?" asked Innes.
"The Spec.?" said Archie. "O no, I won't forget the Spec."
And the one young man carried his tortured spirit forth of the city and
all the day long, by one road and another, in an endless pilgrimage of
misery; while the other hastened smilingly to spread the news of Weir's
access of insanity, and to drum up for that night a full attendance at
the Speculative, where further eccentric developments might certainly be
looked for. I doubt if Innes had the least belief in his prediction; I
think it flowed rather from a wish to make the story as good and the
scandal as great as possible; not from any ill-will to Archie - from the
mere pleasure of beholding interested faces. But for all that his words
were prophetic. Archie did not forget the Spec.; he put in an
appearance there at the due time, and, before the evening was over, had
dealt a memorable shock to his companions. It chanced he was the
president of the night. He sat in the same room where the Society still
meets - only the portraits were not there: the men who afterwards sat
for them were then but beginning their career.
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