“Why, Charlie! What do you mean?” questioned Molly with an anxious glance at Reuel.
“Anything interesting, Charlie?” called out a jolly girl across the room.
“Briggs is our ‘show’ man. Haven’t you heard, girls, what a celebrity is with you tonight? Briggs is a philosopher—mesmerism is his specialty. Say, old man, give the company a specimen of your infernal art, can’t you? He goes the whole hog, girls; can even raise the dead.”
“Let up, Charlie,” said Aubrey in a low tone. “It’s no joking matter.”
There were screams and exclamations from the girls. With reckless gaiety Adonis continued,
“What is to be the outcome of the great furore you have created, Briggs?”
“Nothing of moment, I hope,” smiled Reuel, good-naturedly. “I have been simply an instrument; I leave results to the good angels who direct events. What does Longfellow say about the arrow and the song?
‘Long, long afterwards, in an oak
I found the arrow still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,
I found in the heart of a friend.’
May it be so with my feeble efforts.”
“But circumstances alter cases. In this case, the ‘arrow’ is a girl and a devilish handsome one, too; and the ‘air’ is the whole scientific world. Your philosophy and mysticism gave way before Beauty. Argument is a stubborn man’s castle, but the heart is still unconvinced.”