he two women had met,
should they do so.

The detective sent to Miss Gray's place was barely able to secure
admission, on account of having come on foot, that fact alone laying him
liable to suspicion. For an hour's time, splendid equipages, at short
intervals, rolled up to the mansion, and their occupants were turned
over to a negro butler of such gigantic proportions and gorgeous livery
as to give the ordinarily aristocratic place an air of oriental
splendor, the interior appointments being fully in keeping with the
promise of sumptuousness which the reception always gave. Once entered,
my operative had an opportunity to study these appointments.

The carpets were of such rich and heavy texture that they gave back no
sound to the foot-fall, and by an ingenious arrangement, beneath the
lambrequins adorning the windows, two noiseless fan-like blinds opened
or closed instantly, lighting or darkening the room as suddenly, and
evidently for use during day seances, which were sometimes given; while
opposite, two broad parlors led away, _en suite_, to a raised dais at
the rear, upon which Miss Evalena Gray, assisted by Mlle. Leveraux, from
Paris, gave her wonderful spiritual manifestations.

At either side of the centre of the first room, and on a level with the
floor, was a fountain cut in marble, back into the basin of which the
water fell with a dreamy, tinkling sound which suggested poetical
luxuriousness. Rare statuary filled every accessible niche. Heroic
paintings of the olden times, and the softer, more sensual paintings of
the late French schools, blended together until they gave the walls a
rosy glow. Flowers loading the air with fragrance, warmed the room with
the color and life which flowers only can give. Hidden music-boxes gave
forth the rare and blended melodies of sunny, southern climes; while
rich divans, arranged with that pleasant kind of taste that bespeaks no
arrangement at all, were scattered negligently about the room, now
rapidly being filled with the aristocratic people who had arrived and
were constantly arriving.

My operative, having gained a good point for observation, now turned his
attention to the rapidly-increasing assemblage. Almost without
exception, they were men and women of evident wealth and leisure, but
with scarcely a face denoting culture and refinement. They were
representatives of that numerous class who, after the rapid acquirement
of money, have found no good thing with which