The Parasite

begun to break into little green shuttlecocks. As you walk down the lanes you are conscious of the rich, silent forces of nature working all around you. The wet earth smells

eath them—everywhere the work

ine. I can feel the ferment in my blood at this very moment, and as the cool sunshine pours through my window I could dance about in it like a gnat. So I should, only that Charles Sadler would rush upstairs to know what was the matter.

pplauds it. But Wilson is trying to dig the foundations for a science of the future. His work is underground and does not show. Yet he goes on uncomplainingly, corresponding with a hundred semi-maniacs in the hope of finding one reliable witness, sifting a hundred lies on the chance of gaining one little speck of truth, collating old books, devouring new ones, experimenting, lecturing, trying to light up in others the fiery interest which is consuming him. I am filled with wonder and admiration when I think of

, a dreamer, a somnambulist, full of impressions and intuitions. My black hair, my dark eyes, my thin, olive face, my tapering fingers, are all characteristic of my real temperament, and cause experts like Wilson to claim me as their own. But my brain is soaked with exact knowledge. I have trained myself to deal only with fact and with proof. Surmise and fancy have no

where else. I know that Wilson would draw me into this nebulous semi-science of his if he could. In his enthusiasm he is perfectly impervious to hints or remonstrances. Nothing short of a positive quarrel will make him realize my aversion to the whole business. I have no doubt that he has som

f-analysis, and has, I fancy, a steadying effect upon the character. Frankly, I must confess that my own needs what stiffening I can give it. I fear that, after all, much of my neurotic temperament survives, and that I am far from that cool, calm precision which characterizes

ite me? Nothing, or so little that it

crowded. I had hardly time to say a word to Mrs. Marden and to Agatha, who was looking charming i

he, drawing me apart into a corner. “My de

not heard the same before. His sanguine

both come from Trinidad, you know. Miss Penclosa has only been in England a month or two, and knows no one outside the university circle, but I assure you that the things she

ind him out. But what are you to do with the friend of your host’s wife? Are you to turn on a light suddenly and expose her slapping a surreptitious banjo? Or are you to hurl cochineal over her evening frock when she steals round w

p of ten women she would have been the last whom one would have picked out. Her eyes were perhaps her most remarkable, and also, I am compelled to say, her least pleasant, feature. They were gray in color,—gray with a shade of green,—and their expression struck me a

tha. Wilson had evidently been talking. And presently, no doubt, thought I, she will inform me by occult means that I

ic,” said he; “I hope, Miss Penclosa,

d keenly

een any thing convincing,” said she. “I should have thought,” sh

may I ask

mesmerism,

e who are mentally unsound. All their results are vitiated, as it see

hould like you to select the one who seems to you to have the best balanced mind.

ach weight to any

pond much more rapidly than others. May I ask how far your scepticism extend

thing, Miss

out the scientific side of it. I only know what I can do. You see the girl in red,

or. The girl whisked round and came straight toward us, with a

at, Gilroy?” cried Wilso

most barefaced, shameless piece of imposture that I had ever wit

little eyes. “My poor fan is to get the credit of that experiment. Well, we must t

d love it!”

ing between a religious ceremony and a conjurer’s entertainment. A red velvet arm-chair had been pushed into the centre, and Agatha lay back in it, a little flushed an

expanded. So I have seen a dull-eyed, listless lad change in an instant into briskness and life when given a task of which he felt himself master. She looked down at Agatha with an expression which I resented fr

h there was a momentary rigor. At the seventh her lids began to droop. At the tenth her eyes were closed, and her breathing was slower and fuller than usual. I tried as I watched to preserve my

trance,” said

leeping!”

her,

ke. Her body was there on the velvet chair. Her organs were acting—her heart, her lungs. But her soul! It had s

ion, whatever I may suggest Miss Marden will infallibly do, whether it be

inly,”

thought had struck her. She stooped and whispered earnestly into her subject

pon the floor. The eyes opened, the glazing cleared slowly awa

d unstrung, unable to listen to or answer the stream of comments which Wilson was pouring out

ercome your scepticism. Open this note at ten o’clo

ad is aching, and I have written enough for to-night. To-morrow I dare say that what seems so inexp

t I must reconsider my opinion upon this matter. B

lustrated, when my housekeeper entered to tell me that Agatha was in my study and wished to se

her pose chilled me and checked the words which were rising to my lips. Her veil was

e come to tell you that ou

did stagger. I know that I found myself

mered. “This is ve

here to tell you that ou

reason! This is unlike you, Agatha. Tell me ho

ll over,

d some falsehood about me. Or you may have misunderstood something that I ha

sider it all

ave been something that happened last night. You have been thinking it over and you have disapproved of my conduct. Was it the mesme

ss, Austin.

s absolutely resolved not to be drawn into any argument or explanation. As for me, I was shaking w

ly will not inflict such a punishment upon me unheard. You will let me know what is the matter. Consider how impossib

without a word an

t at an end.” An instant later she was gone, and, before I could recover

at the cause of my misfortune might be. So shaken was I that I could hardly lace my boots. Never shall I forge

as lying before me on the table, and I tore it open. It wa

den that she should call upon you at half-past nine to-morrow morning and suspend your engagement for half an hour or so. Science is so exacting that it is difficult to give a satisfying test, but I am convinced that this at least will be an action which she would be most unlikely to do of her own

faith

N PEN

great liberty indeed on the part of a lady whom I had only met once. But, after all, I had challenged her

, had been reduced to a condition of automatism appeared to be certain. A person at a distance had worked her as an engineer on the shore might guide a Brennan torpedo. A second soul had stepped in, as it were, had pushed her own aside, and had seized her nervous

into the drawing-room and found he

visitor, Austin,”

n an even earlier

ed. “What do you

not been o

ertain

ld you mind telling me exactly w

d at my ea

I got up at eight. I breakfasted at half-past. I came into this room at ten minutes past nine and began to read the ‘Memoirs of Mme. de Remusat.’ In a few minutes I did the F

self where you

lse should I

t it was that you dreamed about me? It

on that you came into it. I ca

to-day, Agatha, how is it

ok came ove

e would almost think that you doubted my word. If my boots are dusty, it mu

, perhaps it was better that I should not enlighten her. It might frighten her, and could serve no good p

300-diameter lens, fill me with exultation. How petty do such researches seem when compared with this one which strikes at the very roots of life and the nature of the soul! I had always looked upon spirit as a product of matter. The brain, I thought, secreted the mind, as the liver does the bile. But how can this be when I see mind working from a distan

my test. I shall be as good as my word. The investigation would, I am sure, be of immense interest. Some of my colleagues might look askance at it, for science is full of unreasoning prejudices, but if Wilson has