seemed to fall again over the bright
spirit of Mrs. Harris. Her eyelids drooped, her limbs lost their power,
and she sank into her chair as before, a helpless victim, apparently, to
the hidden forces. For a moment I was at a loss. I could not believe
that she was deceiving us, but it was possible that she was deceiving
herself. "In either case, she must be brought out of this," I decided,
and, putting my hands on her shoulders, I said: "If there is any
'control' here, let them stop this. We want no more of it. Stop it!"

My command was again obeyed, and the psychic slowly came back to
herself, and as she did so I said, warningly, to Mrs. Cameron: "Do not
utter another word of this in Mrs. Harris's presence. She seems to be
extremely sensitive to hypnotic influence, and I think she had better
go out into the air at once."

In rather subdued mood we went below to rejoin the frankly contemptuous
members of the party.

"Well, what luck?" cried Howard.

"You all look rather solemn," said Harris. "What about it? Dolly, what
have you been doing?"

Mrs. Cameron described the sitting as wonderful, but Mrs. Harris only
smiled vaguely, and I said: "Your wife seemed to go into a trance and
impersonate a number of individuals. She shows all the signs of a real
sensitive."

Harris, who had been studying his wife with half-humorous intentness,
now took command. "If you've been shamming, you need discipline; and if
you haven't, you need a doctor. I think we'll go home and have it out,"
he added, and shortly after led her away. "Some nice cool air is what we
need," he said at the door.

No sooner were the Harrises out of the door than the women of the party
fell upon me.

"What do you think of it, Mr. Garland?" asked Mrs. Cameron.

"If Mrs. Harris were not your friend, and if I had not seen other
performances of the same sort, I should instantly say that she was
having her joke with us. But I have seen too much of this sort of thing
to take it altogether lightly. That's the way this investigating goes.
One thing corroborates another. 'Impersonation' in the case of a public
medium may mean nothing--on the part of a psychic like your friend Mrs.
Harris it means a very great deal. In support of this, let me tell you
of a similar case. I have a friend, a perfectly trustworthy woman, and
of keen intelligence, whose 'stunt,' as she laughingly calls it, is to
impersonate nameless and suffering spirits who have been hurled into
oute