The Crack of Doom | Page 4

one of the many
surprising combinations in her complex personality. My noviciate was
still in its first stage.
The time to set out for the meeting arrived all too soon for my
inclination. We decided to walk, the evening being fine and not too
warm, and the distance only a ten minutes' stroll. At a street crossing,
we met a crowd unusually large for that neighbourhood. Miss Brande
again surprised me. She was watching the crowd seething and
swarming past. Her dark eyes followed the people with a strange
wondering, pitying look which I did not understand. Her face, exquisite
in its expression at all times, was now absolutely transformed, beatified.
Brande had often spoken to me of mesmerism, clairvoyance, and
similar subjects, and it occurred to me that he had used his sister as a

medium, a clairvoyante. Her brain was not, therefore, under normal
control. I determined instantly to tell him on the first opportunity that if
he did not wish to see the girl permanently injured, he would have to
curtail his hypnotic influence.
"It is rather a stirring sight," I said so sharply to Miss Brande that she
started. I meant to startle her, but did not succeed as far as I wished.
"It is a very terrible sight," she answered.
"Oh, there is no danger," I said hastily, and drew her hand over my
arm.
"Danger! I was not thinking of danger."
As she did not remove her hand, I did not infringe the silence which
followed this, until a break in the traffic allowed us to cross the street.
Then I said:
"May I ask what you were thinking of just now, Miss Brande?"
"Of the people--their lives--their work--their misery!"
"I assure you many are very happy," I replied. "You take a morbid view.
Misery is not the rule. I am sure the majority are happy."
"What difference does that make?" the girl said with a sigh. "What is
the end of it all--the meaning of it all? Their happiness! Cui Bono?"
We walked on in silence, while I turned over in my mind what she had
said. I could come to no conclusion upon it save that my dislike for her
enigmatic aberrations was becoming more intense as my liking for the
girl herself increased. To change the current of her thoughts and my
own, I asked her abruptly:
"Are you a member of the Cui Bono Society?"
"I! Oh, no. Women are not allowed to join--for the present--"

"I am delighted to hear it," I said heartily, "and I hope the rule will
continue in force."
She looked at me in surprise. "Why should you mind? You are joining
yourself."
"That is different. I don't approve of ladies mixing themselves up in
these curious and perhaps questionable societies."
My remark amused her. Her eyes sparkled with simple fun. The change
in her manner was very agreeable to me.
"I might have expected that." To my extreme satisfaction she now
looked almost mischievous.
"Herbert told me you were a little--"
"A little what?"
"Well, a little--you won't be vexed? That is right. He said a
little--mediaeval."
This abated my appreciation of her sense of humour, and I maintained a
dignified reticence, which unhappily she regarded as mere sullenness,
until we reached the Society's room.
The place was well filled, and the company, in spite of the
extravagantly modern costumes of the younger women, which I cannot
describe better than by saying that there was little difference in it from
that of ordinary male attire, was quite conventional in so far as the
interchange of ordinary courtesies went. When, however, any member
of the Society mingled with a group of visitors, the conversation was
soon turned into a new channel. Secrets of science, which I had been
accustomed to look upon as undiscoverable, were bandied about like
the merest commonplaces of education. The absurdity of individuality
and the subjectivity of the emotions were alike insisted on without
notice of the paradox, which to me appeared extreme. The Associates
were altruistic for the sake of altruism, not for the sake of its

beneficiaries. They were not pantheists, for they saw neither universal
good nor God, but rather evil in all things--themselves included. Their
talk, however, was brilliant, and, with allowance for its jarring
sentiments, it possessed something of the indefinable charm which
followed Brande. My reflections on this identity of interest were
interrupted by the man himself. After a word of welcome he said:
"Let me show you our great experiment; that which touches the
high-water mark of scientific achievement in the history of humanity. It
is not much in itself, but it is the pioneer of many marvels."
He brought me to a metal stand, on which a small instrument
constructed of some white metal was placed.