Swami being in the possession of all the accumulated knowledge of successive generations of Yogins, and having grown up as it were at the feet of Gamaliel, in the person of his father—to whom had been imparted the secrets of the ascetics of previous generations—was filled with wonderful wisdom.
Moreover, his powers were considerably perfected and strengthened by reason of his advanced culture, aided by his natural gift of psychic-energy; which latter was considerably augmented by the soul-sustaining elixir upon which, it was said, he was chiefly nourished. Rich and poor flocked to him in their emergencies; and it must be recounted of him that although he knew very well that the latter could in no wise adequately reward him, nevertheless, he gave the needy as much of his valuable time as he could well afford; for his rich customers kept him so fully occupied that he had hardly an hour in the day to call his own.
It goes without saying that most of the difficulties upon which he was consulted proceeded from that arch mischief-maker—Jealousy, whose wiles with the human heart have cost mankind no end of trouble, in all ages. It was no uncommon occurrence for a fair Duchess to come and seek his aid by informing her how and where her noble husband was spending his evenings. But the Duke guessing full well that she would be making tender inquiries respecting him, would beforehand endeavour to bribe the high-minded Eastern to keep his tongue from telling.
Or an over-anxious wife would worry herself concerning the safety of her husband who had taken his monthly journey across the Atlantic in his flying machine, of which she was most nervous.
Or a young man striving to obtain a Government appointment, sought to learn if his lady friend, of whom he was in mortal fear, would bowl him out in the coming examination.
Or an intending disputant in a law case would consult the all-knowing-one as to the issue of his suit, if he engaged in it. Those foolhardy enough to disregard his warnings, invariably proved unfortunate; so that in the end, the great mind-reader got as many of these clients as the most popular barrister; but bearing different results. No matter of what the difficulty consisted this Anglo-Eastern sage solved it satisfactorily.
There was a time when the female portion of his clientèle harried him unfairly, by disregarding his professional hours, and coming to consult him late in the evening. This grew so distressing to the gentle Eastern that in the end he made a stand for liberty, by closing his doors against them at a certain hour. It was not their desire to harass their favourite fortune-teller, but they objected to being seen making him their visits; for the raillery of their acquaintances gave these anxious fair ones excruciating agonies.
So Swami commanded his servants to admit no one after nine o’clock; for listening to the recital of his client’s case was but a moiety of the labour to be expended over it.
Swami was a man of moderate height, that is to say, moderate for the twenty-first century, when everybody nearly, attained a great stature. His shoulders did not measure the breadth of the Teuton’s, nevertheless, he knew no chest-weakness, for his daily athletic exercises from the age of six gave him a constitution that bore the changes of the English climate admirably.
He had the beautifully soft, and peculiarly shaped eyes of his race, that looked dark, dreamy and unfathomable.