"I learned this lesson when quite a youth from the relation who has since left me a great part of his fortune. He was one of the most successful men in London, and when I asked if he would tell me the secret of his power, he replied in his queer and enigmatical way--'I have sucked in knowledge through every pore, and studied men always from behind the mask of stupidity; those who wish to be thought wise must be content to remain fools; for in the light of seeming wisdom, the bats hang head downwards in their safe retreat indistinguishable from the dirt around; but they flutter in the dull face of stupidity, and may easily be knocked down and trampled upon. Nevertheless,' he continued, winking at me, 'it is good sport sometimes to cast off the veil, and to give these people a taste of your power; then the poor wretches will go away blubbering that you have hurt them, and the world, knowing how stupid you are, will say that you must have been mad.'
"Thus I went, carrying a helpless expression, to Mr. Marsden, and letting him know that I was very wealthy, and at the same time anxious to acquire the whole of Lord Vancome's property, I threw myself upon his world-wide knowledge, and asked his advice.
"'I am delighted, Mr. Sydney, that you should have come to me,' he said, rubbing his hands. 'There is fate in it; had you gone elsewhere, a large price might have been asked. With my information, and if you leave yourself in my hands, we can secure a bargain for you, a real bargain.' Here he dropped his voice as if imparting a great secret. 'Lord Vancome is pressed for money, and the mortgagees are threatening to foreclose.' (All this of course I knew, but I thought it better to appear ignorant.) 'We must advance money--we must get his bills--press for payment--threaten bankruptcy--pay off mortgagees--take estates.'
"I besought him not to trouble me with details, but whilst keeping my name from appearing in the matter, act as he thought best. My solicitors, I told him, would supply whatever funds were required. Then once more calling his attention to the fact that I was entirely at his mercy, and having read in his thoughts various ways by which he intended to profit by the transaction, without fleecing me beyond the limit of his conscience, I went away satisfied.
"On entering my rooms after this interview, I found Mr. Soudin waiting to see me. He appeared in good spirits; told me he had been in London the last three days; and I perceived from his thoughts, that he had found out all he wished to know, and had quite decided to accept me as his future son-in-law. It was just as well that he could not see into my mind as clearly, for I had also discovered that he was in even worse difficulties than Lord Vancome. Not contented with a comfortable income, he had put some of his capital into an unlimited bank, which, if my information proved correct, was about to fail.
"He seemed anxious for me to return with him to Scotland, and his wishes evidently inclined towards an early marriage. Moreover, he suggested the advisability of having the engagement publicly announced in the papers. At this point it seemed necessary to inform him that at my last interview with his daughter, we had quarrelled, though I did not mention the cause; at the same time I told him that if Vera was willing, I had not the slightest objection to his making our engagement public. He pooh-poohed the idea of any objection coming from this quarter, declaring that his daughter was devoted to me, and took his departure, saying he would write to her and settle everything.
"The door had scarcely closed behind him, when a deadly faintness began to steal over me. With some difficulty I managed to get into my bed-room, and had hardly thrown myself on the bed before I lost consciousness."
My companion paused for a moment.
"I have at last brought you to the point of my narrative," he continued, rising, "where the chief interest may be said to begin. It has seemed best to touch on many points which may have appeared of little or no importance, and to leave out a few which you might have considered more interesting. It is a far more difficult matter than you can well understand, to deal in an intelligible manner with the forces brought into play through an unrecognized sense; especially as we have at present no names either for its effect upon the mind, or for the subjects of which, through the medium of its power, we are for the first time conscious. I propose, therefore, before continuing my story, to show you a few experiments, and to throw as much light as possible on the remarkable changes in our whole life, which a perfect knowledge of this sixth sense would bring about."
"First," he continued, throwing back the curtain, "you, in your condition, are permanently tied to what we call the body, and bound down to its limitation. You can see only by the aid of light, and your vision cannot pass through what we call opaque substances. The reason why the animal eye is thus constructed must be obvious. Had it been formed in such a way as to enable it to focus only on the object it wished to observe, and were able to disregard any material obstruction which lay in the way, an animal would dash into the intervening material, even as a bird strikes itself against a clear sheet of glass.