ace among the
most marvellous of modern discoveries.

As he spoke, his heavy, uninteresting face lit up as with a hidden
enthusiasm, and my attention was attracted to his eyes, which I had not
before noticed. They were of a curious bright metallic blue and are the
only eyes I have ever seen, though one reads and hears so perpetually of
them, which really seemed to flash as he warmed to his subject.

As he finished, I looked at Aunt Phoebe, who shrugged her shoulders
and smiled incredulously. It was clear that she was not going to be
imposed upon by his specious phrases.

It would be unnecessary to weary my readers by describing at length how
the usual preliminary of choosing an unbiassed committee was gone
through; nor how, after the doctor, the rector, Mr. Melton (the
principal draper in Bishopsthorpe) and several other of the town
magnates, all men of irreproachable honesty, had been induced to act in
this capacity, the Professor proceeded, with eyes blindfolded and
holding the doctor's hand in his, to find a carefully hidden pin, to
read the number of a bank-note and to write the figures one by one on
the blackboard, and to perform other experiments of the same kind amid
the breathless interest of the audience.

I frankly admit that I was astonished and bewildered by what I saw, and
I had a little uneasy feeling that if it were not all a piece of
gigantic humbug, it was not quite canny--not quite right.

What struck me most, I think, was the unfussy, untheatrical way in which
it was all done. Every one of the Professor's movements was marked by an
air of calm certainty. He threaded his way through the crowded benches
with such an unhesitating step that, only that I had seen the bandage
fastened over his eyes by the rector and afterwards carefully examined
by the doctor, neither of whom could be suspected of complicity, I
should have said he must have had some little peep-hole arranged to
enable him to guide his course so unfalteringly.

There were, of course, thunders of applause from the sixpenny seats when
the Thought Reading part of the entertainment came to an end.

"Well, Aunt Phoebe," I said, turning to her as the Professor bowed his
thanks, "what do you think?"

"Think, my dear?" she repeated. "I think the man is a very fair
conjurer."

"But," I protested, "how could he know where the pin was; and you know
Mr. Danby himself fastened the handkerchief?"

"My dear Elizabeth, I have seen Houdin do far