"It's curious you should meet him again like this,"—said
Catherine—"But surely, father, he's not as old as you are?"
"He's about three and a half years younger—that's all."
Dr. Brayle laughed.
"I don't believe it for a moment!" he said—"I think he's playing a part. He's probably not the man you knew at Oxford at all."
We were then going to our cabins for the night, and Mr. Harland paused as these words were said and faced us.
"He IS the man!"—he said, emphatically—"I had my doubts of him at first, but I was wrong. As for 'playing a part,' that would be impossible to him. He is absolutely truthful—almost to the verge of cruelty!" A curious expression came into his eyes, as of hidden fear. "In one way I am glad to have met him again—in another I am sorry. For he is a disturber of the comfortable peace of conventions. You"—here he regarded me suddenly, as if he had almost forgotten my presence—"will like him. You have many ideas in common and will be sure to get on well together. As for me, I am his direct opposite,—the two poles are not wider apart than we are in our feelings, sentiments and beliefs." He paused, seeming to be troubled by the passing cloud of some painful thought—then he went on—"There is one thing I should perhaps explain, especially to you, Brayle, to save useless argument. It is, of course, a 'craze'—but craze or not, he is absolutely immovable on one point which he calls the great Fact of Life,—that there is and can be no Death,—that Life is eternal and therefore in all its forms indestructible."
"Does he consider himself immune from the common lot of mortals?" asked
Dr. Brayle, with a touch of derision.
"He denies 'the common lot' altogether"—replied Mr. Harland—"For him, each individual life is a perpetual succession of progressive changes, and he holds that a change IS never and CAN never be made till the person concerned has prepared the next 'costume' or mortal presentment of immortal being, according to voluntary choice and liking."
"Then he is mad!" exclaimed Catherine. "He must be mad!"
I smiled.