unter also of frisky
matrons, in whose mind there was so much incredulity about everything
that he would not even enter upon a discussion of such matters.

He repeated with a sneer:

"Humbug! humbug! humbug! We need not discuss Donato, who is merely a very
smart juggler. As for M. Charcot, who is said to be a remarkable man of
science, he produces on me the effect of those story-tellers of the
school of Edgar Poe, who end by going mad through constantly reflecting
on queer cases of insanity. He has set forth some nervous phenomena,
which are unexplained and inexplicable; he makes his way into that
unknown region which men explore every day, and not being able to
comprehend what he sees, he remembers perhaps too well the explanations
of certain mysteries given by speaking on these subjects, that would be
quite a different thing from your repetition of what he says."

The words of the unbeliever were listened to with a kind of pity, as if
he had blasphemed in the midst of an assembly of monks.

One of these gentlemen exclaimed:

"And yet miracles were performed in former days."

But the other replied: "I deny it. Why cannot they be performed any
longer?"

Thereupon, each man referred to some fact, or some fantastic
presentiment, or some instance of souls communicating with each other
across space, or some case of secret influences produced by one being or
another. And they asserted, they maintained that these things had
actually occurred, while the skeptic went on repeating energetically:

"Humbug! humbug! humbug!"

At last he rose up, threw away his cigar, and with his hands in his
pockets, said: "Well, I, too, am going to relate to you two stories, and
then I will explain them to you. Here they are:

"In the little village of Etretat, the men, who are all seafaring folk,
go every year to Newfoundland to fish for cod. Now, one night the little
son of one of these fishermen woke up with a start, crying out that his
father was dead. The child was quieted, and again he woke up exclaiming
that his father was drowned. A month later the news came that his father
had, in fact, been swept off the deck of his smack by a billow. The widow
then remembered how her son had wakened up and spoken of his father's
death. Everyone said it was a miracle, and the affair caused a great
sensation. The dates were compared, and it was found that the accident
and the dream had very nearly coincided, whence they drew the conclusion
th