At dusk he stole down into the street to mail a letter to Frensen, wherein he had written: "I am a good deal of a broken reed to-day, but I am going to fight. I wish you were here to talk things over with me. I'm surrounded by people who believe in the supernatural, and I need some one like yourself to brace me up."
This was true. He had been thrust into the midst of those who dwelt upon the amazing and the inexplicable in human life. The city, which had been to him so vast, so ugly, and so menacing in a material way, now became mysterious in an entirely different way. He had now a sense of its infinite drama, its network of purpose. There was some comfort, however, in the thought that amid these swarms of people his own activities were inconspicuous. To-morrow he and his mother would be forgotten in some new sensation.
The air was delicately fresh and wholesome, and the faces of the girls he met had singular power to comfort him. The life of the city, sweeping on multitudinously, refreshed him like the spray of a mighty torrent foaming amid rocks and shadowed by lofty cañon walls. He returned to his vigil stronger and better for this momentary communion with the crowd.
Mrs. Joyce came again at nine and insisted on remaining for the night. She had quite thrown off her own gloom, being perfectly certain in her own mind that Lucy Ollnee would return with a marvelous story of her wanderings "on the other plane."
She began to make plans for Victor, "subject," she said, "to revision by your 'guides.'"
"You've said that before," he retorted, "but I have no 'guides.' I don't believe in 'guides,' and I don't intend to be ruled by a lot of spooks."
"Be careful," she warned. "They know your every thought and they may resent your attitude."
"Well, let them! What do I care? Suppose, for argument's sake, that these Voices _do_ come from my father and my grandfather. What do they know of this great city? They were country folks. How can they direct me in what I am to do?"
"They know a great deal better than any of us."
"Because they are free from the limitations of the flesh."
"I don't see how that is going to help them. Their minds are just the same as they were, aren't they?"
"Indeed no! We grow inconceivably in knowledge and power to discern the moment we drop the flesh."