“I don’t think I quite follow you,” he said, wishing to draw her out. “Would you mind telling me more about the work, and what there is in it to affect him in this way?”
“I wish I could make it clear to you, for unless you understand it you will do him a great injustice.” Inez again keyed herself up to her self-appointed task. “Helen asked me the same question last evening, and I realized while talking with her how poorly fitted I myself am to attempt any explanation.”
The girl paused. She knew that her companion would analyze what she said much more thoroughly than Helen had done.
“Were you ever under an hypnotic influence?” she asked, suddenly.
“Yes,” replied Uncle Peabody, calmly. “But you don’t mean to say that this has happened to Jack?”
“Yes and no,” Inez continued. “If I believed in reincarnation I should say without hesitation that Mr. Armstrong was living over again, here in Florence, an existence which he had previously experienced centuries ago. As I don’t believe in this, I can simply say that there is a something which comes from an intimate contact with these master-spirits of the past which is so compelling that it takes one out of the present and assumes complete control over him. While we are at the library all else is forgotten. I work there beside him hour after hour, yet he seems entirely unconscious of my presence except to the extent to which it assists his own efforts. All personality is absolutely obliterated. I understand it, because to a lesser degree I have felt it myself. When we leave the library he becomes more like himself again; but as he gets deeper into his work, his absorption is greater, and for that reason alone, I believe, he is less mindful of the usual every-day conventions. I wish I could make it clear to you.”
Uncle Peabody did not reply at once. What Inez had said gave him a new viewpoint both of Armstrong and of her.
“How long do you think this will continue?” he asked at length.
“Until his work is finished.”
“And when will that be?”