Mr Scarletti's Ghost (31 page)

They made the usual polite enquiries after each other's health and Mina asked about purchasing some mineral water. He tried to divert her to the lady at the reception desk, but Mina said, ‘I will see about it on my way out, but I have more important matters to discuss.'

‘If this is to be a long consultation, then perhaps—' he began.

‘No, this cannot wait for another time,' she said. ‘You know, I think, some of what I have come here to say, but I beg you to hear me out. I understand that you have attended private consultations with Miss Eustace, and I do not blame you for that, neither do I ask you to do anything other than what you feel will benefit you.'

‘But you have a mission in mind, or you would not be here,' he said, folding his arms and leaning back in his chair.

‘Of course I do,' said Mina, ‘and an important one. You may hold in your hands the whole secret of whether or not Miss Eustace is genuine.'

‘But supposing,' he said, ‘I do not care whether she is or not?'

‘Today you may care nothing at all,' said Mina. ‘Today, if someone was to offer you conclusive proof that she is a fraud you would prefer not to know. Another day may be different, and then we may talk of this again. The difference between us is that I care very much, but I promise you that whatever the answer is, whatever the truth may prove to be, I will accept it.'

There was a long pause as he stared at his pen, which he had laid aside when Mina entered. He looked as though he very much wanted to take up the pen again and work on his papers, anything other than engage in the conversation she so earnestly wished for. He needed to choose, thought Mina, between his previous accepted view of the world, untrammelled by emotion, and a comfort that he knew in his heart was really an illusion; but he was not yet ready to make that choice. He seemed on the verge of taking the easy path and saying that he did not want to speak on the subject that so consumed his visitor, but as he gazed on Mina, there was a very slight sad smile, the capitulation of a man who saw his inevitable fate.

‘I – received a message from Eliza,' he said at last. ‘She said that she was in no pain, and I was grateful for that. I know that any charlatan might have invented such a message, but there was one detail about the seat and the nature of the pain that suggested to me that the message could only have come from Eliza. It was something she only ever spoke of to Anna and myself. What more can I say?'

It was a small point, but a convincing one, and she had to admit it took some of the energy from her campaign. He looked so dejected that she decided not to press him further, and wished him well.

She returned home to study the most recent edition of the
Gazette
and found that the arrival of a new medium in Brighton had encouraged a renewal of correspondence on the subject of spiritualism, some of which was from Professor Gaskin, and some from Mr Bradley, who wholeheartedly supported the world of the spirit as a very real, holy and beneficial phenomenon.

One correspondent, who declined to mention his or her name but hid behind the
nom de plume
of
FAIR
SPEECH
, advanced the theory that only some of the manifestations at séances were honest but that proving one instance of fakery did not mean the medium concerned was a fraud. Even genuine mediums might find their powers failing them on occasion, and having to meet the expectation of their admiring audiences they were sometimes obliged to resort to a little trickery in order to provide a performance. This, thought Mina, was yet another argument that meant that even a medium caught out in a blatant cheat could escape exposure. The poor hard-pressed and exhausted medium, anxious to please the public, was thereby transformed from a charlatan to an object of sympathy.

In this curious war between the believers and the sceptics, the medium, she realised, was always bound to win. Even a temporary setback could be overcome and the beloved of the spirits would rise again stronger than before. The reason was obvious – the sceptic was a creature of the intellect, using sense and calm reasoning, whereas the supporters of the mediums were led by their emotions; more than that, their passionate need to believe in a more immediate afterlife than promised by scripture, the continued happy existence of loved ones they had lost, and their own immortality. Attack that, and one attacked the fundamental human desire to deny death, a fortress that appeared unassailable.

The one thing that might weaken the power of the mediums was the thing that Mina had been told would never happen – war within their number, which might lead to incaution and therefore revelations that might not otherwise have been made. But mediums, like conjurers, knew each other's secrets, perhaps even exchanged them, and supported each other when needed, and an attack on one was an attack on them all. A betrayal could easily rebound to the detriment of the accuser. Mina realised that if she wanted a war between the mediums she would have to start one herself.

I
t was a difficult path to tread, but after some thought she felt she had the answer. It was useless to make accusations of fraud, she could see that now, unless she had some very compelling evidence, which was not as yet in her possession, but there was another course she might take. Mina took up her pen and wrote a letter, which she decided to send to all the Brighton newspapers.

Sir

I have been a spiritualist for many years and have followed with some interest the correspondence on this subject in your pages. There are, as your readers will be aware, two ladies currently residing in Brighton who have been conducting séances. Both have impressed the populace with their sincerity, and the manifestations produced have been of the very highest order; nevertheless I feel strongly motivated to express my concerns regarding the demonstrations by the most recent arrival in this town. The medium who has been holding séances during the last few weeks is a lady of unquestionable respectability, who has always conducted herself with great modesty, and there has been nothing in either her deportment or her exhibitions that could arouse concern. The same, however, cannot be said of the lady who is newly arrived. The apparition which comes at her command and flies about the room in such a remarkable way may well be clad in a manner appropriate to the regions of the spirit, from which she comes, but such a sight is not to be tolerated in a drawing room, especially where there are ladies of quality present. Rumour has it, and I earnestly hope that this is rumour and nothing more, that these demonstrations are largely patronised by single gentlemen, and not a few married gentlemen who ought to know better. Is this true? I hope your readers will enlighten me.

Yours truly

A
SPIRITUALIST

Brighton

Mina thought the letter to be of sufficient interest, provoking without being actually actionable, to be taken up by at least one if not all the newspapers in Brighton, but that was only the first part of her plan. She carefully prepared two more letters, which she would send once the first was published.

Sir

I read with considerable concern the attack upon the character of Miss Foxton, who although not named, was undoubtedly the subject of
A
SPIRITUALIST
's letter in your last issue. The writer claims to have been interested in spiritualism for many years but is quite ignorant of the manifestations that with the natural innocence of the newborn babe may appear. He – or is it a she? – with no understanding of these phenomena, chooses to insult Miss Foxton, who cannot be at fault in this matter. I suggest that
A
SPIRITUALIST
write at once to withdraw the unfounded remarks, which include the vilest of rumours. I do not profess to know who the author might be, but do I perhaps detect a motive for the attack – i.e. professional jealousy?

Yours truly

BRIGHTONIAN

Kemp Town

Sir

I feel I must protest in the strongest possible terms against the tone and insinuations of the letter from
A
SPIRITUALIST
published in your recent edition. The identity and motives of the author are no mystery to me. A fawning acolyte of Miss Eustace, seeking to enhance his own fame by attaching himself to the lady, has misguidedly sought to add to her reputation by insulting another medium. Should material of this nature be tolerated in a respectable publication? I do not believe it should.

I have personally attended the séances of both the ladies referred to and consider them to be of equal merit and interest.

Yours truly

A
BELIEVER

Brighton

Mina posted the first letter and awaited developments. She had no concern about mounting an attack on Miss Foxton, which could only add to that young lady's fame, and she might make of it what she could. Miss Eustace, if she read the newspapers, which Mina felt sure she did, if only to be well acquainted with events and personalities in Brighton, would not appreciate until the second letter was published that it was she who was suspected of having written the first. Whether or not Mr Clee would recognise himself as the ‘fawning acolyte' of her third letter she did not know. The accusation of indecency had a second purpose for Mina; it ensured that her mother, and quite probably those of her friends who knew Richard by sight, would continue to avoid Miss Foxton's séances.

Mina received a kind letter from Mr Greville, who thanked her for her new story, which he agreed to publish, but could not immediately recall having seen any item of news about the imprisonment of a medium for fraud. It was the kind of event that might have received only a paragraph, if that, in any reputable paper. He promised, however, that when he had the opportunity he would look into it further.

Mina's mother returned home, reporting that Enid was fully recovered from a mild attack of hysteria. Curiously, the natural disappointment that must have followed her daughter's recent discovery that she was not, as she had thought, about to become a mother again, had aided rather than delayed her return to health. Mr Inskip, confident that Enid was now well, had just gone abroad to undertake the negotiation of a property purchase by a reclusive nobleman, a loss which the abandoned wife was facing with commendable fortitude.

By the time Louisa Scarletti was preparing to plunge back into Brighton life, the letter denouncing Miss Foxton had appeared in the
Brighton Herald
, and was read with the triumphant declaration that she had always known there was something not quite right about Miss Foxton.

‘I have heard,' said Mina, who was rather enjoying stirring the bubbling pot of suspicion, ‘that the two ladies are deadly rivals and dislike each other intensely. I would have thought that there was room enough in Brighton for two spirit mediums, but they do not see it that way. I believe that the letter was written by an admirer of Miss Eustace – not the lady herself who I am quite certain is above such things – who misguidedly seeks to harm Miss Foxton's reputation in order to elevate his or her favourite. And you may not yet have heard this, since you have not been in town, but there is a rumour being spread about Brighton that Miss Eustace has once been in prison for fraud. It surely cannot be true!'

Mina waited for her mother's shocked reaction to this news, but to her surprise she only said, ‘And what if it were? That is just the kind of thing that might be an endorsement rather than proof of fraud.'

It took Mina a moment or two to understand that her mother had already heard the story, and dismissed it. ‘Do you mean to say you already knew of it? Is it true?'

Louisa smiled. ‘I really have no idea. But why should it matter, in any case? Why should it not be true, and no blemish upon the lady? Just because a martyr has been burned at the stake or torn apart by lions it does not make their cause any the less holy, indeed, it becomes more so. I had heard the story from somewhere, and did not trouble myself to enquire further.'

Mina was content. She knew that the seed she had planted would grow, and perhaps in time bear fruit.

Richard did not trouble himself to write to the newspapers in defence of Miss Foxton, but it was with Mina's second and third letters that interest in the rivalry between the mediums was fully aroused. Professor Gaskin, in his role as Miss Eustace's patron, wrote to deny in the strongest possible terms that she had written the first letter. Its composer was unknown to him, as was Miss Foxton, and his protégée was too kind and gentle an individual to become embroiled in such unpleasantness. His was not the only letter, however; there were several others supporting
A
SPIRITUALIST
's contention that Miss Foxton's exhibitions were indecent, some who agreed with
BRIGHTONIAN
that the author of the first letter was undoubtedly from the phrasing, female, and a rival who had chosen to offer anonymous insults, and others who agreed with
A
BELIEVER
that the production was that of the ‘fawning acolyte', who was known to creep into the séances held by his favourite's rival. While the debate raged through the mails, this was as nothing to the rumours that flowed around Brighton borne by that most ephemeral and rapid means, the spoken word. Mina soon heard her own rumours return to her, but this time she was told with great certainty that Miss Eustace and Miss Foxton had met in the street and almost come to blows, and that the cause was not so much professional jealousy as the fact that both ladies were in love with Mr Clee.

Her mother felt impelled to add her voice to the general furore, and decided that the best mode of protest was for the adherents of Miss Eustace to compose a joint letter to the newspapers and possibly even present the lady with a memorial to show their appreciation. It was for this purpose that a small assembly was arranged in the Scarletti drawing room, to which all interested parties were invited.