he great Towle--"

"He's here to-night."

"I knew he was coming. Well, the great Towle detached this astral body
once at a seance and, for a joke--a silly joke, you know--"

"Yes, yes."

"I christened it by my real name, Lady Enid Thistle, and said Lady Enid
was an ancestress of mine."

"Why did you?"

"Because it was so idiotic."

"I see."

"Well, I've only now to spread a report among these dear creatures that
I'm astral to-night, and get Towle to back me up, and I can easily be
Lady Enid for an hour or two. In this crowd Sir Tiglath need never find
out that I'm generally known in these circles as Miss Partridge."

"Do you really think--"

"Yes, I do. But I must find Towle at once."

So saying she hastened away from the buffet, followed by the trotting
Prophet. As she passed Eureka and Mr. Moses, she said,--

"Eureka, darling, do I look odd? I suddenly began to feel astral just as
I was going to eat a sandwich. I can't help thinking that Lady Enid--you
know, my astral ancestress, who's always with me--is peculiarly powerful
to-night. D'you notice anything?"

"Watch out for it, mother!" cried Mr. Moses. "See if it's got the lump."

Eureka fixed her heavy eyes on Miss Minerva and swayed her thin body to
and fro in as panther-like a manner as she could manage.

"Mother's after it," continued Mr. Moses, twitching his left ear with
his thumb in a Hebraic manner and shooting his shining cuffs; "mother's
on the trail. Doves for a bishop and the little mangel-wurzel for the
labouring man. Clever mother! She'll take care it's suitable. Is it a
haggis, mother, hovering over the lady with outspread wings?"

Eureka closed her eyes and rocked herself more violently.

"I see you," she said in a deep voice. "You are astral. You are Lady
Enid emerged for an hour from our dear Minerva."

"I thought so," cried Lady Enid, with decision. "I thought so, because
when someone called me Miss Minerva just now I felt angry, and didn't
seem to know what they meant. Tell them, dear Eureka,--tell all my
friends of your discovery."

And she hastened on with the Prophet in search of the great Towle.

"I'll get him to back Eureka up, and then it will be quite safe," she
said. "Ah! there he is with Harriet Browne, the demonstrator from the
Rye."

Indeed, at this moment a small crowd was visible in one of the further
drawing-rooms, moving obsequiously along in reverent attendance upon the
great Towle, Mrs. Bridgeman and a th