“Great Scott!” exclaimed Ronnie.  “What a theory!  But indeed Helen would question it; and not only so, but she would be exceedingly upset and very much annoyed.”

“Then Helen would fully justify the ‘If’ of the greatest of all teachers.  She would come under the heading of those who refuse to receive a truth, however clearly and unmistakably expressed.”

“Lor!” exclaimed Ronnie, in undisguised perplexity.  “You have completely cornered me.  But then I never set up for being a theologian.”

“No; you are a born artist and musician.  Music, tone, sound, colour, vibrate in every page of your romances.  Had your parents taught you harmony, the piano, and the fiddle, your music would have burst forth along its normal lines.  As they merely taught you the alphabet and grammar, your creative faculty turned to literature; you wrote romances full of music, instead of composing music full of romance.  It is a distinction without a difference.  But, now that you have found your mislaid ’cello, and I am teaching you to KNOW YOURSELF, you will do both.”

Ronald stared across at Aubrey.  His head was throbbing.  Every moment he seemed to become more certain that he had indeed, many times before, held the Infant of Prague between his knees.

But there was a weird, uncanny feeling in the room.  Helen seemed to walk in, to seat herself in the empty chair; and, leaning forward, to look at him steadily, with her clear earnest eyes.  She seemed to repeat impressively:  “Aubrey is not a good man, Ronnie.  He is not a man you should trust.”

“Well?” asked Aubrey, at last.  “Do you recognise the truth?”

Then, with an effort, Ronnie answered as he believed Helen would have answered; and her face beside him seemed to smile approval.

“It sounds a plausible theory,” he said slowly; “it may possibly be a truth.  But it is not a truth required by us now.  Our obvious duty in the present is to live this life out to its fullest and best, regarding it as a time of preparation for the next.”

Aubrey’s thin lips framed the word “Rubbish!” but, checking it unuttered, substituted:  “Quite right.  This existence is a preparation for the next; just as that which preceded was a preparation for this.”

Then Ronnie ceased to express Helen, and gave vent to an idea of his own.

“It would make a jolly old muddle of all our relationships,” he said.

“Not at all,” replied Aubrey.  “It merely readjusts them, compensating for disappointments in the present, by granting us the assurance of past possessions, and the expectation of future enjoyment.  In the life which preceded this, Helen was probably my wife, while you were a beautiful old person in diamond shoe-buckles, knee-breeches, and old lace, who played the ’cello at our wedding.”

“Confound you!” cried Ronnie, in sudden fury, springing up and swinging the ’cello above his head, as if about to bring it down, with a crashing blow, upon Aubrey.  “Damned old shoe-buckle yourself!  Helen was never your wife!  More likely you blacked her boots and mine!”