of the hereafter,
until he had become so anxious as to the reputation of his house that he
had informed the lady of the preference of her absence to her company;
whereupon she had raised such a storm about his ears that he was only
too glad to compromise by letting her go, bag and baggage, without
paying her bill, which was a large one and of a month's standing.

I also gained from him the opinion that she had been married a
half-dozen times, or as often as had suited her convenience; and that he
had only a day or so previous conversed with a gentleman from some part
of the West, who had told him that somebody in Rochester had assisted
her in procuring her a divorce from her husband. I made a note of all
these points after I had retired to my room, and felt quite satisfied
with the day's work.

The next day, with a gentleman at the hotel with whom I had become
acquainted, representing myself as a person of means who might possibly
make an investment at Rochester, I visited Lyon's mills, and
incidentally became quite well informed as to his financial and social
standing.

The latter was a little peculiar. His wife, a most estimable lady, had
died a few years previous, and it appeared that during her life the Lyon
family were among the aristocrats of the city; but at her death, and
Lyon's subsequent dabbling in Spiritualism, they had been gradually
dropped from the visiting lists, and nothing remained of the former home
circle save a gaunt, grim mother-in-law, who vainly waged war against
the loose habits, laxity of morals, and general degeneracy that had come
with the new order of things.

I also secured the addresses of all the professional mediums,
fortune-tellers, and astrologers of the city, and during that day and
the next visited their rooms, claiming to be a devoted believer in
Spiritualism, having my fortune told at various places, and picking up a
good deal of information regarding the fascinating Mrs. Winslow, which
tended to prove her a remarkably talented woman, capable of not only
attending to her mediumistic duties, but also of carrying on litigation
of various kinds in different parts of the country. My investigations
also showed that these different "doctors" and "doctresses," claiming to
perform almost miraculous cures and their ability to foretell the fates
of others through the aid of this supernatural spirit-power, were quite
like other people in their bickerings and jealousies, and, as a rule,