And this showed itself by the quietness in
which he found his soul plunged.
Moral conviction--that conviction on which a man acts--does not always
coincide with the intellectual process. Occasionally it outruns it;
occasionally lags behind; and the first sign of its arrival is the
cessation of strain. The intellect may still be busy, arranging,
sorting, and classifying; but the thing itself is done, and the soul
leans back.
A certain amount of excitement made itself felt when he found Mr.
Vincent's letter waiting for his arrival to congratulate him on his
decision, and to beg him to be at Queen's Gate not later than
half-past eight o'clock on the following Sunday; but it was not more
than momentary. He knew the thing to be inevitably true now; the time
and place at which it manifested itself was not supremely important.
Yes, he wrote in answer; he would certainly keep the appointment
suggested.
He dined out at a restaurant, returned to his rooms, and sat down to
arrange his ideas.
* * * * *
These, to be frank, were not very many, nor very profound.
He had already, in the days that had passed since his shock, no
lighter because expected, when he had learned from Maggie that the
test was fulfilled, and that a fact known to no one present, not even
himself, in Queen's Gate, had been communicated through his
lips--since that time the idea had become familiar that the veil
between this world and the next was a very thin one.
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