Behind the Magic Mirror

Prologue

It was Christmas Eve and very cold. Little Meg Percival had curled herself up in a warm corner of her mother's drawing-room with a Persian kitten in her lap and the "Count of Monte Cristo " in her hand. She was thirteen, and Monte Cristo was still her favourite hero. All at once her mother's voice reached her ear and made her drop the well-worn volume, which had been read half a dozen times already. " Why don't you try what Meg can do ? " Mrs. Percival said. Some of the "groAvn ups," as Meg called them, were collected round a table, on which a pretty little board was placed, a board which ran on wheels and had a lead pencil attached to it. They were all endeavouring to do something (Meg could not discover what) and A complaining at their lack of success. From her corner on the sofa, she could see Sadi, her elder sister, a delicate, weak-minded girl ; Lady King fisher, her cousin, a spoilt, mischievous beauty ; and Egerton Lee, her distant connection, a young man with a fair, smooth face, who as yet had found no outlet for his talents.

"What is it? "she asked. "What do you want to make that board do ? " "We want it to write." " To write ! I fancied you Avere Thought Reading. We often played at that in Paris." " Meg is so blasd," murmured Sadi. " And what happened in Paris ? " asked Mr. Lee, kindly. He always took Meg's part Avhen Sadi snubbed her. " Nothing much. I can never read thoughts except accidentally. Once a girl called Esme Stuart hid the key to Vergani's Italian Exer cises in her desk and came out into the garden, and directly she came near, I said ' Oh, you are thinking of something you have hidden.' I never meant any harm. But she pulled my frock to be quiet, and as soon as she touched me I saw the brown cover of Vergani Avith ' Key ' written on it. I couldn't see the rest. So I whispered : ' Esme, you are a cheat,' and she fainted on the grass.

After that I never would play Thought Reading any more." " This is charming," said a lady, dressed in black velvet and diamonds, levelling her gold starers at Meg as she spoke, " positively charm ing. I ahvays fancied a boarding-school in Paris was a place to avoid. Now I am sure of it." " The child was only left there for six months, Aunt Sarah," said Mrs. Percival, fretfully. " She has no notion what she is talking about." "Go back to your book, Meg," whispered Sadi. " Please let her try to move Planchette," said Mr. Lee, in the gentle, determined voice Meg liked. " We have all failed. I believe she will succeed." He took her hand and laid it softly on the board with wheels. No one but himself paid the least attention. Apparently there was small hope that Planchette would respond to the touch of a child.

So the two who alone were interested, waited patiently ; Meg standing motionless at her friend's side, indifferent to the neglect of her little circle as long as he seemed satisfied. She was an odd-looking creature, whom many people found ugly, while others asserted she would be a beauty by the time she Avas twenty one. Mrs. Percival often complained that every feature Meg possessed just escaped being pretty by a hair's breadth. Her eyes w7ere a soft, deep brown, Avith some flecks of gold, but they narrowed at the outside corners, which gave them a Japanese appearance. Her lips Avere finely cut, only too thick ; her complexion was faultlessly clear, but devoid of colour ; her nose was rather flat, and her hair, though long and silky, quite refused to Avave. In spite of all these drawbacks she Avas very pleasant to look at.

A student of race peculiarities, seeing her little oval face, might, it is true, have wished to search the family archives for some evidence of Eastern descent, but if he had done so he would have learnt nothing positive. Not unfre quently a fusion of Eastern blood seems to dis appear and for many generations to leave no mark. Then suddenly, when every one has for gotten all about it, the type revives again, as distinctly as at first. Sadi and Charles, Meg's sister and brother, Avere pure Saxons in appear ance. She stood alone in her family, and might have passed for a changeling. At the end of five minutes' Avaiting, Mr. Lee looked up Avith triumph in his face. That leadpencil had begun to move. Ash questions it wrote, on the piece of paper beneath the board. There was a general hush in the conversation when this fact became known.

Aunt Sarah, known to the world as Mrs. Alban Lee, deserted her armchair and put down her lap dog ; Sir George Christopher, a neighbour of the Percivals and Meg's godfather, left his game of whist ; even Mrs. Percival, who was the laziest woman imaginable, threw away her novel in order to see. Meg felt astonished, flattered, and alarmed at the same moment. " Let us invent a question," said Lee. " Shall we ask where something came from ? " The drawing-room was filled Avith the spoils of continents, for Mrs. Percival's husband in his lifetime had been a mighty collector. It would have interested students of history to know how many slaves died in the desert or sickened in mines, hoAv many churches Avere ransacked, how many thefts accomplished, by how much, in short, the sum of human misery was increased before so many treasures were gathered tog-ether within the walls of one small house.

"Ask that ivory crucifix to tell its story," suggested Sadi. " But the truth of its story cannot be tested," urged Sir George. "Ask where I was born. That is a fact which admits of no doubt." Meg looked first at him, then at Lee. " Which question shall it be ? " " Take Sir George's." Planchette did not Avaver a second, but wrote very quickly : Born at sea. Sir George gave a sharp exclamation and stared at Meg. " This is extraordinary," he said. "I never saAv such a thing before. Never believed it possible. How do you do it Meg?" " I don't do it at all," replied Meg. " It is Planchette." She found herself suddenly lifted to a position of immense consequence, and her heart beat fast. Failure at this point would have been dreadful, but Planchette did its duty steadily. There was no threatening of failure.

It told them where the crucifix came from, and the name of the surgeon Avho cut off Sir George's left arm in the Crimea, and the initials of Lady Kingfisher's dearest friend, besides many other facts more or less exciting. " Ask the maiden names of my four great grandmothers," said Mrs. Alban Lee. " If she gets them right, I shall confess myself a believer." " No, no, you are too flippant," said Sir George. " I feel kindly to a spirit who spelt Pat O'Flanaghan's name correctly first trial. Ask her own name." Planchette shook to and fro, thereby intima ting disapproval. Then wrote one word : Ignoto. One or two people exchanged startled looks and Sir George pulled his long moustache thoughtfully. " I am tired," exclaimed Meg, " very tired. I want to leave off." "Just once more," said Lee, and the rest chimed in, " once more.

It shall be the last. Let Planchette write exactly what she pleases." They all with one consent spoke of the board as she. Meg was burning with excitement from head to foot, her eyes were shining, her mind had begun to work very rapidly. She even felt strange to herself. " Is it really I ?" she thought, "or am I changed into some one else. What can be the matter?" Then Planchette glided from beneath her fingers and wrote in large forcible characters, in separate lines, as if with an attempt to make verse : " I am sick at heart with longing, Oh, mother of my children ! Mother of my children. How shall my voice reach your ear ? How breathe the words of my complaint, The words of my complaint ? " " This is most touching," said Lady King fisher, in a broken voice, but Lee lifted his hand as if imploring for silence.

Mrs. Percival could not speak. She held a screen before her face and tried not to cry. Sadi melted into tears at once. Self-control was not her strong point, and a girl of eighteen must be excused for giving way when she thinks her father's spirit has returned to earth and is writing messages on a piece of note-paper. " It is time this amusement came to an end," remarked Mrs. Alban Lee. " Hush, hush," said her nephew. " See, the pencil is moving again. Oh, you have checked the impulse ! " The pencil made an abortive attempt to write, then stood still ; then Avith a sudden jerk the board slipped from the little controlling hand and some words appeared in quite an altered writing. They have let my beautiful golden dove Fly away, fly away. They have let my beautiful golden dove Fly away, and my heart is twice wounded."

No more : the play was ended and the un known power had gone. " It is always a mistake to interrupt," said Lee to his aunt severely. " We were on the edge of a discovery. Such opportunities are irrevocable." " Yes, Aunt Sarah, it was a pity to speak, just when you did," said Mrs. Percival. Aunt Sarah could not have looked more ashamed if she had killed a fox, for Lady King fisher and Sadi turned from her indignantly. Only Sir George, who did not like the sensation of having buckets of cold water thrown down his spine, stood her friend, and said he was glad the entertainment was over. Meg, in a terrible state of exhaustion, sank down on a chair, and met the eyes of Francis Lismore, her brother's friend. He was her friend, too, though she did not respect his opinion as she respected Mr. Lee's, because he was only sixteen and still at school.

Just now his face looked troubled. Ten minutes afterwards, while journeying upstairs to bed, they found an opportunity of speaking to one another. " Meg," he whispered. There's one thing I want to say. Planchette wrote a few lines of verse." " Yes." " They are the same I repeated to you ten days ago, in the garden. I said them first in Portuguese. I told you my nurse used to sing a little sad song to put me to sleep ; always the same air, with the same words. You asked me to translate, and I did — very badly." Meg's cheeks flushed scarlet. "They stayed in the back of your mind," continued Francis. They must have done. Oh, Meg, what does that mean ? " " That you believe I meant to cheat." " No. No. That Planchette echoes your own thoughts. She is yourself. Your mind works through her, and forgotten, half-heard things come back in a way to seem new."

" That is not all the explanation," said Meg. " Now and then it is as you say. I didn't know Avhere Sir George Avas born. I couldn't tell in the least where Father bought the ivory crucifix ; a little French toAvn, not in the geography books, Mother said. Planchette Avrote the name correctly." " But the poetry," said Francis. " Oh, Meg, do you know what you must do ? " Meg turned aside and hung half over the balusters. " Go back and tell them where those verses came from." " I can't ! " cried Meg. " They will think I cheated from beginning to end, and I didn't, I didn't, I didn't. There is more in Planchette than you know." " Hang that silly Planchette ! " cried Francis ; but she made a sign beseeching silence, and through the half open drawing-room door, sounds of conversation floated up.

" How self-possessed the child was ! " " Yes, she is a wonderful little creature ? " "A gift, such as hers, Mrs. Percival, ought not to be quite thrown away " " I will go with you, if you want to tell them," said Francis. Meg had a vague sense that the present moment was crucial, that important issues hung on the decision she must make, but her will seemed paralysed and would not act. For one thing, her strength had been drained by the efforts of the evening. When she tried to speak she could only stammer and her colour went and came. " Poor Meg ! " said Francis, pitifully. He was a slightly made boy, though straight and tall, and agile as a panther. His mother was Portuguese, and from her he inherited a pale complexion, grey eyes, deeply set beneath level brows, and features austere in their regularity.

Meg and he had been warm allies up to the present moment, but nothing divides friends so completely as a difference of opinion about the obligation of truth telling. Francis Avas honest in every fibre. Prevarication seemed odious to him ; he liked downright lies much better, and perhaps in the depths of his heart vague jealousy of Lee's influence added to the torture of the situation. " It Avill be over in a minute," he urged "And I'll standby you." Meg shook her head. " / cant, and besides some of it was true." Francis let go the candle which he had been holding and it fell into the hall, extinguishing itself in the process. He felt very sick. The grown-up people began to leave the drawing room, still discussing Planchette " To-morrow we must try a longer, more important experiment," said Lee, cheerfully.

Chapter I

On a warm evening in June, two young men were waiting at Gower Street. Both looked hot and weary, as well they might, but with this similarity of expression all resemblance ceased. One was dark, lean, and active, dressed, moreover, with extreme precision, though his coat was not cut by a first-rate tailor ; the other had a fair complexion, a loose figure, and wore his clothes negligently. If he had not been rich, and therefore provided Avith a valet, it was easy to see that his appearance would have degenerated into that of a sloven. When the Inner Circle train came up they each stepped into the same compartment. The fair, stout one gazed dreamily into darkness ; the other bit his lip, moved impatiently, and at last bent forward. " I think you are Charles Percival." "Why, it is Lismore," exclaimed the first.

" How odd to meet you here ! I haven't seen you for a century." "For six years," corrected Lismore. " Yes, you were on the point of leaving Oxford. I stayed, as of course you know, and took my degree. I Avished to take Holy Orders immediately afterwards, but my family insisted I had prior duties, duties which would clash with the work of a parish priest. I have gone through an anxious time. The question is not settled yet. I have consulted many friends and hope to arrive at a decision one way or the other soon." " Are your people in town ? " asked Lismore. "Yes, living in a house on Campden Hill. My mother and Meg. Sadi is married. Her husband is one of those who think I ought not to enter the Church. Some day I should like to put all the reasons for and against before you." " Miss Percival is in London ?

" said Lismore. " What an age since we have met. How is she ?" " Oh very well ; immensely taken up with Spiritualism. Do you remember Lee ? " " Perfectly." " Well, he burroAvs in the same subject. By the way, Lismore, you Avere half a Roman when I last knew you." " I was baptized by a Roman priest," said Lismore. " My father and mother belonged to opposite camps. But I am not a Roman Catholic." " How interesting," murmured Charles " Then you believe in our Orders ?" " I never thought about them. I daresay they are all right. Tell me if Mrs. Percival is likely to be in town long." " You never thought about them ! " exclaimed Charles, ignoring the last question. How very singular ! Then I shall get no help from you. My difficulty has always been " " Is Mrs. Percival likely to be in town long ?

" asked Lismore, remorselessly interrupt ing him. " Until the end of July. Here comes my station. You go on ? Then we must meet and talk another time. I remember how well up you used to be in the Romance languages. I want to travel in Spain. I have been advised to see the Roman Church as she is in Spain before coming to any definite decision regard ing her. Perhaps you could come with me." "As an interpreter," said Lismore, smiling grimly, " but my time is not my own." A perplexed look came over Percival's face. It always did whenever his friends spoke of duties which prevented them from giving full attention to his affairs. "Ah, I recollect," he said slowly. "You were in doubt as to the choice of a profession when last we met. It is a wretched state. My own uncertainty harasses me to death.

We must talk things over. I daresay you could throw light on my main difficulty. Here is my card and address. Come next Saturday evening. My mother is at home every Saturday evening." " He is the same egotistical ass he was at school," thought Lismore, opening the St. James's Gazette. " Hang him if I go to his house." Then a vision of Meg's queer little face floated before his eyes in the stuffy carriage, and he forgot to read the last political news. His career, so far, had been unfortunate. Just at the end of his first year at Oxford his father died, having lost a fortune through some disastrous bank failures. Lismore found him self in a state of genteel poverty, though his life up to that time had been spent in acquiring habits of extravagance. He faced the change bravely, but it left him cynical in some respects and sensitive in others.

When he meditated calling on the Percivals, the idea that Meg might despise his circumstances caused him to Avince for half a minute and hesitate. After- Avards he reflected that Charles, who knew he left Oxford in family trouble, had never put one question concerning his present mode of life. Perhaps Spiritualism would absorb Meg as com pletely as the Apostolical Succession absorbed her brother. He smiled a ghastly smile when this consolation occurred to him, and left the train at the South Kensington Station. B

Chapter II

Mrs. Percival's garden was a very pretty one and looked particularly pretty on Saturday evening, when twilight veiled the harm done by a season of drought, and fairy lamps lit up the paths or peeped through the branches of the trees. Some of the guests wandered about on the lawn ; others sat in luxurious chairs, drinking coffee and lazily discussing the latest news. An impression of summer idleness per vaded the Avhole scene, particularly pleasant to Lismore, who loved open-air life and always felt in his element among strongly scented flowers. He was lingering near a bush of syringa Avhen a sharp voice accosted him. " You don't remember me ; that's unkind, when I remember you and have walked quite a dozen yards to speak to you." Lismore raised his head and saw a little lady, who looked rather like a bird of prey, so fierce were her light blue eyes and so aquiline her features.

" Mrs. Lee," he exclaimed, feeling proud of his cleverness. Then he suddenly remembered that Mr. Alban Lee had died eighteen months before, and perceiving the lady before him was not in black, suspected a horrid mistake. There was no need to alarm himself. Mrs. Lee ought by rights to have worn the trappings of woe, but, like most small creatures, she loved bright colours. Besides, her complexion was sallow, and black made her look distinctly hideous. " I have not changed beyond recognition then," she said. " You ought to be fond of me. Do you remember that priceless china jar you broke at Greystone with an unlucky tennis-ball, and the way I helped you out of the scrape ? " "I do," said Lismore. " Have you never thought of me with gratitude since ? Don't say you are base enough to think I did wrong ?

" The truth was, that Mrs. Lee, who liked Lismore's handsome face and general air of distinction, had saved him from a difficulty by the simple method of telling a lie. She said it was her umbrella that knocked down the china goblet in the hall, and Lismore, not liking to convict her, had never cleared the matter up. , " Where have you been all these years ? " was her next question. " I knew you were at Balliol with my nephew Charles, but have heard nothing since." "Tell me about Charles," said Lismore, avoiding an answer, because instinct warned him that the old lady in whose company he was hated a melancholy story as much as she hated crape. " Oh, Charles is in perplexity as to his duty. He is for ever in perplexity. He is a fool. I hate a fool. Speak of some one else." " Miss Percival is married ?"

" Yes, she married early. She had no doubt as to her duty." " And Lismore hesitated. " And Meg," continued Mrs. Lee, in an altered voice. " She is the most charming girl in London. She thinks she is not a bit pretty. That adds to her piquancy. But this nonsense about Spiritualism." "Charles told me something." " You do not know ! Ah, you have lived out of the world. Were you in Brazil with your people ? " " I have been cut off from old acquaintances." " Then you never heard that my nephew and Meg are making a study of automatic writing and other matters of the sort. Egerton has already written one volume of a large work, which he hopes may electrify London. The worst is that this folly has attracted notice and brought Meg a sort of pseudo fame. She has given private seances, to which distinguished men have come.

I will not mention names just now. She is so completely above the suspicion of imposture that many people who disliked the subject before are now taking it up seriously. Egerton may achieve success with his book and his experiments, but they are going to cost Meg a great deal more than they are worth. I would give half I possess to get the thing stopped." " Is he here to-day ? " Mrs. Lee pointed Avith her eye-glasses to a man leaning against the wall of the house, talking in soft, measured tones. He was be ginning to be bald and gave promise of corpu lence in a few more years. Lismore, Avho remembered him when he was slender and plentifully provided with hair, felt a distinct but not disagreeable shock. " I am not one of those who view everything their relations do through rose-coloured spec tacles," said Mrs. Lee, complacently, "and, besides, I have taken you up, just where I left you.

We were the two sane persons present at a seance long ago. If you can help me to bring some sense into the family circle I shall be deeply grateful. This evening they intend to hold a meeting. If you watch, you will see various favoured mortals steal quietly aside and pass through the conservatory into a room on the right. What do you say ? Are you dis posed to join them ? " "Is it permitted?" " Oh, I am privileged. I can introduce any of my friends when I like."

Chapter III

Lismore followed his guide into a large room, almost empty of furniture, where nearly a dozen people were collected. One of these, a little man with white hair, was running about, seizing the hand of each new comer and repeating the same formula in a breathless Avhisper : " We were afraid you wouldn't come. We were afraid you wouldn't come. Oh, I am so glad to see you. We Avere afraid you wouldn't come." "He is a Swedenborgian," said Mrs. Lee. " They call him the White Rabbit. That ugly, raw-boned Avoman he is talking to now is the Sybil. She writes books on prophecy. The man near the door is a Buddhist and lectures on the joys of annihilation, Parson Rook, named by his friends of course. This is a lunatic asylum, where each one perceives his neighbour to be insane and thinks he is wise himself.

Do you see that tall soldier with grey whiskers and wandering eyes ? I want to introduce him. General Oliver, let me present my friend Mr. Lismore. He comes as an ap prentice. This is his first night." " I hope you are prepared for great things, Mr. Lismore," said the General. " Let me assure you, we are on the brink of large discoveries. Our children's children will talk of the events of this evening. We labour for the future and with the eyes of the future upon us. The first initial step is to eliminate all personal motives, and, in order to do that, Ave must realise strongly that this life is only a dream. We feel nothing, do nothing, see nothing, but we dream of all. Are you fully convinced that the scene around us now is a dream, that I am a dream, that the body you see me Avear is purely imaginary, a creation of your own mental consciousness ?

" " I am fully convinced of nothing," said Lismore, "especially at this moment." " This is right," exclaimed the Sybil. " That is the only sound attitude. Rest in that state. Be convinced of nothing." "Excuse me," said Parson Rook. "There are some data surely upon Avhich we may firmly stand. I feel as positive as I am of my own existence, that " " But can you be positive of your own existence?" interposed the General, with a faint smile. " I think / can," said the White Rabbit. Lismore laughed, not loudly or obtrusively, but with a natural, spontaneous gaiety, Avhich, oddly enough, seemed to frighten those who stood around him. One or two edged further away while the others looked perplexed. " Here comes my niece at last ! " exclaimed Mrs. Lee. " I was beginning to fear that she and her intellectual friends meant to play me false and leave us alone in Bedlam."

Lismore had always retained a clear picture of Meg in his mind, a picture which at the moment of meeting her again rose vividly before him, then vanished for ever. He had seen her last, at the age of sixteen, a delicate, odd-looking girl, Avho was constantly offending her mother's prejudices and her sister's ideas of decorum. An unfortunate girl, of the kind whom groAvn-up people discuss Avith mingled contempt and sympathy. " Poor Meg," they used to say, " what a pity she is like that!' This little creature had disappeared, and in her place was a tall, slender woman with gleaming hazel eyes and curious, uncommon features, neither ugly nor pretty, though looking both by turns. One fact was certain. She was as graceful as a human being can well be, and Lismore watched her progress through the room with immense interest, seeing her bend her small head, first to one visitor, then to another, sometimes giving her hand, sometimes a smile, until the whole circle of enthusiasts had been greeted and welcomed.

Lee followed a few steps behind, and with him came two men of a different stamp from Parson Rook and the Rabbit. One was well known in the scientific world, Professor Lauris ton Munro, the other was a fashionable doctor named Sylvester. " I have brought a new associate but an old friend with me this evening," said Mrs. Lee. " Let me introduce him, Francis Lismore." Meg bowed stiffly without giving her hand, and turned to Mr. Munro, but his attention was taken up by the new comer. "You and I never expected to meet each other here, Lismore. I am very glad to see you." " Professor Munro and you are friends ! " said Meg, looking at Lismore, Avith a sort of critical attention, as for a moment they were left standing face to face. "Work brought us together " said Lismore. " I am an electric engineer.

To-night, we are to play with something more subtle and dangerous than electricity ! " " That is as you take it," replied Meg. " I have never yet been aware of danger. But your presence is a bad omen. I am afraid we shall not go far in our experiments." " Shall I leave ? " suggested Lismore, who thought that she had conceived a violent dislike to him. " Mrs. Lee should have consulted you before admitting a stranger." " No, stay here, since you have come," she answered, moving away to a seat at the remote end of the room, while he stood still, feeling as if she had flung her glove in his face or inflicted some other insult quite as undeserved and in tangible. When he listened again to the conversation he found that Lee was proposing to write some words on a sheet of paper, which should be placed beneath a book in order that Meg, with out seeing them, might say what they were ; but to this she objected, stating her reasons frankly.