y exulting
in her own strange victory over a life, a heart, which had defied and
eluded her. The world throbs and thrills about her, the crowd beside her
is all unreal, the air is full of whisper, of romance.

The thought-reading followed its usual course. A murder and its
detection were given in dumb show. Then it was the turn of
card-guessing, bank-note-finding, and the various other forms of
telepathic hide and seek. Mr. Flaxman superintended them all, his
restless eye wandering every other minute to the farther drawing-room in
which the lights had been lowered, catching there always the same patch
of black and white,--Rose's dress and the dark form beside her.

'Are you convinced? Do you believe?' said Rose, merrily looking up at
her companion.

'In telepathy? Well--so far--I have not got beyond the delicacy and
perfection of Mr. Denman's--muscular sensation. So much I am sure of!'

'Oh, but your scepticism is ridiculous!' she said gaily. 'We _know_ that
some people have an extraordinary power over others.'

'Yes, that certainly we know!' he answered, his voice dropping, an odd
strained note in it. 'I grant you that.'

She trembled deliciously. Her eyelids fell. They stood together,
conscious only of each other.

'Now,' said Mr. Denman, advancing to the doorway between the two
drawing-rooms, 'I have done all I can--I am exhausted. But let me beg of
you all to go on with some experiments amongst yourselves. Every fresh
discovery of this power in a new individual is a gain to science. I
believe about one in ten has some share of it. Mr. Flaxman and I will
arrange everything, if any one will volunteer?'

The audience broke up into groups, laughing, chatting, suggesting this
and that. Presently Lady Charlotte's loud dictatorial voice made itself
heard, as she stood eyeglass in hand looking round the circle of her
guests.

'Somebody must venture--we are losing time.'

Then the eyeglass stopped at Rose, who was now sitting tall and radiant
on the sofa, her blue fan across her white knees. 'Miss Leyburn--you are
always public-spirited--will you be victimised for the good of science?'

The girl got up with a smile.

'And Mr. Langham--will you see what you can do with Miss Leyburn?
Hugh--we all choose her task, don't we--then Mr. Langham wills?'

Flaxman came up to explain. Langham had turned to Rose--a wild fury with
Lady Charlotte and the whole affair sweeping through him. But there was
no time to demur; th