Jewel Weed

								

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."
"You seem well-informed."
"Oh, Mr. Early posted me. It's humiliating to think that perhaps he
designed that as an easy way of getting the facts spread abroad and so
preparing a way for the truth-seeker. And he also told me that they have
very good copies of the Bagavad Gita at McClelland's for a quarter, so
you may keep up with the advance guard at small expense. I have to know
things in order to keep my husband posted with entertaining gossip. Men
always want to know every little thing and then lay the blame of gossip
at the door of women."
"I doubt if it is a difficult task for you to keep Mr. Lenox amused,"
said Norris, smiling at her.
"Moreover," added Percival, "I understand that when your frivolities
cease to amuse, Mr. Lenox can divert himself by helping your father in
the building of a new little railroad or something of that kind."
"True, but building new railroads, beguiling though it be, proves more
wearing to the nerves than does my conversation, so I must still
practise the art of rattling. But I needn't practise it on you," she
went on, glancing at Miss Elton under her eyelids. "Now, Dick, I am