how deftly they had been introduced by
Miss Metford. I never thought of the flight of time until a chime from a
tiny clock on the mantelpiece--an exquisite sample of the tasteful
furniture of the whole room--warned me that my visit had lasted two
hours. I arose reluctantly.

She rallied me on my ingratitude. I had come in a sorry plight. I was
now restored. She was no longer useful, therefore I left her. And so on,
till I said with a solemnity no doubt lugubrious:

"I am most grateful, Miss Metford. I cannot tell you how grateful I am.
You would not understand--"

"Oh, please leave my poor understanding alone, and tell me what has
happened to you. I should like to hear it. And what is more, I like
you." She said this so carelessly, I did not feel embarrassed. "Now,
then, the whole story, please." Saying which, she sat down again.

"Do you really know nothing more of Brande's Society than you admitted
when I last spoke to you about it?" I asked, without taking the chair
she pushed over to me.

"This is all I know," she answered, in the rhyming voice of a young
pupil declaiming a piece of a little understood and less cared for
recitation. "The society has very interesting evenings. Brande shows one
beautiful experiments, which, I daresay, would be amazingly instructive
if one were inclined that way, which I am not. The men are mostly
long-haired creatures with spectacles. Some of them are rather
good-looking. All are wholly mad. And my friend--I mean the only girl I
could ever stand as a friend--Natalie Brande, is crazy about them."

"Nothing more than that?"

"Nothing more."

The clock now struck the hour of nine, the warning chime for which had
startled me.

"Is there anything more than that?" Miss Metford asked with some
impatience.

I thought for a moment. Unless my own senses had deceived me that
evening in Brande's house, I ran a great risk of sharing George Delany's
fate if I remained where I was much longer. And suppose I told her all
I knew, would not that bring the same danger upon her too? So I had to
answer:

"I cannot tell you. I am a member now."

"Then you must know more than any mere outsider like myself. I suppose
it would not be fair to ask you. Anyhow, you will come back and see me
soon. By the way, what is your address?"

I gave her my address. She wrote it down on a silver-cased tablet, and
remarked:

"That will be all right. I'll look you up some evening."

As I drove to my hotel