aying no, and I told Bobby I would telephone her tomorrow before six
o'clock. I was not sure whether I could accept because--"Haven't you an
engagement for Thursday with Captain Herrick?" suggested Seraphine.

Whereupon Bobby, with an impertinent little toss of her bobbed-off black
hair, said: "Oh, Pen, why do you waste your time on a commonplace
architect? He will never satisfy you--not in a thousand years. Bye-bye,
I'll see you at the party." Then away she went, her eyes challenging
Seraphine who stands for all the old homely virtues, including unselfish
love, that Bobby Vallis entirely disapproves of. What shall I do?
Seraphine says I must not go to this party, but--_I want to go!_

* * * * *

I have accepted Roberta's invitation, in spite of a warning from Seraphine
that something dreadful will happen to me if I go. I have a morbid
curiosity to see what experiences _can_ be in store for me that are
worse than those I have gone through already. Besides, I do not believe
what Seraphine says--it is contrary to my reason, it is altogether
fantastic. And, even if it were true, even if I really am in the
horrible peril that she describes, what difference does it make where I
go or what I do? I am just a spiritual outcast, marked for suffering--a
little more or less _je m'en moque_.

* * * * *

I have hesitated to write down Seraphine's explanation of my trouble,
even in my diary. I reject it with all the strength of my soul. I
consider it absurd, I hate it, I try to forget it; but alas! it sticks
in my thoughts like some ridiculous jingle. So I may as well face the
thing on paper, here in the privacy of my diary, and laugh at it. Ha,
ha!--is that false-sounding laughter?

_Seraphine says that the great war has thrown the spirit world into
confusion, especially in the lower levels where the new arrivals come
and linger. Millions, have died on the battle field in hatred and
violence. Great numbers of these have gone over so suddenly that they
are not able to adjust themselves to the other plane where they
constitute an immense company of earth-bound souls that long to come
back. There are myriads of these unreconciled souls hovering all about
us, crowding about us, eagerly, greedily, striving to come back. Some do
not know that they are dead and rebel fiercely against their changed
condition. The drunkards still thirst after drink. The murderers want to
go