ulie alone. She still sat at the tea table, but all having been served,
she was idle and a little distrait.

"I'm glad to see you again, Gilbert," she said, at last, looking at him
through tearful eyes, "but it makes me think of Peter, and--oh,
talk,--or I shall go all to pieces!"

Knowing Julie's emotional nature, Blair tactfully talked, telling
Peter's sister of trifling occurrences that were interesting in
themselves rather than of personal import. He succeeded in restoring her
calm and at last a chance allusion brought up Carly's name.

"What's the trouble between you two girls?" Blair asked, lightly.

"Trouble? There isn't any," and Julie's blue eyes,--so like
Peter's,--looked straight at him.

"Oh, just a school-girl squabble, is it?"

"It isn't anything," Julie persisted, "why do you say that?"

"Now, look here, Julie Crane, you can't fool me. I'm a mind reader, and
I see there's a rift in the lute that you and Carly used to play duets
on."

Julie smiled at the way he put it, and said, half unwillingly: "Well,
you see, Gilbert, Carly's a snake-in-the-grass."

"What! Oh, I say, Julie, don't talk like that! What do you mean?"

"She's underhanded, sly, deceitful, dishonest----"

"Stop, stop! You're losing your mind! Suppose you let up on vituperation
and do a bit of explaining. What has Carly done to merit those terms?"

"What has she done? She has come over here,--when I've been away,--and
stirred up father and mother with that silly, hateful, vicious old Ouija
Board performance,--that's what she's done!"

"Ouija! Carly! Surely you're mistaken."

"Indeed, I'm not. Father and mother couldn't make the silly thing go at
all, till Carly helped them. She pushes it, of course,--and they are
gulled and duped----"

"But, Julie, wait! Why should Carly do such a thing?"

"Oh, she's got the fad. Lots of people have, you know. And I haven't--I
hate it all--and so Carly comes over when I'm not home."

"And was it she who got the messages from Peter?"

"Yes, it was; that is, she pretended to."

Blair was amazed. Carly had given him the impression that she didn't
believe in occult manifestations. Why should she do that, if she had
assisted at the Crane _seances_? He hated to think of Carlotta Harper as
insincere, but--he mused--that sort of thing tends to make people
insincere. He came to a quick decision that he would observe for himself
and not seek further enlightenment directly from either of the two
gi