case of disease," said he, "it will make me ill."

"Oh no," said Lefevre; "it's not painful, but it's curious;" and so
Julius set himself to read it.

"But come," said Embro, posing the question with his forefinger; "do you
believe that story, Lefevre?"

"Though it's French, and from the 'Telegraph,'" said Lefevre, "I see no
reason to disbelieve it."

"Come," said Embro, "come--you're shirking the question."

"I confess," said Lefevre, "I've no desire to discuss it. You think me
prejudiced in favour of anything of the kind; perhaps I think you
prejudiced against it: where, then, is the good of discussion?"

"Well, now," said the unabashed Embro, "I'll tell you what I think.
Here's a story"--Julius at that instant handed back the paper to
him--"of a healthy young woman mesmerised, hypnotised, or somnambulised,
or whatever you like to call it, in the public street, by some man that
casually comes up to her, and her brain so affected that her memory
goes! I say it's inconceivable!--impossible!" And he slapped the paper
down on the table.

The others looked on with grim satisfaction at the prospect of an
argument between the two representatives of rival schools; and it was
noteworthy that, as they looked, they turned a referring glance on
Courtney, as if it were a foregone conclusion that he must be the final
arbiter. He, however, sat abstracted, with his eyes on the floor, and
with one hand propping his chin and the other drumming on the arm of his
chair.

"I'm not a scientific man," said the journalist who was not an Art
critic, "and I am not prejudiced either way about this story; but it
seems to me, Embro, that you view the thing through a very ordinary
fallacy, and make a double mistake. You confound the relatively
inconceivable with the absolutely impossible: this story is relatively
inconceivable to you, and therefore you say it is absolutely
impossible."

"Is there such a thing as an absolute impossibility?" murmured Julius,
who still sat with his chin in his hand, looking as if he considered the
"thing" from a long way off as one of a multitude of other things.

"I do not believe there is," said the journalist; "but--"

"Don't let us lose ourselves in metaphysics," broke in Embro. Then,
turning to Courtney, whose direct intelligent gaze seemed to disconcert
him, he said, "Now, Julius, you've seen, I daresay, a good many things
we have not seen,--have you ever seen or known a case like this we're
talki