III
Two evenings after this, thanks to an arrangement by letter and thepromise of an ample fee, I found Madame Vulpes awaiting me at herresidence alone. She was a coarse-featured woman, with keen and rathercruel dark eyes, and an exceedingly sensual expression about her mouthand under jaw. She received me in perfect silence, in an apartment onthe ground floor, very sparsely furnished. In the centre of the room,close to where Mrs. Vulpes sat, there was a common round mahogany table.If I had come for the purpose of sweeping her chimney, the woman couldnot have looked more indifferent to my appearance. There was no attemptto inspire the visitor with awe. Everything bore a simple and practicalaspect. This intercourse with the spiritual world was evidently asfamiliar an occupation with Mrs. Vulpes as eating her dinner or ridingin an omnibus.
"You come for a communication, Mr. Linley?" said the medium, in a dry,businesslike tone of voice.
"By appointment--yes."
"What sort of communication do you want--a written one?"
"Yes, I wish for a written one."
"From any particular spirit?"
"Yes."
"Have you ever known this spirit on this earth?"
"Never. He died long before I was born. I wish merely to obtain fromhim some information which he ought to be able to give better than anyother."
"Will you seat yourself at the table, Mr. Lin-ley," said the medium,"and place your hands upon it?"
I obeyed, Mrs. Vulpes being seated opposite to me, with her hands alsoon the table. We remained thus for about a minute and a half, when aviolent succession of raps came on the table, on the back of my chair,on the floor immediately under my feet, and even on the window-panes.Mrs. Vulpes smiled composedly.
"They are very strong to-night," she remarked. "You are fortunate." Shethen continued, "Will the spirits communicate with this gentleman?"
Vigorous affirmative.
"Will the particular spirit he desires to speak with communicate?"
A very confused rapping followed this question.
"I know what they mean," said Mrs. Vulpes, addressing herself to me;"they wish you to write down the name of the particular spirit thatyou desire to converse with. Is that so?" she added, speaking to herinvisible guests.
That it was so was evident from the numerous affirmatory responses.While this was going on, I tore a slip from my pocket-book and scribbleda name under the table.
"Will this spirit communicate in writing with this gentleman?" asked themedium once more.
After a moment's pause, her hand seemed to be seized with a violenttremor, shaking so forcibly that the table vibrated. She said that aspirit had seized her hand and would write. I handed her some sheets ofpaper that were on the table and a pencil. The latter she held looselyin her hand, which presently began to move over the paper with asingular and seemingly involuntary motion. After a few moments hadelapsed, she handed me the paper, on which I found written, in a large,uncultivated hand, the words, "He is not here, but has been sent for."A pause of a minute or so ensued, during which Mrs. Vulpes remainedperfectly silent, but the raps continued at regular intervals. When theshort period I mention had elapsed, the hand of the medium was againseized with its convulsive tremor, and she wrote, under this strangeinfluence, a few words on the paper, which she handed to me. They wereas follows:
"I am here. Question me.
"_Leeuwenhoek_."
I was astounded. The name was identical with that I had written beneaththe table, and carefully kept concealed. Neither was it at all probablethat an uncultivated woman like Mrs. Vulpes should know even the nameof the great father of microscopies. It may have been biology; butthis theory was soon doomed to be destroyed. I wrote on my slip--stillconcealing it from Mrs. Vulpes--a series of questions which, to avoidtediousness, I shall place with the responses, in the order in whichthey occurred:
I.--Can the microscope be brought to perfection?
Spirit--Yes.
I.--Am I destined to accomplish this great task?
Spirit.--You are.
I.--I wish to know how to proceed to attain this end. For the love whichyou bear to science, help me!
Spirit--A diamond of one hundred and forty carats, submitted toelectro-magnetic currents for a long period, will experience arearrangement of its atoms _inter se_ and from that stone you will formthe universal lens.
I.--Will great discoveries result from the use of such a lens?
Spirit--So great that all that has gone before is as nothing.
I.--But the refractive power of the diamond is so immense that the imagewill be formed within the lens. How is that difficulty to be surmounted?
Spirit--Pierce the lens through its axis, and the difficulty isobviated. The image will be formed in the pierced space, which willitself serve as a tube to look through. Now I am called. Good-night.
I can not at all describe the effect that these extraordinarycommunications had upon me. I felt completely bewildered. No biologicaltheory could account for the _discovery_ of the lens. The medium might,by means of biological _rapport_ with my mind, have gone so far as toread my questions and reply to them coherently. But biology couldnot enable her to discover that magnetic currents would so alter thecrystals of the diamond as to remedy its previous defects and admit ofits being polished into a perfect lens. Some such theory may havepassed through my head, it is true; but if so, I had forgotten it. Inmy excited condition of mind there was no course left but to become aconvert, and it was in a state of the most painful nervous exaltationthat I left the medium's house that evening. She accompanied me tothe door, hoping that I was satisfied. The raps followed us as we wentthrough the hall, sounding on the balusters, the flooring, and even thelintels of the door. I hastily expressed my satisfaction, and escapedhurriedly into the cool night air. I walked home with but one thoughtpossessing me--how to obtain a diamond of the immense size required. Myentire means multiplied a hundred times over would have been inadequateto its purchase. Besides, such stones are rare, and become historical. Icould find such only in the regalia of Eastern or European monarchs.