it in a corner, sat up, and began to play with it.
All of a sudden something happened which shocked Lisa into a disgusted
exclamation.
"It is all part of the assumption of baby-hood," said Cyril, coldly "and a
bad one; for there is no reason why obsession by a baby's soul or mind should
interfere with adult reflexes. The real reason is that this woman comes from
the lowest sewers of Buda-Pesth. She was a common prostitute at the age of
nine, and only took up this game as a better speculation. It is part of her
pleasure to abuse the licence we allow her by such bestialities: it is a mark of
her black envy; she does not understand that her foulness does not so much as
soil our shoe-heather."
Despite her years of practice in the art of not understanding English, "Baby
" winced momentarily. For her dearest thought was the social prestige which
she enjoyed. It was terrible to see that the Real Thing was not under the
slightest illusion. She did not mind a thousand "exposures" as a fraud; but she
did want to keep up the bluff of being a Countess. She was past thirty-five; it
was high time she found an old fool to marry her. She had designs on the
Pasha; she had agreed to certain proposals in respect of this very seance with
a view to getting him into her power.
He was apologizing for her in the conventional way to Simon Iff. She had
no consciousness or memory of this state at all, it appeared. "She will grow
up in a little while; wait a few moments only."
And so it happened; soon she was prattling to [44] the Pasha, who
thoughtfully produced a doll for her to play with. Finally, she came over on
her knees to Lisa, and began to cry, and simulate fear, and stammer out a
confession of some kind. But Lisa did not wait to hear it; she was hot-
tempered, and constitutionally unable to conceal her feelings beyond a certain
point. She dragged her skirts away roughly, and went to the other end of the
room. The Pasha deprecated the action, with oriental aplomb; but the medium
had already reached the next and final stage. She went to the Pasha, sat on his
knee, and began to make the most violent love to him, with wanton kisses
and caresses.
"That's the best trick of the lot," explained Cyril; "It goes wonderfully with
a great many men. It gets their powers of observation rattled; she can pull off
the most obvious 'miracles,' and get them to swear that the control was
perfect. That's how she fooled Oudouwitz; he was a very old man, and she
proved to him that he was not as old as he thought he was. Great Harry