ake your flesh creep! She'd
just go quietly off to sleep, and you might ask her anything you liked,
and she'd tell you; and it was all as true as possible."

The princess met Julian Estcourt's eyes, and smiled strangely. Mrs
Jefferson caught the glance.

"Perhaps," she said, "you're a clairvoyant?"

"I used to be," she said, gravely. "Perhaps my faculties have grown
blunted, for want of use. They are far from being as keen as they were
in India. However," and she smiled at the circle of faces, "I wonder if
any of you would believe me if I told you what you were talking about at
dinner time. First of all, you must remember, your conversation could
not have been betrayed to me by my friend, as he was not there, and that
my rooms are on the opposite wing to the dining saloon. Well, you
discussed different phases of spiritualism. This lady," she indicated
Mrs Masterman, "gave her experiences of imposture; you," looking at
Mrs Jefferson, "combated those experiences by your own, and this
gentleman."--she smiled at the cynical individual, who was hovering on
the outskirts of the circle--"silenced you all by reducing your theories
to strong commonsense facts. Shall I quote his own words? After the
rate people have been running after spiritual phenomena, they are
absolutely refreshing. He said that it was an intensely humiliating
idea to find oneself at the beck and call of any other human being when
you imagined you had done with this life."

"Good gracious!" almost screamed Mrs Jefferson, "but how on earth did
you hear all this? It's positively alarming."

"Well," said the princess, still smiling at the pale and
conscience-stricken faces, "you see I have a--faculty shall I call it?--
that enables me to hear and see anything I am curious about, or
interested in. I don't believe I could even explain how I do it; but it
seems easy and natural enough to myself. I only paid you a brief visit
to-night, more that I might have a little bit of proof to give you, that
the powers I spoke of do exist, and are capable of being trained to
almost any extent, if the motives for developing them are good. Have I
convinced you?"

She rose as she spoke, and stood facing them in her beautiful indolent
grace. She was garbed in some white soft stuff, which floated round her
like a cloud, the wide hanging sleeves were lined with faint shell-like
pink, and fell away from her bare lovely arms to the hem of her floating
draperies.