At this, the agreeable person said that the pleasure he derived
from meeting me was all-excelling, and that I must certainly accompany
him to a meeting-place of this same chosen few the following evening,
when, by the means of sacred expedients, they hoped to invoke the
presence of some departed spirits, and perchance successfully raise a
tangible vision or two. To so fair-minded a proposal I held myself
acquiescently, and then inquired where the meeting-place in question
was destined to be--whether in a ruined and abandoned sanctuary, or
upon some precipitous spot of desolation.
The inquiry was gracefully intended, but a passing cloud of unworthy
annoyance revealed itself upon the upper part of the other's
expression as he replied, "We, the true seekers, despise theatrical
accessories, and, as a matter of act, I couldn't well get away from
the office in time to go anywhere far. To-morrow we meet at my place
in the Camden Road. It's only a three-half-penny tram stage from the
Euston and Tottenham Court corner, so it couldn't be much more
convenient for you." He thereupon gave me an inscribed fragment of
paper and mentioned the appointed hour.
"I'll tell you why I am particularly anxious for you to come
to-morrow," he said as we were each departing from one another.
"Pash--he's the Reader of the Veda among us--and his people have got
hold of a Greek woman (they SAY she is a princess, of course), who can
do a lot of things with flowers and plate glass.
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