und her to her
dead child.

Monsieur Leroy had not foreseen what was to happen, but he was not
altogether at a loss, and the first step was to insure the Princess's
obedience to his will. He did not understand the nature of the phenomena
he caused, but he knew that in some way certain things that passed in
her mind were instantly present in his, and that he could generally
produce by rappings the answers he desired her to receive. He at least
knew beforehand, in almost every case, what those answers would be, if
he did not consciously make the sounds that signified them. If he had
ever examined his conscience, supposing that he had any left, he would
have found that he himself did not know just where deception ended, and
where something else began which he could not explain, which frightened
him when he was alone, and which, when he had submitted wholly to it,
left him in a state of real physical exhaustion. He was inclined to
believe that the mysterious powers were really the spirits of dead
persons which possessed him for a short time, and spoke through him. Yet
when one of these spirits represented itself as being that of some one
whom neither he nor the Princess had ever met in life, he was dimly
conscious that it never said anything which had not been already known
to her or to him at some time, or which, if unknown, was the spontaneous
creation of his own clouded brain.

To her, he always gravely asserted his sure belief in the authenticity
of the spirits that came, and since he had unexpectedly succeeded in
producing messages from her little girl, any doubt she had ever
entertained had completely disappeared. She was wholly at his mercy so
long as this state of things could be made to last, and he was
correspondingly careful in the use he made of his new power.

The Princess was therefore told that she must trust him altogether, and
that he could get back the most of her money for her. She was consoled,
indeed, but she was naturally curious as to the means he meant to use,
and she questioned him when the rappings ceased and the lights were
turned up. He seemed less tired than usual.

"I shall trust to the inspiration of the spirits," he said evasively.
"In any case we have the law on our side. Guido cannot deny his
signature to those receipts for your money, and he will find it hard to
show what became of such large sums. They are a gentleman's promise to
pay a lady, but they are also legal documents."

"Bu