“I’m from Midland; and I suppose that’s the country, compared with New York.”
Mrs. Chapley asked him if he knew the Mayquayts there. He tried to think of some people of that name; in the meantime she recollected that the Mayquayts were from Gitchigumee, Michigan. They talked some irrelevancies, and then she said, “Mr. Brandreth tells me you have met my husband,” as if they had been talking of him.
“Yes; I had that pleasure even before I met Mr. Brandreth,” said Ray.
“And you know Mr. Kane?”
“Oh, yes. He was the first acquaintance I made in New York.”
“Mr. Brandreth told me.” Mrs. Chapley made a show of laughing at the notion of Kane, as a harmless eccentric, and she had the effect of extending her kindly derision to Hughes, in saying, “And you’ve been taken to sit at the feet of his prophet already, Mr. Brandreth tells me; that strange Mr. Hughes.”
“I shouldn’t have said he was Mr. Kane’s prophet exactly,” said Ray with a smile of sympathy. “Mr. Kane doesn’t seem to need a prophet; but I’ve certainly seen Mr. Hughes. And heard him, for that matter.” He smiled, recollecting his dismay when he heard Hughes calling upon him in meeting. He had a notion to describe his experience, and she gave him the chance.
“Yes?” she said, with veiled anxiety. “Do tell me about him!”
At the end of Ray’s willing compliance, she drew a deep breath, and said, “Then he is not a follower of Tolstoï?”
“Quite the contrary, I should say.”