rnately over his forehead, as if he were wiping it, and throwing
some invisible, sticky substance, with a vicious snap, to right and
left. At last, after a final shudder, which stiffened him into the
image of death for a moment, he rose to his feet and, leaning on the
railing, began to intone, in a dismal whine, a speech of which we need
give only the opening words.

"Dear brothers and sisters of the earth-life! On pearly wings of
gossamer-down we float down from our shining speers to bring you
messages of the higher life. Let your earth-soul be lifted to meet our
sperrut-soul; let your earth-heart blend in sweet accordion with our
heaven-heart; that the beautiful and the true in this weary earth-life
may receive the bammy influence of the Eden flowrets, and rise, through
speers of disclosure, to the plane where all is beautiful and all is
true."

He continued in this strain for some time, to the evident edification
of his audience, who listened with the same conventional tolerance, the
same trust that it is doing your neighbor good, with which the ordinary
audience sits under an ordinary sermon. Maud, having a special reason
for being alert, listened with a real interest. But during his speech
proper he made no allusion to the subject on which she had asked for
light. It was after he had finished his harangue, and had gone through
an _entr'acte_ of sighs and shudders, that he announced himself once
more in the hands of the higher intelligences, and ready to answer
questions. "It does not need," he whined, "the word of the month or the
speech of the tongue to tell the sperruts what your souls desire. The
burden of your soul is open to the sperrut-eye. There sits in this room
a pure and lovely soul in quest of light. Its query is, How does heart
meet heart in mutual knowledge?"

Maud's cheek grew pale and then red, and her heart beat violently. But
no one noticed her, and the seer went on. "If a true heart longs for
another, there is no rest but in knowledge, there is no knowledge but
in trewth, there is no trewth but in trust. Oh, my brother, if you love
a female, tell your love. Oh, my sister, if you love--hum--if you
love--hum--an individual of the opposite sex--oh, tell your love!--Down
with the shams of a false-hearted society; down with the chains of
silence that crushes your soul to the dust! If the object of your
hearts' throbs is noble, he will respond. Love claims love. Love has a
right to love. If he is bas