y do it who
will comply with the conditions. In the first place, you have got to be
serious, and to think up something that you would really like to know
about your past, present, or future. Remember, this is no joking matter,
and the only difference between the ghost that you will see here and a
real materialization under professional auspices is that the ghost won't
charge you anything. Of course, if any lady or gentleman--especially
lady--wishes to contribute to any charitable object, after a
satisfactory interview with the ghost, a hat will be found at the
hall-door for the purpose, and Mrs. Westangle will choose the object:
I have put in a special plea for my own firm, at a season when the
real-estate business is not at its best." By this time Bushwick had his
audience laughing, perhaps the more easily because they were all more
or less in a hysterical mood, which, whether we own it or not, is always
induced by an approximation to the supernatural. He frowned and said,
"NO laughing!" and then they laughed the more. When he had waited for
them to be quiet he went on gravely, "The conditions are simply these:
Each person who chooses may interview the ghost, keeping a respectful
distance, but not so far off but that the ghost can distinctly hear a
stage whisper. The question put must be seriously meant, and it must be
the question which the questioner would prefer to have answered above
everything else at the time being. Certain questions will be absolutely
ruled out, such as, 'Does Maria love me?' or, 'Has Reuben ever been
engaged before?' The laughter interrupted the speaker again, and Verrian
hung his head in rage and shame; this stupid ass was spoiling the hope
of anything beautiful in the spectacle and turning it into a gross
burlesque. Somehow he felt that the girl who had invented it had meant,
in the last analysis, something serious, and it was in her behalf that
he would have liked to choke Bushwick. All the time he believed that
Miss Macroyd, whose laugh sounded above the others, was somehow enjoying
his indignation and divining its reason.

"Other questions, touching intemperance or divorce, the questioner will
feel must not be asked; though it isn't necessary to more than suggest
this, I hope; it will be left entirely to the good taste and good
feeling of the--party. We all know what the temptations of South Dakota
and the rum fiend are, and that to err is human, and forgive divine."
He paused, having fail