th a grave smile, "believe me, you are wholly at
fault in your speculations. Gerard here of course, naturally enough,
since he has never been willing to 'sit,' thinks we are both madmen, and
that the whole thing is folly; but you and I, who have sat and seen many
marvellous manifestations, know that it is not folly. Take the word of
a man who has had greater experience in the matter than yourself, and
who is himself a most powerful medium: the theory you have just
enunciated is utterly false."

"Prove that it is false."

"I cannot prove it, but wait and see."

"Nay; I have given it all up now. I will not meddle with spiritualism
again. It unhinged my nerves and destroyed my peace of mind while I was
investigating it."

The Prince shrugged his shoulders.

"Prince, leave him alone," said the Abbe smiling. "His theory is a great
deal more sensible than yours; and if I could bring myself to believe
that at your _seances_ any real phenomenon _does_ take place (which of
course no sane person can), I should be much more apt to accept
Frontignan's interpretation of the matter. Let us follow it out a little
further, for the mere sake of talking nonsense. Doubtless the dominant
passion of a man would be the most likely to appear--that is to say,
would be the most tangible."

"That would depend," replied the Duke, "upon circumstances. If the
phenomenon should take place while the man is alone, doubtless it would
be so; but if while at a _seance_ attended by many people, the
apparition would be the product of the master passions of all, and thus
it is that many of the visions which appear at _seances_ where the
sitters are not harmonized are most remarkable and unrecognizable
anomalies."

"I thought I understood from Mme. de Girardin that certain spirits
always appeared."

"Pooh, pooh! Mme. de Girardin never went deep enough into the matter.
The most ravishing vision I ever saw was when I fancied I saw love."

"What? Love! An emanation from yourself?"

The Duke sighed.

"Ah, that is what proved to me that what I saw could not be love. That
sentiment has been too long extinguished in me to awaken to a corporeal
expression."

"What made you think it was love?" asked Pomerantseff.

"It was a white dove with something I cannot express that was human
about it. I felt ineffably happy while it was with me."

"Your theory is false, I tell you," said the Russian. "What you saw
probably was love."

"Then it would have be