"'Nearly,' she said. 'Very nearly. But there is always some Presence standing between him and myself—and it is not God.'
"I was tactful and apologetic, putting the blame of my intrusion on to John and pretending I saw nothing out of the way in finding her in the turret.
"But, later, by deduction and confidences half-won, I arrived at some sort of explanation. Ferlie had been dipping deep into the ultra-ancient and ultra-modern volumes of every species of literature which stock the Black Towers library.
"'Do you believe that mankind have lost the power of communicating with one another by thought-transference?' she asked me. 'If they ever had it,' I said, determined not to encourage her.
"But her face checked my inclination to snub.
"'Christ had it,' she said. 'He healed from a distance, and promised that all He did we might do. No one seems to have taken that promise seriously enough to test it—unless perhaps the Christian Scientists.'
"'I'd prefer to rely upon the twopenny post, myself,' I insisted. She shook her head and said, 'That would not be right in my case, Aunt B. I may only struggle to attain the fulfilment of the promise.'
"'With whom do you want to communicate by this unnatural method,' I asked. But she would not tell me. Only by accident I stumbled upon that item.
"Late that same night I heard through my open window a faint sound of somebody crying. It was one of those desperately still star-saturated nights. I was up in an instant and along the corridor without waiting for a candle. Ferlie's room was next to John's. Through his open door I watched her, but this time I did not rush in to put to flight any stray ministering angel who might be in the offing. Cyprian, it is a terrible thing to come, unawares, upon a soul in Gethsemane. What has lain between you two in the past I do not know; what may lie between you in the future I dare not think. But I at my eavesdropping post grew colder and colder. If Ferlie continued much longer to carry this secret burden I was certain she would go out of her mind. And I am convinced that whatever the stereotyped and doubtless to your mind worthy, principles to which you have succumbed in this matter, no man can count himself wholly irresponsible whose name is thus centred in a woman's prayers."
The great car swept forward, increasing speed along a clear stretch of road. Between the occupants for some moments there reigned an unbroken silence.