it was so that night. Yet I felt that what
came to me had nothing directly to do with the mystery and wonder of the
scene."

"Not merely the subtle transformations of the spirit that come with
beauty," put in the doctor, noticing his hesitation.

"Exactly," Vezin went on, duly encouraged and no longer so fearful of
our smiles at his expense. "The impressions came from somewhere else.
For instance, down the busy main street where men and women were
bustling home from work, shopping at stalls and barrows, idly gossiping
in groups, and all the rest of it, I saw that I aroused no interest and
that no one turned to stare at me as a foreigner and stranger. I was
utterly ignored, and my presence among them excited no special interest
or attention.

"And then, quite suddenly, it dawned upon me with conviction that all
the time this indifference and inattention were merely feigned.
Everybody as a matter of fact was watching me closely. Every movement I
made was known and observed. Ignoring me was all a pretence--an
elaborate pretence."

He paused a moment and looked at us to see if we were smiling, and then
continued, reassured--

"It is useless to ask me how I noticed this, because I simply cannot
explain it. But the discovery gave me something of a shock. Before I got
back to the inn, however, another curious thing rose up strongly in my
mind and forced my recognition of it as true. And this, too, I may as
well say at once, was equally inexplicable to me. I mean I can only give
you the fact, as fact it was to me."

The little man left his chair and stood on the mat before the fire. His
diffidence lessened from now onwards, as he lost himself again in the
magic of the old adventure. His eyes shone a little already as he
talked.

"Well," he went on, his soft voice rising somewhat with his excitement,
"I was in a shop when it came to me first--though the idea must have
been at work for a long time subconsciously to appear in so complete a
form all at once. I was buying socks, I think," he laughed, "and
struggling with my dreadful French, when it struck me that the woman in
the shop did not care two pins whether I bought anything or not. She was
indifferent whether she made a sale or did not make a sale. She was only
pretending to sell.

"This sounds a very small and fanciful incident to build upon what
follows. But really it was not small. I mean it was the spark that lit
the line of powder and ran along to the big bl