A young man of Berkeley Square is discovered to have the gift of prophecy, and the fashionable world takes it up, followed by the Meteorological Office, which has a professional interest. Hichens made his name at twenty-nine with The Green Carnation, an anonymous satire on Wilde so exact it was withdrawn after the trials; this 1901 farce mocks the séance-going upper classes with real venom under the silliness.