Love Eternal: Chapter 6

Chapter 6

EXPERIENCES

"Let us sit round the table and talk," said Madame Riennes.

Thereon the whole party moved into the recess where was the flower-pot
that has been mentioned, which Miss Ogilvy took away.

They seated themselves round the little table upon which it had stood.
Godfrey, lingering behind, found, whether by design or accident, that
the only place left for him was the arm-chair which he hesitated to
occupy.

"Be seated, young Monsieur," said the formidable Madame in bell-like
tones, whereon he collapsed into the chair. "Sister Helen," she went
on, "draw the curtain, it is more private so; yes, and the blind that
there may be no unholy glare."

Miss Ogilvy, who seemed to be entirely under Madame's thumb, obeyed.
Now to all intents and purposes they were in a tiny, shadowed room cut
off from the main apartment.

"Take that talisman from your neck and give it to young Monsieur
Knight," commanded Madame.

"But I gave it to her, and do not want it back," ventured Godfrey, who
was growing alarmed.

"Do what I say," she said sternly, and he found himself holding the
relic.

"Now, young Monsieur, look me in the eyes a little and listen. I
request of you that holding that black, engraved stone in your hand,
you will be so good as to throw your soul, do you understand, your
soul, back, back, /back/ and tell us where it come from, who have it,
what part it play in their life, and everything about it."

"How am I to know?" asked Godfrey, with indignation.

Then suddenly everything before him faded, and he saw himself standing
in a desert by a lump of black rock, at which a brown man clad only in
a waist cloth and a kind of peaked straw hat, was striking with an
instrument that seemed to be half chisel and half hammer, fashioned
apparently from bronze, or perhaps of greenish-coloured flint.
Presently the brown man, who had a squint in one eye and a hurt toe
that was bound round with something, picked up a piece of the black
rock that he had knocked off, and surveyed it with evident
satisfaction. Then the scene vanished.

Godfrey told it with interest to the audience who were apparently also
interested.

"The finding of the stone," said Madame. "Continue, young Monsieur."

Another vision rose before Godfrey's mind. He beheld a low room having
a kind of verandah, roofed with reeds, and beyond it a little
courtyard enclosed by a wall of grey-coloured mud bricks, out of some
of which stuck pieces of straw. This courtyard opened onto a narrow
street where many oddly-clothed people walked up and down, some of
whom wore peaked caps. A little man, old and grey, sat with the
fragment of black rock on a low table before him, which Godfrey knew
to be the same stone that he had already seen. By him lay graving
tools, and he was engaged in polishing the stone, now covered with
figures and writing, by help of a stick, a piece of rough cloth and
oil. A young man with a curly beard walked into the little courtyard,
and to him the old fellow delivered the engraved stone with
obeisances, receiving payment in some curious currency.

Then followed picture upon picture in all of which the talisman
appeared in the hands of sundry of its owners. Some of these pictures
had to do with love, some with religious ceremonies, and some with
war. One, too, with its sale, perhaps in a time of siege or scarcity,
for a small loaf of black-looking bread, by an aged woman who wept at
parting with it.

After this he saw an Arab-looking man finding the stone amongst the
crumbling remains of a brick wall that showed signs of having been
burnt, which wall he was knocking down with a pick-axe to allow water
to flow down an irrigation channel on his garden. Presently a person
who wore a turban and was girt about with a large scimitar, rode by,
and to him the man showed, and finally presented the stone, which the
Saracen placed in the folds of his turban.

The next scene was of this man engaged in battle with a knight clad in
mail. The battle was a very fine one, which Godfrey described with
much gusto. It ended in the knight killing the Eastern man and hacking
off his head with a sword. This violent proceeding disarranged the
turban out of which fell the black stone. The knight picked it up and
hid it about him. Next Godfrey saw this same knight, grown into an old
man and being borne on a bier to burial, clad in the same armour that
he had worn in the battle. Upon his breast hung the black stone which
had now a hole bored through the top of it.

Lastly there came a picture of the old sexton finding the talisman
among the bones of the knight, and giving it to himself, Godfrey, then
a small boy, after which everything passed away.

"I guess that either our young friend here has got the vision, or that
he will make a first-class novelist," said Colonel Josiah Smith. "Any
way, if you care to part with that talisman, Miss Ogilvy, I will be
glad to give you five hundred dollars for it on the chance of his
integrity."

She smiled and shook her head, stretching out her hand to recover the
Gnostic charm.

"Be silent, Brother Josiah Smith," exclaimed Madame Riennes, angrily.
"If this were imposture, should I not have discovered it? It is good
vision--psychometry is the right term--though of a humbler order such
as might be expected from a beginner. Still, there is hope, there is
hope. Let us see, now. Young gentleman, be so good as to look me in
the eye."

Much against his will Godfrey found himself bound to obey, and looked
her "in the eye." A few moments later he felt dizzy, and after that he
remembered no more.

When Godfrey awoke again the curtain was drawn, the blinds were pulled
up and the butler was bringing in tea. Miss Ogilvy sat by his side,
looking at him rather anxiously, while the others were conversing
together in a somewhat excited fashion.

"It is splendid, splendid!" Madame was saying. "We have discovered a
pearl beyond price, a great treasure. Hush! he awakes."

Godfrey, who experienced a curious feeling of exhaustion and of
emptiness of brain, yawned and apologized for having fallen asleep,
whereon the professor and the colonel both assured him that it was
quite natural on so warm a day. Only Madame Riennes smiled like a
sphinx, and asked him if his dreams were pleasant. To this he replied
that he remembered none.

Miss Ogilvy, however, who looked rather anxious and guilty, did not
speak at all, but busied herself with the tea which Godfrey thought
very strong when he drank it. However, it refreshed him wonderfully,
which, as it contained some invigorating essence, was not strange. So
did the walk in the beautiful garden which he took afterwards, just
before the carriage came to drive him back to Kleindorf.

Re-entering the drawing-room to say goodbye, he found the party
engaged listening to the contents of a number of sheets of paper
closely written in pencil, which were being read to them by Colonel
Josiah Smith, who made corrections from time to time.

"/Au revoir/, my young brother," said Madame Riennes, making some
mysterious sign before she took his hand in her fat, cold fingers,
"you will come again next Sunday, will you not?"

"I don't know," he answered awkwardly, for he felt afraid of this
lady, and did not wish to see her next Sunday.

"Oh! but I do, young brother. You will come, because it gives me so
much pleasure to see you," she replied, staring at him with her
strange eyes.

Then Godfrey knew that he would come because he must.

"Why does that lady call me 'young brother'?" he asked Miss Ogilvy,
who accompanied him to the hall.

"Oh! because it is a way she has. You may have noticed that she called
me 'sister'."

"I don't think that I shall call /her/ sister," he remarked with
decision. "She is too alarming."

"Not really when you come to know her, for she has the kindest heart
and is wonderfully gifted."

"Gifts which make people tell others that they are going to die are
not pleasant, Miss Ogilvy."

She shivered a little.

"If her spirit--I mean the truth--comes to her, she must speak it, I
suppose. By the way, Godfrey, don't say anything about this talisman
and the story you told of it, at Kleindorf, or in writing home."

"Why not?"

"Oh! because people like your dear old Pasteur, and clergymen
generally, are so apt to misunderstand. They think that there is only
one way of learning things beyond, and that every other must be wrong.
Also I am sure that your friend, Isobel Blake, would laugh at you."

"I don't write to Isobel," he exclaimed setting his lips.

"But you may later," she said smiling. "At any rate you will promise,
won't you?"

"Yes, if you wish it, Miss Ogilvy, though I can't see what it matters.
That kind of nonsense often comes into my head when I touch old
things. Isobel says that it is because I have too much imagination."

"Imagination! Ah! what is imagination? Well, goodbye, Godfrey, the
carriage will come for you at the same time next Sunday. Perhaps, too,
I shall see you before then, as I am going to call upon Madame
Boiset."

Then he went, feeling rather uncomfortable, and yet interested, though
what it was that interested him he did not quite know. That night he
dreamed that Madame Riennes stood by his bed watching him with her
burning eyes. It was an unpleasant dream.

He kept his word. When the Boiset family, especially Madame, cross-
examined him as to the details of his visit to Miss Ogilvy, he merely
described the splendours of that opulent establishment and the
intellectual character of its guests. Of their mystic attributes he
said nothing at all, only adding that Miss Ogilvy proposed to do
herself the honour of calling at the Maison Blanche, as the Boisets'
house was called.

About the middle of the week Miss Ogilvy arrived and, as Madame had
taken care to be at home in expectation of her visit, was entertained
to tea. Afterwards she visited the observatory, which interested her
much, and had a long talk with the curious old Pasteur, who also
interested her in his way, for as she afterwards remarked to Godfrey,
one does not often meet an embodiment of human goodness and charity.
When he replied that the latter quality was lacking to the Pasteur
where Roman Catholics were concerned, she only smiled and said that
every jewel had its flaw; nothing was quite perfect in the world.

In the end she asked Madame and Juliette to come to lunch with her,
leaving out Godfrey, because, as she said, she knew that he would be
engaged at his studies with the Pasteur. She explained also that she
did not ask them to come with him on Sunday because they would be
taken up with their religious duties, a remark at which Juliette made
what the French call a "mouth," and Madame smiled faintly.

In due course she and her daughter went to lunch and returned
delighted, having found themselves fellow-guests of some of the most
notable people in Lucerne, though not those whom Miss Ogilvy
entertained on Sundays. Needless to say from that time forward
Godfrey's intimacy with this charming and wealthy hostess was in every
way encouraged by the Boiset family.

The course of this intimacy does not need any very long description.
Every Sunday after church the well-appointed carriage and pair
appeared and bore Godfrey away to luncheon at the Villa Ogilvy. Here
he always met Madame Riennes, Colonel Josiah Smith, and Professor
Petersen; also occasionally one or two others with whom these seemed
to be sufficiently intimate to admit of their addressing them as
"Brother" or "Sister."

Soon Godfrey came to understand that they were all members of some
kind of semi-secret society, though what this might be he could not
quite ascertain. All he made sure of was that it had to do with
matters which were not of this world. Nothing concerning mundane
affairs, however important or interesting, seemed to appeal to them;
all their conversation was directed towards what might be called
spiritual problems, reincarnations, Karmas (it took him a long time to
understand what a Karma is), astral shapes, mediumship, telepathic
influences, celestial guides, and the rest.

At first this talk with its jargon of words which he did not
comprehend, bored him considerably, but by degrees he felt that he was
being drawn into a vortex, and began to understand its drift. Even
while it was enigmatic it acquired a kind of unholy attraction for
him, and he began to seek out its secret meaning in which he found
that company ready instructors.

"Young brother," said Madame Riennes, "we deal with the things not of
the body, but of the soul. The body, what is it? In a few years it
will be dust and ashes, but the soul--it is eternal--and all those
stars you study are its inheritance, and you and I, if we cultivate
our spiritual parts, shall rule in them."

Then she would roll her big eyes and become in a way magnificent, so
that Godfrey forgot her ugliness and the repulsion with which she
inspired him.

In the end his outlook on life and the world became different, and
this not so much because of what he learned from his esoteric
teachers, as through some change in his internal self. He grew to
appreciate the vastness of things and the infinite possibilities of
existence. Indeed, his spiritual education was a fitting pendant to
his physical study of the heavens, peopled with unnumbered worlds,
each of them the home, doubtless, of an infinite variety of life, and
each of them keeping its awful secrets locked in its floating orb. He
trembled in presence of the stupendous Whole, of which thus by degrees
he became aware, and though it frightened him, thought with pity of
the busy millions of mankind to whom such mysteries are nothing at
all; who are lost in their business or idleness, in their eating,
drinking, sleeping, love-making, and general satisfaction of the
instincts which they possess in common with every other animal. The
yearning for wisdom, the desire to know, entered his young heart and
possessed it, as once these did that of Solomon, to such a degree
indeed, that standing on the threshold of his days, he would have paid
them all away, and with them his share in this warm and breathing
world, could he have been assured that in exchange he would receive
the key of the treasure-house of the Infinite.

Such an attitude was neither healthy nor natural to a normal, vigorous
lad just entering upon manhood, and, as will be seen, it did not
endure. Like everything else, it had its causes. His astronomical
studies were one of these, but a deeper reason was to be found in
those Sunday s�ances at the Villa Ogilvy. For a long while Godfrey did
not know what happened to him on these occasions. The party sat round
the little table, talking of wonderful things; Madame Riennes looked
at him and sometimes took his hand, which he did not like, and then he
remembered no more until he woke up, feeling tired, and yet in a way
exhilarated, for with the mysteries of hypnotic sleep he was not yet
acquainted. Nor did it occur to him that he was being used a medium by
certain of the most advanced spiritualists in the world.

By degrees, however, inklings of the truth began to come. Thus, one
day his consciousness awoke while his body seemed still to be wrapt in
trance, and he saw that there was a person present who had not been of
the party when he went to sleep. A young woman, clad in a white robe,
with lovely hair flowing down her back, stood by his side and held his
supine fingers in her hand.

She was beautiful, and yet unearthly, she wore ornaments also, but as
he watched, to his amazement these seemed to change. What had been a
fillet of white stones, like diamonds, which bound her hair, turned to
one of red stones, like rubies, and as it did so the colour of her
eyes, which were large and very tranquil, altered.

She was speaking in a low, rich voice to Miss Ogilvy, who answered,
addressing her as Sister Eleanor, but what she said Godfrey could not
understand. Something of his inner shock and fear must have reflected
itself upon his trance-bound features, for suddenly he heard Madame
Riennes exclaim:

"Have done! the medium awakes, and I tell you it is dangerous while
our Guide is here. Back to his breast, Eleanor! Thence to your place!"

The tall figure changed; it became misty, shapeless. It seemed to fall
on him like a cloud of icy vapour, chilling him to the heart, and
through that vapour he could see the ormolu clock which stood on a
bracket in the recess, and even note the time, which was thirteen
minutes past four. After this he became unconscious, and in due course
woke up as usual. The first thing his eyes fell on was the clock, of
which the hands now pointed to a quarter to five, and the sight of it
brought everything back to him. Then he observed that all the circle
seemed much agitated, and distinctly heard Madame Riennes say to
Professor Petersen in English:--

"The thing was very near. Had it not been for that medicine of
yours----! It was because that speerit do take his hand. She grow fond
of him; it happen sometimes if the medium be of the other sex and
attractive. She want to carry him away with her, that Control, and I
expect she never quite leave him all his life, because, you see, she
materialize out of him, and therefore belong to him. Next time she
come, I give her my mind. Hush! Our wonderful little brother wake up--
quite right this time."

Then Godfrey really opened his eyes; hitherto he had been feigning to
be still in trance, but thought it wisest to say nothing. At this
moment Miss Ogilvy turned very pale and went into a kind of light
faint.

The Professor produced some kind of smelling-bottle from his pocket,
which he held to her nostrils. She came to at once, and began to laugh
at her own silliness, but begged them all to go away and leave her
quiet, which they did. Godfrey was going too, but she stopped him,
saying that the carriage would not be ready till after tea, and that
it was too wet for him to walk in the garden, for now autumn had come
in earnest. The tea arrived, a substantial tea, with poached eggs, of
which she made him eat two, as she did always after these sittings.
Then suddenly she asked him if he had seen anything. He told her all,
adding:

"I am frightened. I do not like this business, Miss Ogilvy. Who and
what was that lady in white, who stood by me and held my hand? My
fingers are still tingling, and a cold wind seems to blow upon me."

"It was a spirit, Godfrey, but there is no need to be afraid, she will
not do you any harm."

"I don't know, and I don't think that you have any right to bring
spirits to me, or out of me, as I heard that dreadful Madame say had
happened. It is a great liberty."

"Oh! don't be angry with me," she said piteously. "If only you
understood. You are a wonderful medium, the most wonderful that any of
us has ever known, and through you we have learned things; holy,
marvellous things, which till now have not been heard of in the world.
Your fame is already great among leading spiritualists of the earth,
though of course they do not know who you are."

"That does not better matters," said Godfrey, "you know it is not
right."

"Perhaps not, but my dear boy, if only you guessed all it means to me!
Listen; I will tell you; you will not betray me, will you? Once I was
very fond of someone; he was all my life, and he died, and my heart
broke. I only hope and pray that such a thing may never happen to you.
Well, from that hour to this I have been trying to find him and
failed, always failed, though once or twice I thought----. And now
through you I have found him. Yes, he has spoken to me telling me much
which proves to me that he still lives elsewhere and awaits me. And
oh! I am happy, and do not care how soon I go to join him. And it is
all through you. So you will forgive me, will you not?"

"Yes, I suppose so," said Godfrey, "but all the same I don't want to
have anything more to do with that white lady who is called Eleanor
and changes her jewels so often; especially as Madame said she was
growing fond of me and would never leave me. So please don't ask me
here again on Sundays."

Miss Ogilvy tried to soothe him.

"You shouldn't be frightened of her," she said. "She is really a
delightful spirit, and declares that she knew you very intimately
indeed, when you were an early Egyptian, also much before that on the
lost continent, which is called Atlantis, to say nothing of deep
friendships which have existed between you in other planets."

"I say!" exclaimed Godfrey, "do you believe all this?"

"Well, if you ask me, I must say that I do. I am sure that we have all
of us lived many lives, here and elsewhere, and if this is so, it is
obvious that in the course of them we must have met an enormous number
of people, with certain of whom we have been closely associated in the
various relationships of life. Some of these, no doubt, come round
with us again, but others do not, though we can get into touch with
them under exceptional circumstances. That is your case and Eleanor's.
At present you are upon different spheres, but in the future, no
doubt, you will find yourselves side by side again, as you have often
been, in due course to be driven apart once more by the winds of
Destiny, and perhaps, after ages, finally to be united. Meanwhile she
plays the part of one of your guardian angels."

"Then I wish she wouldn't," said Godfrey, with vigour. "I don't care
for a guardian angel of whom I have no memory, and who seems to fall
on you like snow upon a hot day. If anybody does that kind of thing I
should prefer a living woman."

"Which doubtless she has been, and will be again. For you see, where
she is, she has memory and foreknowledge, which are lacking to the
incarnated. Meanwhile, through you, and because of you, she can tell
us much. You are the wire which connects us to her in the Unseen."

"Then I hope you will find another wire; I really do, for it upsets me
and makes me feel ill. I know that I shall be afraid to go to bed
to-night, and even for you, Miss Ogilvy, I won't come next Sunday."

Then, as the carriage was now at the door, he jumped into it and
departed without waiting for an answer.

Moreover, on the next Sunday, when, as usual, it arrived to fetch him
at Kleindorf, Godfrey kept his word, so that it went back empty. By
the coachman he sent an awkwardly worded note to Miss Ogilvy, saying
that he was suffering from toothache which had prevented him from
sleeping for several nights, and was not well enough to come out.

This note she answered by post, telling him that she had been
disappointed not to see him as she was also ill. She added that she
would send the carriage on the following Sunday on the chance of his
toothache being better, but that if it was not, she would understand
and trouble him no more.

During all that week Godfrey fought with himself. He did not wish to
have anything more to do with the white and ghostly Eleanor, who
changed her gems so constantly, and said that she had known him
millenniums ago. Indeed, he felt already as though she were much too
near him, especially at night, when he seemed to become aware of her
bending over his bed, and generally making her presence known in other
uncomfortable ways that caused his hair to stand up and frightened
him.

At the same time he was really fond of Miss Ogilvy, and what she said
about being ill touched him. Also there was something that drew him;
it might be Eleanor, or it might be Madame Riennes. At any rate he
felt a great longing to go. Putting everything else aside, these
investigations had their delights. What other young fellow of his age
could boast an Eleanor, who said she had been fond of him tens of
thousands of years before?

Moreover, here was one of the gates to that knowledge which he desired
so earnestly, and how could he find the strength to shut it in his own
face?

Of course the end of the matter was that by the following Sunday, his
toothache had departed, and the carriage did not return empty to the
Villa Ogilvy.

He found his hostess looking white and ethereal, an appearance that
she had acquired increasingly ever since their first meeting. Her
delight at seeing him was obvious, as was that of the others. For this
he soon discovered the reason. It appeared that the sitting on the
previous Sunday, when he was overcome by toothache, had been an almost
total failure. Professor Petersen had tried to fill his place as
medium, with the result that when he fell under the influence, the
only spirit that broke through his lips was one which discoursed
interminably about lager beer and liqueurs of some celestial brew,
which, as Madame Riennes, a lady not given to mince her words, told
him to his face afterwards, was because he drank too much. Hence the
joy of these enthusiasts at the re-appearance of Godfrey.

With considerable reluctance that youth consented to play his usual
r�le, and to be put into a charmed sleep by Madame. This time he saw
no Eleanor, and knew nothing of what happened until he awoke to be
greeted by the horrific spectacle of Miss Ogilvy lying back in her
chair bathed in blood. General confusion reigned in the midst of which
Madame Riennes alone was calm.

"It is h�morrhage from the lungs," she said, "which is common among
/poitrinaires/. Brother Petersen, do what you can, and you, Brother
Smith, fly for Mademoiselle's doctor, and if he is not at home, bring
another."

Later Godfrey heard what had chanced. It seemed that the wraith, or
emanation, or the sprite, good or evil, or whatever it may have been,
which called itself Eleanor, materialized in a very ugly temper. It
complained that it had not been allowed to appear upon the previous
Sunday and had been kept away from its brother, i.e. Godfrey. Then it
proceeded to threaten all the circle, except Godfrey, who was the real
culprit, with divers misfortunes, especially directing its wrath
against Miss Ogilvy.

"You will die soon," it said, "and in the spirit world I will pay you
back." Thrice it repeated this: "You will die," to which Miss Ogilvy
answered with calm dignity:

"I am not afraid to die, nor am I at all afraid of you, Eleanor, who,
as I now see, are not good but evil."

While she spoke a torrent of blood burst from her lips, Eleanor
disappeared, and almost immediately Godfrey awoke.

In due course the doctor came and announced that the h�morrhage had
ceased, and that the patient was in no imminent danger. As to the
future, he could say nothing, except that having been Miss Ogilvy's
medical attendant for some years, he had expected something of this
sort to happen, and known that her life could not be very long.

Then Godfrey went home very terrified and chastened, blaming himself
also for this dreadful event, although in truth no one could have been
more innocent. He had grown very fond of Miss Ogilvy, and shuddered to
think that she must soon leave the world to seek a dim Unknown, where
there were bad spirits as well as good.

He shuddered, too, at the thought of this Eleanor, who made use of him
to appear in human form, and on his knees prayed God to protect him
from her. This indeed happened, if she had any real existence and was
not some mere creation of the brain of Madame Riennes, made visible by
the working of laws whereof we have no knowledge. Never again, during
all his life, did he actually see any more of Eleanor, and the
probability is that he never will, either here or elsewhere.

Three days later Godfrey received a letter from the doctor, saying
that Miss Ogilvy wished to see him, and that he recommended him not to
delay his visit. Having obtained the permission of the Pasteur, he
went in at once by the diligence, and on arrival at the villa, where
evidently he was expected, was shown up to a bedroom which commanded a
beautiful view of the lake and Mount Pilatus. Here a nurse met him and
told him that he must not stay long; a quarter of an hour at the
outside. He asked how Mademoiselle was, whereon she answered with an
expressive shrug:

"Soon she will be further from the earth than the top of that
mountain."

Then she took him to another smaller room, and there upon the bed,
looking whiter than the sheets, lay his friend. She smiled very
sweetly when she caught sight of him.

"Dear Godfrey," she said, "it is kind of you to come. I wanted to see
you very much, for three reasons. First, I wish to beg your pardon for
having drawn you into this spiritualism without your knowing that I
was doing so. I have told you what my motive was, and therefore I will
not repeat it, as my strength is small. Secondly, I wish you to
promise me that you will never go to another s�ance, since now I am
quite sure that it is dangerous for the young. To me spiritualism has
brought much good and joy, but with others it may be different,
especially as among spirits, as on the earth, there are evil beings.
Do you promise?"

"Yes, yes," answered Godfrey, "only I am afraid of Madame Riennes."

"You must stand up against her if she troubles you, and seek the help
of religion; if necessary consult your old Pasteur, for he is a good
man. There is no danger in the world that cannot be escaped if only
one is bold enough, or so I think, though, alas! myself I have lacked
courage," she added with a gentle sigh.

"Now, dear boy," she went on after pausing to recover strength, "I
have a third thing to say to you. I have left you some money, as I
know that you will have little. It is not every much, but enough,
allowing for accidents and the lessening of capital values, to give
you �260 a year clear. I might have given you more, but did not, for
two reasons. The first is, that I have observed that young men who
have what is called a competence, say �500 or �600 a year, very often
are content to try and live on it, and to do nothing for themselves,
so that in the end it becomes, not a blessing, but a curse. The second
is, that to do so I should be obliged to take away from certain
charities and institutions which I wish to benefit. That is all I have
to say about money. Oh! no, there is one more thing. I have also left
you the talisman you gave me, and with it this house and grounds.
Perhaps one day you might like to live here. I have a sort of feeling
that it will be useful to you at some great crisis of your fate, and
at least it will remind you of me, who have loved and tried to
beautify the place. In any case it will always let, and if it becomes
a white elephant, you can sell it and the furniture, which is worth
something."

Godfrey began to stammer his thanks, but she cut him short with a wave
of her hand, murmuring:

"Don't let us waste more time on such things, for soon you must go
away. Already I see that nurse looking at me from the doorway of the
other room, and I have something more to say to you. You will come to
think that all this spiritualism, as it is called, is nothing but a
dangerous folly. Well, it is dangerous, like climbing the Alps, but
one gets a great view from the top. And, oh! from there how small men
look and how near are the heavens. I mean, my dear boy, that although
I have asked you to abjure s�ances and so forth, I do pray of you to
cultivate the spiritual. The physical, of course, is always with us,
for that is Nature's law, without which it could not continue. But
around and beyond it broods the spirit, as once it did upon the face
of the waters, encircling all things; the beginning of all things, and
the end. Only, as wine cannot be poured into a covered cup, so the
spirit cannot flow into a world-sealed heart, and what is the cup
without the wine? Open your heart, Godfrey, and receive the spirit, so
that when the mortal perishes the immortal may remain and
everlastingly increase. For you know, if we choose death we shall die,
and if we choose life we shall live; we, and all that is dear to us."

Miss Ogilvy paused a little to get her breath, then went on: "Now, my
boy, kiss me and go. But first--one word more. I have taken a strange
affection for you, perhaps because we were associated in other
existences, I do not know. Well, I want to say that from the land
whither I am about to be borne, it shall be my great endeavour, if it
is so allowed, to watch over you, to help you if there be need, and in
the end to be among the first to greet you there, you, or any whom you
may love in this journey of yours through life. Look, the sun is
sinking. Now, goodbye till the dawn."

He bent down and kissed her and she kissed him back, throwing her thin
and feeble arm about his neck, after which the nurse came and hurried
him away weeping. At the door he turned back and saw her smile at him,
and, oh! on her wasted face were peace and beauty.

Next day she died.

Forty-eight hours later Godfrey attended her funeral, to which the
Pasteur Boiset was also bidden, and after it was over they were both
summoned to the office of a notary where her will was read. She was a
rich woman, who left behind her property to the value of quite
�100,000, most of it in England. Indeed, this Swiss notary was only
concerned with her possessions in Lucerne, namely the Villa Ogilvy,
its grounds and furniture, and certain moneys that she had in local
securities or at the bank. The house, its appurtenances and contents,
were left absolutely to Godfrey, the Pasteur Boiset being appointed
trustee of the property until the heir came of age, with a legacy of
�200, and an annual allowance of �100 for his trouble.

Moreover, with tender care, except for certain bequests to servants,
the testatrix devoted all her Swiss moneys to be applied to the upkeep
of the place, with the proviso that if it were sold these capital sums
should revert to her other heirs in certain proportions. The total of
such moneys as would pass with the property, was estimated by the
notary to amount to about �4,000 sterling, after the payment of all
State charges and legal expenses. The value of the property itself,
with the fine old French furniture and pictures which it contained,
was also considerable, but unascertained. For the rest it would appear
that Godfrey inherited about �12,000 in England, together with a
possible further sum of which the amount was not known, as residuary
legatee. This bequest was vested in the English trustees of the
testatrix who were instructed to apply the interest for his benefit
until he reached the age of twenty-five, after which the capital was
to be handed over to him absolutely.

Godfrey, whose knowledge of the French tongue was still limited, and
who was overcome with grief moreover after the sad scene through which
he had just passed, listened to all these details with bewilderment.
He was not even elated when the grave notary shook his hand and
congratulated him with the respect that is accorded to an heir, at the
same time expressing a hope that he would be allowed to remain his
legal representative in Switzerland. Indeed, the lad only muttered
something and slipped away behind the servants whose sorrow was
distracted by the exercise of mental arithmetic as to the amount of
their legacies.

After his first stupefaction, however, the Pasteur could not conceal
his innocent joy. A legacy of �200, a trusteeship "of the most
important," as he called it, and an allowance of �100 for years to
come, were to him wonderful wealth and honour.

"Truly, dear young friend," he said to Godfrey, as they left the
office, "it was a fortunate hour for me, and for you also, when you
entered my humble house. Now I am not only your instructor, but the
guardian of your magnificent Lucerne property. I assure you that I
will care for it well. To-morrow I will interview those domestics and
dismiss at least half of them, for there are far too many."

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