The Prophet of Berkeley Square

The Prophet of Berkeley Square is a book by Robert Hichens. Chapter I, headed Mrs. Merillia Is Carried to Bed, has the great telescope of the Prophet adjusted upon a lofty, brass-bound stand in the bow window of Number One Thousand Berkeley Square, pointing towards the remarkably bright stars which twinkled in the December sky over frosty London.

A neophyte ventures on a first prophecy, a discreet and even humble forecast of the weather, a heavy fall of snow for a certain evening, and so distrusts his own prediction that, the evening being mild and benign, he sallies forth to the Empire Palace of Varieties. Lady Enid says to Sir Tiglath that Mr. Vivian has persuaded her to act as his ambassador. Lady Enid and the Prophet find the astronomer sitting with a muffin on a china plate surrounded by manuscripts, letters, pamphlets, books and blotting-paper. A character called Malkiel the Second had very naturally fled when Mrs. Merillia suddenly appeared before him in her night-bonnet and accused him of being a ratcatcher.