ough the portieres,
Madame le Claire, pale with fright, at their head, and Elizabeth borne
with them, all looking to see what violence had provoked that scream.
They saw Mr. Brassfield, seated on a sofa in a shadowy corner, holding
both Miss Scarlett's hands in his; saw the girl frantically, but in
vain, trying to take them from his grasp. He sat like a statue, with
his eyes set wide and unwinking like a corpse's, every limb and muscle
rigid, his body tense and immovable as a stone image. The sight was
terrible. It was as if the living man had been transformed in an
instant into a ghastly trap, to catch those soft, warm, pretty hands!
She ceased her efforts to break away, but stood white and almost
fainting, and begging hysterically for help.

Madame le Claire leaped forward like a tigress, so light was her step,
and passed her hand over his eyes, so as to close them. Then, bending
her gaze one moment piercingly on his face, she sharply tapped his
wrist and uttered the single word, "Wake!"

Florian Amidon opened his eyes. He saw that something extraordinary
was taking place, for, in the act of opening his eyes, he had seen Miss
Scarlett fall back into the arms of Mr. Cox, and knew that she was
being conveyed rapidly away.

"It iss now," said the professor, "vun minute past eleven. Te test,
you vill atmit, hass peen a gomplete success. Dis sairgumsdance vill
pe noted as exdablishing to a sairtain eggstent an important brinciple,
ant hass peen in effery vay bleasant ant a success: not?"

A laugh or two was heard, then more laughter, then a little hum of
reviving talk, and one could observe that the affair was to be passed
off as one of the mysteries of occultism.

"Well," said Mr. Amidon, "if I have contributed my share to the gaiety
of the occasion, I shall beg now to be permitted to depart."

The Waldrons were waiting for their carriage as he came down.

"There will be plenty of assistance," said the aunty "and we shall not
need to detain you."

"Oh, auntie, auntie!" wept Elizabeth, when they were safely alone,
"there was a spell upon him, as you say, there in the east room, but
the spell that took him there was none of the hypnotist's working! I
am shamed, and humiliated, and robbed of all I have to live for! He
went there, auntie, of his own accord, _and left me_!"

Mr. Alvord passed the thing off more lightly.

"Confound it!" said he, "I wish they were in Hades with their mesmeric
stunts! I shan