Early in March I had a telegram from her, in consequence of which I repaired immediately to Chelsea, where the first thing she said to me was: “He has got it, he has got it!”
She was moved, as I could see, to such depths that she must mean the great thing. “Vereker’s idea?”
“His general intention. George has cabled from Bombay.”
She had the missive open there; it was emphatic, but it was brief. “Eureka. Immense.” That was all--he had saved the money of the signature. I shared her emotion, but I was disappointed. “He doesn’t say what it is.”
“How could he--in a telegram? He’ll write it.”
“Know it’s the real thing? Oh, I’m sure when you see it you do know. _Vera incessu patuit dea!_”
“It’s you, Miss Erme, who are a dear for bringing me such news!”--I went all lengths in my high spirits. “But fancy finding our goddess in the temple of Vishnu! How strange of George to have been able to go into the thing again in the midst of such different and such powerful solicitations!”
“He hasn’t gone into it, I know; it’s the thing itself, let severely alone for six months, that has simply sprung out at him like a tigress out of the jungle. He didn’t take a book with him--on purpose; indeed he wouldn’t have needed to--he knows every page, as I do, by heart. They all worked in him together, and some day somewhere, when he wasn’t thinking, they fell, in all their superb intricacy, into the one right combination. The figure in the carpet came out. That’s the way he knew it would come and the real reason--you didn’t in the least understand, but I suppose I may tell you now--why he went and why I consented to his going. We knew the change would do it, the difference of thought, of scene, would give the needed touch, the magic shake. We had perfectly, we had admirably calculated. The elements were all in his mind, and in the _secousse_ of a new and intense experience they just struck light.” She positively struck light herself--she was literally, facially luminous. I stammered something about unconscious cerebration, and she continued: “He’ll come right home--this will bring him.”
“To see Vereker--and to see _me_. Think what he’ll have to tell me!”
“About fiddlesticks! About Vereker--about the figure in the carpet.”