“Well, Tom, it’s not your fault if they don’t,” his wife answered. “There are two women waiting to see you. They have not an introduction but they seem in great trouble.”
“I’ve a bit of a headache. I haven’t got over last night. Silas and I are the same in that. Our night’s work finds us out next morning. I’ll just take these and no more, for it is bad to send anyone sorrowin’ away if one can help it.”
The two women were shown in, both of them austere figures dressed in black, one a stern-looking person of fifty, the other about half that age.
“I believe your fee is a guinea,” said the elder, putting that sum upon the table.
“To those who can afford it,” Linden answered. As a matter of fact, the guinea often went the other way.
“Oh yes, I can afford it,” said the woman. “I am in sad trouble and they told me maybe you could help me.”
“Well, I will if I can. That’s what I am for.”
“I lost my poor husband in the war—killed at Ypres he was. Could I get in touch with him?”
“You don’t seem to bring any influence with you. I get no impression. I am sorry but we can’t command these things. I get the name Edmund. Was that his name?”
“No.”
“Or Albert?”
“No.”
“I am sorry,
but it seems confused—cross vibrations, perhaps, and a mix-up of messages like crossed telegraph wires.”
“Does the name Pedro help you?”
“Pedro! Pedro! No, I get nothing. Was Pedro an elderly man?”
“No, not elderly.”
“I can get no impression.”
“It was about this girl of mine that I really wanted advice. My husband would have told me what to do. She has got engaged to a young man, a fitter by trade, but there are one or two things against it and I want to know what to do.”
“Do give us some advice,” said the young woman, looking at the medium with a hard eye.
“I would if I could, my dear. Do you love this man?”
“Oh yes, he’s all right.”
“Well, if you don’t feel more than that about him, I should leave him alone. Nothing but unhappiness comes of such a marriage.”
“Then you see unhappiness waiting for her?”
“I see a good chance of it. I think she should be careful.”
“Do you see anyone else coming along?”
“Everyone, man or woman, meets their mate sometime somewhere.”
“Then she will get a mate?”
“Most certainly she will.”
“I wonder if I should have any family?” asked the girl.