Discussion.
Colonel Estcourt came to the rescue.
“No doubt,” he said, “the subject and this view of the subject seems a little strange to our friends here. We must remember they have not been accustomed to hear it freely discussed, as we have.”
“It is strange,” said Mrs Jefferson, rallying her energies, “but we should not shirk its consideration for that reason. I quite agree with Madame Zairoff that people don’t think half seriously enough of their real natures, the mysterious inner something which we all feel we possess, but whose voice we stifle in the din of the world. And yet,” she added, sighing pathetically as she looked at the great Worth’s ‘creation,’—“the vanities are very pleasant. Why should we turn anchorites?”
“There is not the slightest necessity to do that,” said the princess, smiling at the unuttered thought she had read in that glance. “Far from it. The gravest duties of life are generally those that meet us in the world, and are called forth by our actions in that world. All lives are not meant to be isolated, and certainly none for the whole period of earth life. A person would have to be very sure that he was free to cut himself adrift from his fellows before he would even be permitted to do it.”
“Permitted!” echoed Mrs Jefferson, rather vaguely. “But by whom?”
“The teachers of occult science,” answered the Princess Zairoff.
“But who are they?” exclaimed the little American.
“That I cannot tell you,” she answered, gravely. “They exist, and their influence is already beginning to make itself felt. But it would be a poor triumph to unveil the highest wisdom that humanity can ever learn, in order to satisfy the idle and the curious, and the lovers of marvels. Those who desire to learn can always do so, but nothing is forced upon you, or even obtruded. I should not have opened my lips on the subject had you not expressed a desire to hear something about it.”
“I suppose,” said Mrs Jefferson, eagerly, “you yourself are a believer in occultism?”