Page:Edgar Jepson--the four philanthropists.djvu/256

246 hold that a man meets the same woman again and again in different existences and always in some close relationship. Of course the relationship may differ. In one existence she may love him, in another he may love her, and in another they may love one another. Sometimes they are married, and sometimes they are not. Sometimes they bring one another happiness, sometimes unhappiness. I have made up my mind that your sister is the woman with whom my destiny is linked in this way."

"I'm afraid it's impossible," I said slowly.

"Impossible!" cried Chelubai. "But I assure you that the fact has been demonstrated: I have it on the best authority—from three of the most advanced theosophists of the Western inner circle."

"I don't mean your theory of interlinked destinies, which is probably enough," I said, "but impossible for me to consent to your paying your addresses to Angel."

"But why?" said Chelubai; and his face fell.

"Well, you are an excellent fellow, as no one knows better than I. But after all, you know, I can't very well consent to a philanthropic murderer paying his addresses to my sister, can I?"

"B-b-but," stammered Chelubai, to whom this point of view had plainly never suggested itself, "she's a philanthropist, too—she's one of us."

"Yes, I know she is, and I'm not at all sure that