had come so far to investigate, for which the
fakirs and dervishes of every land gave such fanciful reasons: and he
saw he would have no difficulty in picking up abundant examples of his
subject-matter everywhere in England. As the metropolis of taboo, it
exhibited the phenomena in their highest evolution. The only thing that
puzzled him was how Philip Christy, an Englishman born, and evidently
a most devout observer of the manifold taboos and juggernauts of his
country, should actually deny their very existence. It was one more
proof to him of the extreme caution necessary in all anthropological
investigations before accepting the evidence even of well-meaning
natives on points of religious or social usage, which they are often
quite childishly incapable of describing in rational terms to outside
inquirers. They take their own manners and customs for granted, and they
cannot see them in their true relations or compare them with the similar
manners and customs of other nationalities.

IV

Whether Philip Christy liked it or not, the Monteiths and he were
soon fairly committed to a tolerably close acquaintance with Bertram
Ingledew. For, as chance would have it, on the Monday morning
Bertram went up to town in the very same carriage with Philip and his
brother-in-law, to set himself up in necessaries of life for a six
or eight months' stay in England. When he returned that night to
Brackenhurst with two large trunks, full of underclothing and so forth,
he had to come round once more to the Monteiths, as Philip anticipated,
to bring back the Gladstone bag and the brown portmanteau. He did it
with so much graceful and gracious courtesy, and such manly gratitude
for the favour done him, that he left still more deeply than ever on
Frida's mind the impression of a gentleman. He had found out all the
right shops to go to in London, he said; and he had ordered everything
necessary to social salvation at the very best tailor's, so strictly
in accordance with Philip's instructions that he thought he should
now transgress no more the sumptuary rules in that matter made and
established, as long as he remained in this realm of England. He had
commanded a black cut-away coat, suitable for Sunday morning; and a
curious garment called a frock-coat, buttoned tight over the chest, to
be worn in the afternoon, especially in London; and a still quainter
coat, made of shiny broadcloth, with strange tails behind, which was
considere