was eleven nights now to the day--she had been
suddenly wakened by Edwin's voice.

"O God!" Edwin had cried, thin, but distinct, in a tone of exhausted
suffering--"O God!" and "Mummer!" his special term for Mrs. Doothnack.
At that, she declared, with straining hands, she knew that Edwin was
dead.

Miss Brasher then begged darling Jannie to summon Stepan and discover
the truth at the back of Mrs. Doothnack's "message" and conviction. If,
indeed, Edwin had passed over, it was their Christian duty to reassure
his mother about his present happiness, and the endless future together
that awaited all loved and loving ones. Jannie said positively that she
wouldn't consider it. A sitting had been arranged for Mrs. Kraemer
to-morrow, so that she, without other means, might get some tidings of
the younger August.

Mrs. Doothnack rose at once with a murmured apology for disturbing them,
but Miss Brasher was more persistent. She had the determination of her
virginal fanaticism, and of course she was better acquainted with
Jannie. Lizzie wasn't certain, but she thought that Miss Brasher had
money, though nothing approaching Mrs. Kraemer; probably a small, safe
income.

Anyhow, Jannie got into a temper, and said that they all had no love for
her, nobody cared what happened so long as they had their precious
messages. Stepan would be cross, too. At this Albert hastily declared
that he would be out that evening; he had been promised moving-pictures.
That old Stepan would be sure to bust his bones in. Jannie then
dissolved into tears, and cried that they were insulting her dear
Stepan, who lived in heaven. Albert added his wails to the commotion,
Mrs. Doothnack sobbed from pure nervousness and embarrassment, and only
Miss Brasher remained unmoved and insistent.

The result of this disturbance was that they agreed to try a tentative
sitting. Stepping out into the kitchen, Mrs. Meeker told Lizzie that she
needn't bother to play the music that evening.

Here the latter, with a sudden confidence in McGeorge's charitable
knowledge of life, admitted that Jannie's bottle of Benedictine was kept
in a closet in the room behind the one where the sittings were held. The
Meekers had disposed themselves about the table, the circle locked by
their hands placed on adjoining knees, with Jannie at the head and Mrs.
Doothnack beyond. The servant, in the inner room for a purpose which she
had made crystal clear, could just distinguish them in a dim,