G. Lindsay Johnson

“ It is a wonderfully thought-out game," continued the professor. "Omit Zero and whether you back red or black, odd or even, or above or below 18, the chances are exactly even—it is the fatal Zero which turns the scale all the time in favour of the bank, and no matter what system is adopted the player is invariably beaten by the Zero, provided he only plays long enough. [19] It is like the old legend of the soul playing a game of chess with death. He may beat his adversary time after time—but the fleshless fingers of death always gain the victory in the end." ”

“ I don't know everything, but I knew that, and I arrived here just as you entered this room, and the moment you sat down to the piano I stole in on tip-toe, and stood behind you."
Renée opened her large eyes with mingled astonishment and awe, and paused in thought.
"Will you always love me, Henri? Even when I am old and wrinkled?" she suddenly exclaimed, as if the thought of possessing him was too good to be true.
"To the eyes of real love, dear, the loved one never becomes old or wrinkled," he replied gravely. ”

“ But with the advent of Turner, a great change came over art. He not only copied Nature, but he improved on it, idealised it, and gave it life, warmth, breadth, and depth, such as only Claude before him could conceive. Ma parole, were I not a Frenchman, I would place him in the world of painters absolutely alone in his glory."
"Right again, Riche, as usual," said Delapine, much interested. "It is a pleasure to hear Turner praised and appreciated. Not so very long ago it was the fashion to decry him, but all the disparagement could not gainsay the revolution he caused in art." ”

“ And then awake as from a pleasant sleep."
"I have often thought," interrupted Delapine who was listening most intently, "how I should like to leave this life, and then after a long sojourn in some other world, to wake up and find myself, like Juliet, once more at home. What countless problems one could solve, problems which have occupied the scientists for years. You cannot imagine, Renée, my intense longing to enter into the unknown and penetrate into the sealed mysteries of Nature. ”

“ All this time Delapine had remained motionless with his eyes fixed like a carved Buddha. At length he leaned over and whispered to Renée, who immediately transferred the maximum stakes to three fresh numbers and different squares.
The whole thing was done so quietly and so unobtrusively that only an onlooker who had been specially regarding him could have noticed that Delapine had made the slightest movement.
Occasionally he would take half-a-dozen gold pieces and rapidly throw them on to as many squares or numbers, without troubling his head in the least as to whether they won or lost. ”

“ It was the early part of the afternoon when the train pulled up at Beaulieu. They drove to the Hotel des Anglais, somewhat tired but in the best of spirits.
The feelings of Céleste and Renée on seeing the Côte d'Azur for the first time cannot be described. The balmy air was filled with the delicious perfumes of a million flowers and fields of new-mown hay. They saw the deep blue sky paling to a delicate turquoise where it touched the sea at the horizon. They saw the water scintillating [Pg 277] with the sunlight, and its placid surface broken by the white crests of the countless waves. ”

“ If a man is serious, everyone votes him a bore, and the ladies only laugh at him. An over-sensitive conscience is simply the evidence of spiritual dyspepsia. The man who has it is no better than his fellows."
"A man considers his little weaknesses mere amiable traits," said Pierre, "whereas a woman——"
"Will not admit that she has any," said Marcel.
"A woman is invariably right," said Dr. Riche with a sigh. "A woman is guided by instinct, a man by reason, and for the good it does him he might as well have never thought at all." ”

“ Pierre paid the cocher, and pushed his way through the great wheeling door with its plate glass leaves into the well-known café. The musicians had just recommenced playing, and taking a seat he looked around him, scowling, and feeling as angry and miserable as he could be. A double stream of men and women kept constantly passing in and out through the revolving doors which reminded one of a Nile-steamer's paddle-wheel on end. A faint sickly smell of cigarette smoke mingled with violet powder and patchouli and the vinous breath of a hundred human beings filled the air. ”

“ I remember turning round to see who he was, but he had vanished, and then I woke up."
"My dear Renée," said Madame terribly shocked, "you must not let the professor put such dreadful things into your little head, such dreams and ideas are only fit for crazy philosophers and not for young ladies in good society like yourself."
"I am quite old enough to take care of myself," said Renée, a little huffed, especially as she felt the remark was meant as much for Delapine as for herself.
Madame Villebois shrugged her shoulders and became suddenly occupied in absorbing her crême de vanille glacée. ”

“ Renée's heart thumped so violently that she felt her head beginning to swim.
"I felt exceedingly delighted, as you can well imagine, since the General is not only one of my oldest friends," continued Payot, "as well as one of my former comrades in arms, but the chance of such a distinguished alliance will greatly add to my wealth and position. Moreover Pierre is not only rich, but he will inherit at least two considerable fortunes, besides being a most charming and lovable young man with an unbounded future before him. Of his affection for you there is not a shadow of doubt." ”

“ How could Delapine marry her when she was without a sou? How could she earn her living except as a despised and pitied governess? He thought of his old comrade Duval—the brave old man in spite of his vanity and eccentricities—now lying cold in the grave. He thought of his son Pierre, a parricide and an outcast like Ishmael of old, a wild man, whose hand was against every man and every man's hand against him, and he trembled at the awful vista it awoke in his mind. ”

“ You, my dear Monsieur Payot, who appear to know everything, assert that all the phenomena are the result of fraud, and so easy to perform that anyone can imitate them, you might give us physicists credit for some little amount of common sense. You seem to imagine that we, who have all our lives trained our faculties to observe minutely and to rest satisfied with nothing until we have examined it from every conceivable point of view, and reflected upon all possible source of error, can be deceived by tricks that a six-year-old child could see through in a minute. ”

“ Oh, my name is Sylvestre Adam—a humble worshipper of you, my divinity," and he put his arm round her waist and gave her a squeeze.
"How very curious," she replied, "my name is Julie Paradis."
"What a pretty name," he answered, "and how appropriate to the occasion. Well I hope Adam will be allowed to remain in Paradise, and will not be expelled from so fair a spot."
"That depends on his behaviour in the garden of Eden," replied Madame Paradis, laughing. "He will be allowed to remain if he does not attempt to pluck any of the forbidden fruit." ”

“ As Abraham Lincoln once said, 'You may fool all men some time, you may fool some men for all time, but you cannot fool all men for all time.' No, sir, the things men laugh at to-day as impossible will be improbable to-morrow, conceivable the day after, and a little later everyone accepts them as a matter of course, and wonders how people could ever have been such fools as to have doubted them."
"But what evidence is there," said Riche, "that these apparitions and marvellous phenomena really occur? Why are séances held in the dark, or in merely a dull red light? ”

“ Renée's eyes sparkled as she looked up into his face with a sweet smile of approval.
The professor gave her a slight squeeze of the hand, and fell into a reverie of thought.
"But supposing, for the moment, that these phenomena were true," said Riche, "of what use are they? Surely spirits have something better to do than to waste their time in rapping tables, playing accordions or mandolins, ringing bells, or writing Greek sentences backwards, and answering all sorts of absurd questions. These things are only worthy of a mountebank, and not of serious people. ”

“ Would you screen an incarnate fiend from justice?" cried Paul and Roux together. "No, my dear Villebois," added Roux, leaning forward with both hands on the table, "there are crimes which we cannot allow our feelings to hide. We may be able to forgive injuries done to ourselves, but to protect a scoundrel who abuses your hospitality by murdering your friend and guest in cold blood, exceeds all the bounds of mercy."
"Well," said Villebois with a sigh, "I withhold my objection provided you will promise me the police will not be informed before twenty-four hours have elapsed. ”

“ The professor had a habit of nervously playing with his fingers which spread over every object they touched like the tentacles of a medusa, as if they were eager to come into contact with the ultimate particles of matter.
Delapine stood nearly six feet high, with very dark glossy hair falling almost to his shoulders, and wearing a moustache with twisted ends and a short pointed beard. The professor was invariably attired in a black frock coat and cravat, the sombreness being relieved by the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour. He was a man who would command attention anywhere. ”

“ We look for in a lover.
He stayed just long enough for the host and hostess to rise, and then with immense self-content and tact nudged Payot to accompany him, and bidding them all good-night departed for the Villebois's house dreaming of the delight at crossing swords with her at the forthcoming Sunday's dinner, and feeling that he was already hopelessly in love with her.
Punctually fourteen days later, Payot and Beaupaire were ushered into the library where Delapine was sitting in an easy-chair revising an essay which he was preparing for the Academie des Sciences. ”

“ I intend going to Monte Carlo."
"What!" they all exclaimed, "to Monte Carlo?"
"Why not?" he replied.
"Oh, but you surely do not mean to go there to play at the tables?"
"Why not?" he repeated.
"But, professor, we never knew you were a gambler."
"Well, well, it is part of my programme, and you will see how necessary it will be. It is true I am not a gambler, but I have resolved to play at the tables. Now, no more questions, or Renée will turn you all out of the garden," and Delapine laughed in his own hearty way.
"What a marvellous man," said Riche to Villebois. ”

“ If I had thought that my dear Adolphe had believed in spirits I would never have married him, never! Oh! what will my confessor say when I tell him?" And the good lady dabbed her eyes with her scented handkerchief, as she sat back in her chair perspiring.
"I think the professor and Villebois have clean gone off their heads," said Pierre sotto voce to Marcel. "Much learning hath made them mad."
"I am not so sure about that," replied Marcel. "Spiritualism, you know, is becoming quite fashionable, and it is no longer a heresy among the ladies to believe in it. ”

“ Villebois, impressed with the calmness and with the queer look of determination and severity in Delapine's eyes, ran back to the summer-house, and brought a fresh cup of coffee.
"Thank you so much: it is always better to repeat an experiment, especially when the result is so unexpected," said Delapine as he poured a few drops of the fresh coffee on another sun-dew plant. "How odd," he muttered, his grey eyes lighting up with a peculiar smile of surprise, mingled with severity.
"It is very strange," he continued, "in this case nothing whatever has happened—the tentacles have not even moved." ”

“ Immediately this happens, all the neighbouring tentacles bend over the captive fly, exactly as the tentacles of a sea-anemone bend over their prey, and suck its life-blood."
"I have not studied these plant problems," said Riche, "but now that you demonstrate some of them so clearly they do indeed appear marvellous."
"Ah, my dear doctor," said Delapine, "there are quite a host of problems awaiting solution in the actions of that plant. The moment one begins to think, and to ask one-self Why and How, one becomes aware of one's dense ignorance of the every-day operations of Nature. ”

“ Now only a mighty ruin remains to recall its former greatness."
"Oh, yes," said Renée, "I remember I read about it in Tennyson's Daisy."
"Why, Renée, what a memory you have!"
"Not at all, Henri. You see I knew I was going to the Riviera, so I read up all I could about the place; and now the places seem like old friends."
"That is the way to travel, it is the only way to enjoy the scenery."
"Where are we going when the rest of the party returns?" asked Renée. ”

“ Payot was silent, and a titter went round the room, as Arago was considered by common consent to have been the first scientist in France.
"But still, my dear professor, these things are after all merely a huge joke," said Riche.
The professor opened his blue eyes very wide and smiled.
"My dear doctor, a learned pedant who laughs at the possible comes very near being an idiot. To shun a fact purposely, and turn one's back upon it with a supercilious smile, is to bankrupt truth." ”