"Certainly when they are emplanted upon a true basis. I said 'make-believe'--that is what kills all good things--make-believe. Most of the present-day leaders are throwing dust in their followers' eyes--or their own. Priests and politicians, lawyers and financiers--all of them are afraid of the truth. Every one lives in a stupid atmosphere of self-deception. The religion of the future will teach each individual to be true to himself, and when that is accomplished the sixth root race will be born. Look at that man over there talking to a woman with haggard eyes--can you see them in the gloom? They have all the ugly ent.i.ties around them, the spirits of morphine and nicotine--drawing misfortune and bodily decay. Every force has to have its congenial atmosphere, or it cannot exist; fishes cannot breathe on land."

Amaryllis looked at the pair; they were well-known people, the man celebrated in the literary and artistic section of the world of fashion--the woman of high rank and of refined intelligence.

Verisschenzko looked also. "I do not know either of their names," he said, "I am simply judging by the obvious deductions to be made by their appearances to any one who has developed intuition."

"How I wish I could learn to have that!"

"Read Voltaire's 'Zadig.' Deductive methods are shown in it useful to begin upon--observe everything about people, and then having seen results, work back to causes, and then realise that all material things are the physical expression of an etheric force, and as we can control the material, we need thus only attract what etheric waves we desire."

Amaryllis looked again at the pair--both were smoking idly, and she remembered having heard that they both "took drugs." It was a phrase which had meant nothing to her until now.

"You mean that because they smoke all the time, and it is said they take morphine _piqures_, that they are not only hurting their bodies, but drawing spiritual ills as well."

"Obviously. They have surrounded themselves with the drab demagnetising current which envelops the body when human beings give up their wills. It would be very difficult for anything good to pierce through such ambience. Have you ever remarked the strange ends of all people who take drugs? They seldom die natural, ordinary deaths. The evil ent.i.ties which they have drawn round them by their own weakness, destroy them at last."

"I do not like the idea that there are these 'ent.i.ties,' as you call them, all around us."

"There are not, they cannot come near us unless we allow them--have I not told you that the atmosphere must be congenial? Our own wills can create an armour through which nothing demagnetising can pa.s.s. It is weakness and drifting which are inexorably punished; they draw currents suitable for the vampires beyond to exist on."

"All this does sound so weird to me." Amaryllis was interested and yet repelled.

"Have you ever thought about Marconigrams and their etheric waves?

No--not often. People just accept such things as facts as soon as they become commercial commodities--and only a few begin to speculate upon what such discoveries suggest, and the other possibilities which they could lead to. Nothing is supernatural; it is only that we are so ignorant. Some day I will take you to my laboratory in my home in Russia and show you the result of my experiments with vibrations and coloured lights."

"I should love that--but just now you troubled me--you seemed to include smoking in the things which brought evil--I smoke sometimes."

"So do I--will you have a Russian cigarette?"

He took out his case and offered her one, which she accepted. "Will it bring something bad?"

"Not more than a gla.s.s of wine," and he opened his lighter and bent nearer to her. "One gla.s.s of wine might be good for you, but twenty would make you very drunk and me very quarrelsome!"

They laughed softly and lit their cigarettes.

"I feel when I am with you that I am enveloped in some strong essence,"

and Amaryllis lay back with a satisfied sigh--"as though I were uplifted and awakened--it is very curious because you have such a wicked face, but you make me feel that I want to be good."

His queer, husky voice took on a new note.

"We have met of course in a former life--then probably I tempted you to break all vows--it was my fault. So in this life you are to tempt me--it may be--but my will has developed--I mean to resist. I want to place you as my joy of the spirit this time--something which is pure and beautiful apart from earthly things."

Into Amaryllis' mind there flashed the thought that if she saw him often, her emotions for him might not keep at that high level! Her eyes perhaps expressed this doubt, for Verisschenzko bent nearer.

"Another must fulfil that which must be denied to me. You are too young to remain free from emotion. Hold yourself until the right time comes."

Amaryllis wondered why he should speak as though it were an understood thing that she could feel no emotion for John. She resented this.

"I have my husband," she answered with dignity and a sweetly conventional air.

Verisschenzko laughed.

"You are delicious when you say things like that--loyal, and English, and proud. But listen, child--it is waste of time to have any dissimulation with me, we finished all those things when we were lovers in our other life. Now we must be frank and learn of each other. Shall it not be so?"

Amaryllis felt a number of things.

"Yes, you are right, we will always speak the truth."

"You see," he went on, "if you represent anything you must never injure it; you must destroy yourself if necessary in its service. You represent an ideal, the ideal of the perfect wife of the Ardayres. You must fulfil this role. I represent a leader of certain thought in my country. My soul is given to this--I must only indulge in through which nothing demagnetising can pa.s.s. It is weakness and drifting which are inexorably punished; they draw currents suitable for the vampires beyond to exist on."

"All this does sound so weird to me." Amaryllis was interested and yet repelled.

"Have you ever thought about Marconigrams and their etheric waves?

No--not often. People just accept such things as facts as soon as they become commercial commodities--and only a few begin to speculate upon what such discoveries suggest, and the other possibilities which they could lead to. Nothing is supernatural; it is only that we are so ignorant. Some day I will take you to my laboratory in my home in Russia and show you the result of my experiments with vibrations and coloured lights."

"I should love that--but just now you troubled me--you seemed to include smoking in the things which brought evil--I smoke sometimes."

"So do I--will you have a Russian cigarette?"

He took out his case and offered her one, which she accepted. "Will it bring something bad?"

"Not more than a gla.s.s of wine," and he opened his lighter and bent nearer to her. "One gla.s.s of wine might be good for you, but twenty would make you very drunk and me very quarrelsome!"

They laughed softly and lit their cigarettes.

"I feel when I am with you that I am enveloped in some strong essence,"

and Amaryllis lay back with a satisfied sigh--"as though I were uplifted and awakened--it is very curious because you have such a wicked face, but you make me feel that I want to be good."

His queer, husky voice took on a new note.

"We have met of course in a former life--then probably I tempted you to break all vows--it was my fault. So in this life you are to tempt me--it may be--but my will has developed--I mean to resist. I want to place you as my joy of the spirit this time--something which is pure and beautiful apart from earthly things."

Into Amaryllis' mind there flashed the thought that if she saw him often, her emotions for him might not keep at that high level! Her eyes perhaps expressed this doubt, for Verisschenzko bent nearer.

"Another must fulfil that which must be denied to me. You are too young to remain free from emotion. Hold yourself until the right time comes."

Amaryllis wondered why he should speak as though it were an understood thing that she could feel no emotion for John. She resented this.

"I have my husband," she answered with dignity and a sweetly conventional air.

Verisschenzko laughed.

"You are delicious when you say things like that--loyal, and English, and proud. But listen, child--it is waste of time to have any dissimulation with me, we finished all those things when we were lovers in our other life. Now we must be frank and learn of each other. Shall it not be so?"

Amaryllis felt a number of things.

"Yes, you are right, we will always speak the truth."

"You see," he went on, "if you represent anything you must never injure it; you must destroy yourself if necessary in its service. You represent an ideal, the ideal of the perfect wife of the Ardayres. You must fulfil this role. I represent a leader of certain thought in my country. My soul is given to this--I must only indulge in that over which I am master.