the Upper Ten. I came at length
to the conclusion that this peddling was but a mask to cover some
greater object, and even went so far as to believe my young acquaintance
to be implicated in the slave-trade. That, however, was none of my
affair.

On the present occasion, Simon entered my room in a state of
considerable excitement.

"_Ah! mon ami!_" he cried, before I could even offer him the ordinary
salutation, "it has occurred to me to be the witness of the most
astonishing things in the world. I promenade myself to the house of
Madame ------. How does the little animal--_le renard_--name himself in
the Latin?"

"Vulpes," I answered.

"Ah! yes--Vulpes. I promenade myself to the house of Madame Vulpes."

"The spirit medium?"

"Yes, the great medium. Great heavens! what a woman! I write on a
slip of paper many of questions concerning affairs of the most
secret--affairs that conceal themselves in the abysses of my heart the
most profound; and behold, by example, what occurs? This devil of a
woman makes me replies the most truthful to all of them. She talks to me
of things that I do not love to talk of to myself. What am I to think? I
am fixed to the earth!"

"Am I to understand you, M. Simon, that this Mrs. Vulpes replied to
questions secretly written by you, which questions related to events
known only to yourself?"

"Ah! more than that, more than that," he answered, with an air of some
alarm. "She related to me things--But," he added after a pause, and
suddenly changing his manner, "why occupy ourselves with these follies?
It was all the biology, without doubt. It goes without saying that it
has not my credence. But why are we here, _mon ami?_ It has occurred to
me to discover the most beautiful thing as you can imagine--a vase with
green lizards on it, composed by the great Bernard Palissy. It is in my
apartment; let us mount. I go to show it to you."

I followed Simon mechanically; but my thoughts were far from Palissy and
his enameled ware, although I, like him, was seeking in the dark a great
discovery. This casual mention of the spiritualist, Madame Vulpes,
set me on a new track. What if, through communication with more subtle
organisms than my own, I could reach at a single bound the goal which
perhaps a life, of agonizing mental toil would never enable me to
attain?

While purchasing the Palissy vase from my friend Simon, I was mentally
arranging a visit to Madame Vulpes.

III

Two eveni