because he believed me unenlightened. He is old, and his mind is full of death and no longer so clear as he thinks. In the end, he could not resist a small demonstration of his power.”
“Are you saying Mr. Free is, well, somebody like you?”
