she questioned me, in her thrilling voice.

My soul said: "It's all rubbish--but suppose there is something in it,
after all?"

And I said aloud:

"Yes."

"Come, then."

We passed through the room with the red Japanese lantern, and lo! the
next room was perfectly dark save for an oval of white light which
fell slantingly on a black marble table. The effect was rather
disconcerting at first; but the explanation was entirely simple. The
light came from an electric table-lamp (with a black cardboard shade
arranged at an angle) which stood on the table. As my eyes grew
accustomed to the obscurity I discovered two chairs.

"Sit down," said Emmeline.

And she and I each took one of the chairs, at opposite sides of the
table.

Emmeline was magnificently attired. As I looked at her in the dimness
across the table, she drummed her fingers on the marble, and then she
bent her face to glance within the shade of the lamp, and for a second
her long and heavy, yet handsome, features were displayed to the
minutest part in the blinding ray of the lamp, and the next second
they were in obscurity again. It was uncanny. I was impressed; and all
the superstition which, like a snake, lies hidden in the heart of
every man, stirred vaguely and raised its head.

"Carl--" Emmeline began, and paused.

The woman indubitably did affect me strangely. Hers was a lonely soul,
an unusual mixture of the absolutely conventional and of something
quite else--something bizarre, disturbing, and inexplicable. I was
conscious of a feeling of sympathy for her.

"Well?" I murmured.

"Do you believe in the supernatural?"

"I neither believe nor disbelieve," I replied, "for I have never met
with anything that might be a manifestation of it. But I may say that
I am not a hard and fast materialist." And I added: "Do you believe in
it?"

"Of course," she snapped.

"Then, if you really believe, if it's so serious to you, why do you
make a show of it for triflers?".

"Ah!" she breathed. "Some of them do make me angry. They like to play
at having dealings with the supernatural. But I thought the crystal
would be such a good thing for Sullivan's reception. It is very
important to Sullivan that this should be a great success--our first
large public reception, you know. Sullivan says we must advertise
ourselves."

The explanation of her motives was given so naively, so simply and
unaffectedly, that it was impossible to take exception to it.

"W