rticular moment
it was not Varick with whom Sir Lyon was concerned, but with the frank,
eager, pleasant-faced, young doctor, in whose estimation, as he
realized, he was falling further and further down with every word he
uttered.

"To tell you the honest truth," he went on, "even in the days when I did
little else than attend seances and have sittings with noted mediums,
not only in this country but also on the Continent, I could never quite
make up my mind whether the spirit with whom I was in communication was
really the being he or she purported to be! There was a time," he spoke
with some emotion, "when I would have given anything--certainly most
willingly twenty years of my life--to be so absolutely convinced. But
there it is," he sighed, and was himself surprised at the feeling of
depression which came over him. "Even the most earnest investigation of
the kind resolves itself always, after a while, into a kind of
will-o'-the-wisp that leads no-whither."

"Not always," exclaimed Panton sharply. "Last year I had a patient who'd
become insane owing to what I suppose you would call an investigation
into psychic phenomena."

"And yet," said Sir Lyon rather sternly, "to your mind, Dr. Panton, a
pursuit which you admit was capable of leading one unfortunate human
being into insanity, is 'all bosh'!"

"Of course I could only go by what the poor lady's friends told me,"
Panton said uncomfortably. "She was not under my care long. But I need
hardly tell you, Sir Lyon, that any obsession that takes hold of a human
being may in time lead to insanity."

"I suppose that, according to your theory"--it was now Varick who was
speaking, speaking rather lightly, twirling his stick about as he
spoke--"I suppose," he repeated, "that, according to your theory, if
Bubbles Dunster left Wyndfell Hall to-morrow, the spirits would cease
from troubling, and we should be at rest?"

"No, that doesn't exactly follow. I once heard of a case which
interested me very much. A house which had never been haunted before--as
far as anyone knew--became so, following on the sojourn there of a
professional medium, and it remained haunted for four years. Then,
suddenly, all the psychic phenomena stopped."

"What a strange thing," said Panton, with an under-current of irony in
his voice; "but doubtless the owner had had the house exorcised, as you
call it?"

"No," said Sir Lyon thoughtfully. "No, the house had not been exorcised.
As a matter of fa