e with the loan of his wagon, and two orderlies to lift my
useless trunk.

On the day following, I found myself, with my new comrade, in a house in
Coates Street, where a "circle" was in the daily habit of meeting. So
soon as I had been comfortably deposited in an arm-chair, beside a large
pine-table, the rest of those assembled seated themselves, and for some
time preserved an unbroken silence. During this pause I scrutinized the
persons present. Next to me, on my right, sat a flabby man, with
ill-marked, baggy features, and injected eyes. He was, as I learned
afterwards, an eclectic doctor, who had tried his hand at medicine and
several of its quackish variations, finally settling down on
eclecticism, which I believe professes to be to scientific medicine what
vegetarianism is to common sense, every-day dietetics. Next to him sat a
female,--authoress, I think, of two somewhat feeble novels, and much
pleasanter to look at than her books. She was, I thought, a good deal
excited at the prospect of spiritual revelations. Her neighbor was a
pallid, care-worn girl, with very red lips, and large brown eyes of
great beauty. She was, as I learned afterwards, a magnetic patient of
the doctor, and had deserted her husband, a master mechanic, to follow
this new light. The others were, like myself, strangers brought hither
by mere curiosity. One of them was a lady in deep black, closely veiled.
Beyond her, and opposite to me, sat the sergeant, and next to him, the
medium, a man named Blake. He was well dressed, and wore a good deal of
jewelry, and had large, black side-whiskers,--a shrewd-visaged,
large-nosed, full-lipped man, formed by nature to appreciate the
pleasant things of sensual existence.

Before I had ended my survey, he turned to the lady in black, and asked
if she wished to see any one in the spirit-world.

She said, "Yes," rather feebly.

"Is the spirit present?" he asked. Upon which two knocks were heard in
affirmation.

"Ah!" said the medium, "the name is--it is the name of a child. It is a
male child. It is Albert,--no, Alfred!"

"Great Heaven!" said the lady. "My child! my boy!"

On this the medium arose, and became strangely convulsed. "I see," he
said, "I see--a fair-haired boy. I see blue eyes,--I see above you,
beyond you--" at the same time pointing fixedly over her head.

She turned with a wild start "Where,--whereabouts?"

"A blue-eyed boy," he continued, "over your head. He cries,--he says,
Mam