ends are
invited--no admission fee--you understand?"

"I'm glad of that. It would be too bad to put that child forward in
the double role of fakir and money-breeder; but, tell me, have you any
fresh light on the subject of her mediumship?"

"Well, yes. I've changed my point of view slightly. I'm inclined to
think there is pretty generally some basis for the faith. The
literature of the subject is immense, and some of it is as well
authenticated as any physical treatise. I'm convinced that Miss
Lambert has no intent to deceive--she has no possible motive to do
so--but Clarke has, and yet I cannot connect him directly with the
phenomena."

"How is her health?"

"Very good, apparently. She is quite as blooming as when you saw her,
and is immensely more mature mentally."

"Is she resigned to her life?"

"Sometimes she is and sometimes not. She is very sensitive to
influences, and at times when Clarke is near she grows almost as
enthusiastic as he--at other times she bitterly complains. I tried to
free her from Clarke, but she wouldn't give me the authority
necessary."

"What do you mean by that?"

There was something both sad and mocking in Britt's face as he
answered: "I offered to marry her--wasn't that generous of me? She
spurned my humble offer, intimating that there was small choice
between me and Clarke and the spooks. No, I'll be honest, she was very
nice and kind about it, and added that perhaps Mr. Clarke was
right--her duty in the world was to 'convince people of the reality of
the forces,' or something like that. 'I shall never marry,' she added,
to soften the blow, and really she does seem a person set apart."

Serviss looked down at his book. "I suppose she imagines herself
stricken with a mortal illness. I confess I sometimes think of her in
that way. I can't understand why her parents--" He checked himself.
"Where are they stopping?"

"They're housed over near the Riverside Drive with a wild enthusiast
who has oodles and wads of money--old Simeon Pratt."

"I've heard of Simeon--Uncle Simeon the reporters call him on 'the
Street.' I remember now about his spiritualism. He had some remarkable
experiences after his wife's death--drowned, wasn't she?"

"You can't afford to be indefinite about Simeon's sorrows, doctor, for
they made him what he is. I find these believers all start in about
the same way. Simeon's wife and two daughters were lost in the English
Channel. Simeon became a believer the