He was as calm as you please.  I recognised that already I was in peril of losing my temper,—­which was not at all what I desired.  I eyed him intently, he returning me look for look.  His countenance betrayed no sign of a guilty conscience; I had not seen him more completely at his ease.  He smiled,—­facially, and also, as it seemed to me, a little derisively.  I am bound to admit that his bearing showed not the faintest shadow of resentment, and that in his eyes there was a gentleness, a softness, which I had not observed in them before,—­I could almost have suspected him of being sympathetic.

’In this matter, you must know, I stand in the place of Mr Lindon.’

‘Well?’

’Surely you must understand that before anyone is allowed to think of marriage with Marjorie Lindon he will have to show that his past, as the advertisements have it, will bear the fullest investigation.’

‘Is that so?—­Will your past bear the fullest investigation?’

I winced.

‘At any rate, it is known to all the world.’

’Is it?—­Forgive me if I say, I doubt it.  I doubt if, of any wise man, that can be said with truth.  In all our lives there are episodes which we keep to ourselves.’

I felt that that was so true that, for the instant, I hardly knew what to say.

’But there are episodes and episodes, and when it comes to a man being haunted one draws the line.’

‘Haunted?’

‘As you are.’

He got up.

’Atherton, I think that I understand you, but I fear that you do not understand me.’  He went to where a self-acting mercurial air-pump was standing on a shelf.  ’What is this curious arrangement of glass tubes and bulbs?’

’I do not think that you do understand me, or you would know that I am in no mood to be trifled with.’

‘Is it some kind of an exhauster?’

’My dear Lessingham, I am entirely at your service.  I intend to have an answer to my question before you leave this room, but, in the meanwhile, your convenience is mine.  There are some very interesting things here which you might care to see.’

’Marvellous, is it not, how the human intellect progresses,—­from conquest unto conquest’

’Among the ancients the progression had proceeded farther than with us.’

‘In what respect?’

’For instance, in the affair of the Apotheosis of the Beetle;—­I saw it take place last night.’

‘Where?’

‘Here,—­within a few feet of where you are standing.’

‘Are you serious?’

‘Perfectly.’

‘What did you see?’

’I saw the legendary Apotheosis of the Beetle performed, last night, before my eyes, with a gaudy magnificence at which the legends never hinted.’

’That is odd.  I once thought that I saw something of the kind myself.’

‘So I understand.’

‘From whom?’

‘From a friend of yours.’