Mr. Harland was silent, drawing slow whiffs from his cigar. After a long pause, he said—
"You are prejudiced, and I think you are mistaken. You only saw the man for a few minutes last night, and you know nothing of him—"
"Nothing,—except what he is bound to reveal,"—answered Santoris.
"What do you mean?"
"You will not believe me if I tell you,"—and Santoris, drawing a chair close to mine, sat down,—"Yet I am sure this lady, who is your friend and guest, will corroborate what I say,—though, of course, you will not believe HER! In fact, my dear Harland, as you have schooled yourself to believe NOTHING, why urge me to point out a truth you decline to accept? Had you lived in the time of Galileo you would have been one of his torturers!"
"I ask you to explain," said Mr. Harland, with a touch of pique—"Whether I accept your explanation or not is my own affair."
"Quite!" agreed Santoris, with a slight smile—"As I told you long ago at Oxford, a man's life is his own affair entirely. He can do what he likes with it. But he can no more command the RESULT of what he does with it than the sun can conceal its rays. Each individual human being, male and female alike, moves unconsciously in the light of self-revealment, as though all his or her faults and virtues were reflected like the colours in a prism, or were set out in a window for passers-by to gaze upon. Fortunately for the general peace of society, however, most passers-by are not gifted with the sight to see the involuntary display."
"You speak in enigmas," said Harland, impatiently—"And I'm not good at guessing them."
Santoris regarded him fixedly. His eyes were luminous and compassionate.
"The simplest truths are to you 'enigmas,'" he said, regretfully—"A pity it is so! You ask me what I mean when I say a man is 'bound to reveal himself.' The process of self-revealment accompanies self-existence, as much as the fragrance of a rose accompanies its opening petals. You can never detach yourself from your own enveloping aura neither in body nor in soul. Christ taught this when He said:—'Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.' Your 'light'—remember!—that word 'light' is not used here as a figure of speech but as a statement of fact. A positive 'light' surrounds you—it is exhaled and produced by your physical and moral being,—and those among us who have cultivated their inner organs of vision see IT before they see YOU. It can be of the purest radiance,—equally it can be a mere nebulous film,—but whatever the moral and physical condition of the man or woman concerned it is always shown in the aura which each separate individual expresses for himself or herself. In this way Dr. Brayle reveals his nature to me as well as the chief tendency of his thoughts,—in this way YOU reveal yourself and your present state of health,—it is a proved test that cannot go wrong."