nterest for them in
any case. They would have been willing to concede the medium all the
machinery she desired. There was no danger that they could be deceived as
to the reality of the face and form that for so many years had been
enshrined in their memories.

There might be as many side entrances to the cabinet as desired, but she
whom they looked for could come only from the spirit-land.

The front parlour, too, having been investigated, to show the
impossibility of any person's being concealed there, Dr. Hull proceeded
to close and lock the hall-door, that being the only exit connecting this
suite of rooms with the rest of the house. Having placed a heavy chair
against the locked door for further security, he gave the key to Paul.

Mrs. Legrand now rose, and without a word to any one passed through the
back parlour and disappeared in the cabinet.

As she did so a wild desire to fly from the room and the house came over
Miss Ludington. Not that she did not long inexpressibly to see the vision
that was drawing near, whose beautiful feet might even now be on the
threshold, but the sense of its awfulness overcame her. She felt that she
was not fit, not ready, for it now. If she could only have more time to
prepare herself, and then could come again. But it was too late to draw
back.

Dr. Hull had arranged three chairs across the broad doorway between the
back and front parlours, and facing the former. He asked Miss Ludington
to occupy the middle chair, and, trembling in every limb, she did so.
Paul took the chair by her side, the other being apparently for Dr. Hull.

The elfish little girl, whom they called Alta, and who appeared to be the
daughter of Mrs. Legrand, meanwhile took her place at a piano standing in
the front parlour.

All being now ready, Dr. Hull proceeded to turn the gas in the two
parlours very low. The jets in both rooms were controlled by a stop-cock
in the wall by the side of the doorway between them. There were two jets
in the back parlour, fastened to the wall dividing it from the front
parlour, one on each side of the door, so as to throw light on any figure
coming out of the cabinet. The light they diffused, after being turned
down; was enough to render forms and faces sufficiently visible for the
recognition of acquaintances, though a close study of features would have
been difficult.

It now appeared that the glass shades of the jets in the back parlour
were of a bluish tint, which lent