The Bachelors Read Online Free PDF Page A

newcomer was not present, having been brought along by someone or
other. The pink-and-white-cheeked man looked rather like, possibly, a friend
of Tim’s. Tim had yet to learn to be reliable.
    Marlene
said to Freda, ‘I shan’t ring the bell till you’ve finished your tea. Don’t
hurry.’
    Freda
gulped her tea, with her eyes wandering over the rim of the cup. Suddenly she
started at the sight of Patrick.
    ‘So he’s here,’ Freda said.
    ‘My
dear Freda, mustn’t we subordinate all our materialistic endeavours to those of
the spirit?’
    ‘It’s
most upsetting,’ Freda said, ‘and I’m surprised he has the nerve to show his
face in here again. He’s a fraud.’
    Tim
gave out a gentle cultivated noise from the throat as if he really were
clearing it, and shifted himself gracefully to another group.
    Marlene’s
earrings swung as she moved her head distastefully from Freda’s remarks. ‘The
word fraud,’ she said, ‘is of the World. Freda, I don’t think it should be
voiced here. But I do see — I do understand — how a type of behaviour which is
normal in our element may appear, shall we say, mysterious in yours.’ She
touched Mrs. Flower’s hand in absolution from all her dumpy limitations. ‘I
only hope,’ she said, ‘that nothing will happen to bring the Wider Infinity
into disrepute. For myself, I don’t care. I am thinking of — well, finish your
tea, Freda dear, it is time for the Commencement.’
    She
moved away, and dark Ewart Thornton, who was one of the assembly, presently
took her place, declaring deeply in her ear, ‘I’m with you, Freda. A lot of us
here to-night are with you. I meant to write to say so to you, but I’ve got
such mounds of homework. The mid-term examinations….’
    Freda’s
spectacles shone with gratitude. ‘Does Marlene know your mind on the subject?’
she said.
    Ewart
placed a finger to his lips while Marlene at the other end of the room
proclaimed:
    ‘The
Circle will now enter the Sanctuary of Light.’
     
    Tea cups were placed down
and a hush fell on the assembly. Marlene Cooper led the way, as she had done
regularly since the year after her husband died, and she had taken to thoughts
of the spirit. For how, she felt, could it be that Harry Cooper, who his worst
business enemies admitted was sheer dynamite, could come to nought in the end?
‘No,’ she said, ‘Harry is as alive as ever he was. He is communicating with me
and I am communicating with him.’ Certainly this was the case when he was
alive, since they had then indulged in frequent noisy rows in different parts
of the globe, she standing tensely clothed in her distinguished appearance,
clasping and unclasping her long fingers, and shrieking; he sitting usually in
an armchair answering her with short, loaded, meaningful words of power and
contempt. He had been buried three months when, convinced of his dynamic
survival, she had had him dug up and cremated, since this, it seemed vaguely to
her, was more in keeping with the life beyond. To see his ashes scattered in the
Garden of Remembrance was to conceive Harry more nearly as thin air, and since
she had come to believe so ardently in Harry the spirit, she simply could not
let him lie in the grave and rot.
    Shortly
after the cremation Marlene joined the Wider Infinity, an independent
spiritualist group, proud of its independence from the great organised groups,
and operating from a room in the region of Victoria. During the period of her
initiation Marlene was impressed, the more and more especially when personal
messages began to come through from Harry on the other side.
    Patrick
Seton was the first medium to get through to Harry.
    ‘I have
a message for our new sister, from Henry. Henry will not speak himself tonight
but he will speak on another occasion when Carl is in control of Patrick,’ said
Patrick. ‘But in the meantime Henry sends his affectionate regards and is
thinking of you in his happy abode. He particularly wants to say you