"Of course this would be the first spot on which to reappear. No one but
Mr. Early would dare to give a reception in July," Mrs. Lenox
exclaimed.
"And the absurd thing," Dick retorted, "is that you all come--back into
town, leaving birds and waters--at Mr. Early's bidding."
"Yes, my respect for my sex rises when I see them so eager to prostrate
themselves before a simple seeker after truth with a turban and a ruby.
A turban and a ruby do so illuminate the search for truth!"
"You are a scoffer," laughed Dick. "Why are you here?"
"Foolish one, I came to scoff. I must see all there is to be seen. If
there is an apple to be bitten, I must bite. I have floated in with the
flood and out with the ebb of almost every fad from crystal-gazing to
bridge. I always hope that one of them is going to be worth while."
"But you can't call the Swami's philosophy 'a fad'," objected Norris.
"No, perhaps that wasn't fair. Ram Juna is really very celestial in a
ponderous kind of way, isn't he? When he talked the simple old truths I
liked him, but not in the esoteric explanations and profounder
mysteries. I have chased Mystery for more years than I shall own, and,
so far as I can see, whenever you open the door on her secret chamber,
she shuts a door on the other side and is gone into a further holy of
holies. I've come to disbelieve in those who tell me that they have
caged her at last."
"That's what I say," exclaimed Dick. "A man knows too much when he tells
you that Mystery is five feet three, weighs a hundred and twenty-six
pounds and eats no meat."
"It's too much like a mixture of legerdemain and theology."
"I always liked juggling!" exclaimed Miss Elton. "And I like the ruby.
See it now, gleaming over the ranks of war-paint and hats."
"I believe the ruby interests you both more than the search for truth,"
Dick laughed.
"And well it may!" Mrs. Lenox flashed back. "Once it belonged to a
magnificent rajah ancestor, who hugged it to his soul, and held it too
precious to be worn by his favorite wife. But now Swami Ram Juna has
renounced the pomps and indulgences of courts and become, as I said, an
humble seeker. He, too, loves the ruby--not from any vulgar love of
display--but because to his soul it is a mystic symbol of Adhidaiva--the
life-giving energy, refulgent as the sun behind dark clouds. Isn't that
a pointer for those of us who want diamonds and things? I believe I'll
ask Mr. Lenox for a symbol or two this very evening."