bsorption in
contemplating the possibility of drawing the prize renders him quite
oblivious of the nine hundred and ninety-nine blank tickets.

Previous to Mrs. Slater's visit he had been quite content in his devotion
to an ideal mistress, for the reason that any nearer approach to her had
not occurred to him as a possibility. But now the suggestion that he
might see her face to face had so inflamed his imagination that it was
out of the question for him to regain his former serenity. He resolved
that, in case they should fail to hear from Mrs. Slater's friend, he
would set about finding Mrs. Legrand himself, or, failing that, would go
to some other medium. There would be no solace for the fever that had now
got into his blood, until experiment should justify his daring hope, or
prove it baseless.

However, the third day after Mrs. Slater's letter there came one from her
friend, Mrs. Rhinehart. She said that she had received a note from Mrs.
Slater, who had suddenly been called to Cincinnati, telling that Miss
Ludington desired the address of Mrs. Legrand, with a view to securing a
private seance. She could have sent the address at once, as she had it;
but Mrs. Legrand was so overrun with business that an application to her
by letter, especially from a stranger like Miss Ludington, might not have
any result. And so Mrs. Rhinehart, who had been only too happy to oblige
any friend of Mrs. Slater's, had called personally upon Mrs. Legrand to
arrange for the seance. The medium had told her at first that she was
full of previous engagements for a month ahead, and that it would be
impossible to give Miss Ludington a seance. When, however, Mrs. Rhinehart
told her that Miss Ludington's purpose in asking for the seance was to
test the question whether our past selves have immortal souls distinct
from our present selves, Mrs. Legrand became greatly interested, and at
once said that she would cancel a previous appointment, and give Miss
Ludington a seance the following evening, at her parlours, No. -- East
Tenth Street, at nine o'clock. Mrs. Legrand had said that while she had
never heard a belief in the immortality of past selves avowed, there had
not been lacking in her relations with the spirit-world some mysterious
experiences that seemed to confirm it. She should, therefore, look
forward to the issue of the experiment the following evening with nearly
as much confidence, and quite as much interest, as Miss Ludington
herself.