The Sixth Sense

SE Cé

-but was not the ph

sing: "Bor

hful, light-hearted gathering; it marked out a definite end to my first careless, happy weeks in England, and foreshadowed a period of suspense and heart-burning that separated old frien

bad judge in his own cause. Looking back over the last six months, I appreciate that the seeds

r. Bitter were their tongues and angry their hearts in the old, forgotten era of demonstrations and hecklings; the bitterness increased with the progress of the arson campaign, and its prompt, ruthless reprisals; but I remember no political sensation equa

better secure themselves greetings in the market-place by leading the chorus of moral condemnation. Elsie Wylton would scarcely have noticed the two added voices, and the Seraph and I mig

, his dreams were too real to be lightly dismissed. And his sensitive feminine sympathy was something new to her, something strangely stimulating to a girl who but half understood her own moods and ambitions. I have no doubt that in their solitary passage back to Oxford she had unbent and revealed more to h

er his mind; knowing him, I can well appreciate his exasperating diffidence and self-depreciation. It never occurred to him that Sylvia could forget his relative poverty, obscurity, and their thousand points of conflict; it never dawned on her that he could be held back by honourable scruples from accepting what she had shown herself willing to offer. The Seraph came back from Oxford absorbed and pre-occupied with haunting

ompletely as Pont Street, and the unenthusiastic tone in which the information was volunteered did not tempt me to prosecute further inquiries. On about the fifth day I did pluck up courage to ask Lady Roden if he had yet come to the surface, but so far from receivin

charge. For Sylvia, I am glad to say, my responsibility had ceased, and I was at liberty to proceed to Adelphi Terrace, and ascertain why at any hour of the day or night I was met with the news that Mr. Aintree was in town, but away from his flat, and

nder who dropped it there?" Then he caught sight of me, and his face assumed an awful solemnity. "'Corrupt

eraph's whereabouts, but the question appe

p has its strings broken. The Heavenly Choir--" He paused abruptly, seized a sheet of foolscap and resumed his normal

s perdition,

club afford

itteeman, Bob,

lank verse for

perdition, t

e chains and

"Paradise Los

ll. An official braided coat bulged at the shoulders with the pressure of two cramped wings, his peaked cap had been knocked over one eye, and his halo-in Culling's

gh to be getting serious," I

imed in despair. "Where are we?

seeking whom you might devour. 'Portrait of a Gentleman-well known in Society-seeking whom he may devour,'" he murmured to himself, stretching forth a h

ul in extracting and piecing together an explanation of his

Culling interrupted, "an

why she did it, but I'm hanged if anybody else did. She was a nice enough girl by all accounts, and Wylton-well, I e

n little spells of domesticity in the intervals of being horse-whipped out of other people's houses, and disappearing abroad while sundry little

ly ancient histor

ting circumstance

d oratoricall

re a bachelor. Let me tell you that married life is a mauvais quart d'heure made up of exquisite week-ends. While Wylton dallied unobtrusively in B

ed deli

e girls," sig

about with her in London quite enough to cause comment. Good-natured friends asked Wylton why he was vegetat

had been already chosen

d over the innate dep

and Travers had a seizure when Wylton had finished the last batch of cases in his own d

ree nisi was grant

y with Petitioner," murmured Culling, with qu

gar to cle

ome in?" I persisted lik

way of doing everything, also a wrong. When one

do," sai

s, 'but ye canna brek me manly sperrit.' Consequently in every place where she can be certain of attracting a crowd, Mrs. Wylton is to be foun

asion to remind him that we had n

ook up th

ast night at Dieudonné's, the night before at the Savoy, the night before that at the C

s getting talked about, and that sort of flying in the face of public opinion doesn't do one damn's worth of good. The woman's got to have her gruel and take her time over it. She'll only put people's backs up by going on as she's do

test avail to proclaim my belief in Elsie Wylton's innocence.

e Seraph no

e lives with her sister in Cheste

ith the announcement that the Seraph was still away from home, Garts

igure to most people as it was. What the Seraph has to understand is that he'll get all the discredit of b

were due at his musical party the following week, and reminding him that h

topic of conversation. For the most part, I found Gartside's own tolerance to the woman representative of the general feeling in the club: his strictures on the folly of the Seraph's cond

of divorce. I was subjected to a lucid exposition of the Anglican doctrine of marriage, initiated into the mysteries of the first three (or three hundred) General Councils of the Church, presented with thumbnail biographies of Arius and S. Athanasius, and

n with the publicans and sinners. She greeted me with the smile of a woman who has no care in the world: then as she turned to ring the bell for tea, I caught the expression of on

tea-time for one thing, and for another I wanted to tell you that you've done about t

f their composition. Yet on reflection I can see now that she was suffering less than in the days six weeks before when the anticipation of the divorce lowered menacingly over her head and haunted every waking moment. It is curious

said with a gentle, tired smile

He would say it as we crawled and fought and bit our way up a slippery face of

doing to-nig

up our minds when you ca

? What's on, Seraph? I'm all alone to-night

closed eyes, bathing

late," she said wearily. "I don

went off to make arrangements over the telephone. I took hold of Elsie's disengaged

u can rest as long as you like. Don't let people think they can drive you into hiding. If you do that,

ople believe

admire your pluck. But

," she asse

Seraph fo

the Se

for a

ying to draw

whether it's just beca

le faced and golden haired-she was wonderfully like Joyce, I thought, with her slim, bl

ren't ever at a boy

hy

try. In time the grubby ones usually get cleaner, but the boy who starts with a clean instinct never deteriorates into a grub. The distinction holds good

hould have said it just the same

she was saying good-bye to two colleagues or fellow-conspirators when I appeared. I caught their names and looked at them with some interest. One was the formidable Mrs. Millington, a weather-beaten, stoutish woman of fifty with iron-grey hair cut short to the neck, and double-lense

nsitive, suspicious nerves-a slight hush, a movement of turning bodies and craning necks, a whispered name. Elsie went through it like a Royal Duchess opening a bazaar; laughing and talking with the Seraph,

of course, and I had picked up a certain number of acquaintances in two months. We bowed to every familiar form, and the familiar fo

s and noses in air, directed I suppose against Joyce as much as against her sister; and many a mild husband must have submitted to a curtain lecture that night on the text that no man will b

o acts, and join our moral-leper colony before the week was out-an unexpected party emerged from the restaurant and passed us on their way to collect cloaks. Gladys and Philip, Sylvia and Robin,

ile. The change was slight, but I had been expecting it. Another moment, and the straight lines broke to a slight curve. Every one bowed to every one-Robin with his irrepressible, instinctive good-humour, Philip more sedately, as

inutes. It was more than enough to make Elsie

said. "You wouldn't invite two people to stay with you if yo

" I said. "If the Rodens know me,

en't I, Joyce? There's no scandal about Joyce, but she's given up vi

an independent party of two. They would then secure as much publicity as coul

and when Philip snatched Gladys from under my wing almost before the car had turned into Carlton House

ud vitality and assurance. Nigel Rawnsley was talking to her, talking well, and paying her the compliment of talking up to her level. I watched her give thrust for thrust, parry for parry; all exquisite sword play.... His enemies called Nigel a p

d no farther

f brilliant achievement and more brilliant promise, her own chosen faith and ritual, ambition enough and to spare-Nigel entered the lists well arme

r guests and shivered a lance in deferential tourney. As I watched his fine figure, and looked from him to the irrepressible Culling, and from Culling to Rawnsley

ation of playing off one admirer against another; but I should have written Sylvia down among the exceptions. She did not want admiration.... Then I remembered Oxford and read into her conduct the first calcula

t. The Seraph, I could see, grew rather unhappy when his presence was overlooked every time he came within speaking distance. It was not till the end of the evening that she unbe

she asked the Seraph when the

throps, isn't

bin and I are going t

ghing three or four invitations in the balance. Finally he se

ence be welco

ady Carsten, sh

ome t

nds on y

must

outh and looked at him

particular in the

ually

e startli

t aware

rself up to he

ou spent th

ariety

riety of

nearly all

no

s my ob

ng flush on Sylvia's cheek warned h

ss of one who is with difficulty keeping her temper. "You've spent the last week thrusting yourself under every one's notice in company with

t be a

drop th

e too many

one too

nnot

t yourself o

proud to ra

a moment to st

o rouse it, and many people would be annoyed if you talked to them as you're talking to me. I-s

face and voic

eems unnecess

to be seen about with a man who allows his n

kind,

ow my m

meaning

y sin. A woman of the kind that

tearing his card

didn't," he

old yo

t need t

s still nervously fingering his card, but no signs of emotion ruffled he

e not coming to the Carstens'. Think it over, and y

epared to accompany her. "What would you do in

irked the

don't get into t

s pos

e prove her

ou prove

to go behind what

the Seraph

," he stipulated. "I must have time t

her old fri

My ultimatum comes in force to-morrow mornin