-mind you, I could only consent to this for the
sake of her peace of mind--"

"I understand perfectly, old chap--it will help the peace of mind of all
of us, I begin to see--hers and mine--and yours."

"Well, then, if she can be made to suspect this other aspect of the
affair without being told directly--ah!--here's a way. Turn that
messenger-call. Now listen--I will have a note sent here addressed to
you by a certain woman. It will be handed to Nancy to give to you. She
will observe the writing--and she will recognise it,--she knows it. You
will have been anxious about this note--expecting it--inquiring for it,
you know. Get your dinner now, then stay in your room so the maid won't
see you when the note comes--she will have to ask Nance where you
are--"

At dinner, which Bernal had presently with Aunt Bell and two empty
seats, his companion regaled him with comments upon the development of
the religious instinct in mankind, reminding him that should he ever
aspire to a cult of his own he would find Boston a more fertile field
than New York.

"They're so much broader there, you know," she began. "Really, they'll
believe anything if you manage your effects artistically. And that is
the trouble with you, Bernal. You appeal too little to the imagination.
You must not only have a novelty to preach nowadays, but you must preach
it in a spectacular manner. Now, that assertion of yours that we are all
equally selfish is novel and rather interesting--I've tried to think of
some one's doing some act to make himself unhappy and I find I can't.
And your suggestion of Judas Iscariot and Mr. Spencer as the sole
inmates of hell is not without a certain piquancy. But, my dear boy, you
need a stage-manager. Let your hair grow, wear a red robe, do
healing--"

He laughed protestingly. "Oh, I'm not a prophet, Aunt Bell--I've learned
that."

"But you could be, with proper managing. There's that perfectly stunning
beginning with that wild healing-chap in the far West. As it is now, you
make nothing of it--it might have happened to anybody and it never came
to anything, except that you went off into the wilderness and stayed
alone. You should tell how you fasted with him in a desert, and how he
told you secrets and imparted his healing power to you. Then get the
reporters about you and talk queerly so that they can make a good story
of it. Also live on rice and speak with an accent--_any_ kind of accent
would make you more interestin