She watched our faces with keen satisfaction. "Such a time I had
doing it!" she said. "The servants, of course, think I have gone
mad. All except Clara. I told her. She's a sensible girl."

Herbert chuckled.

"Very neat," he said, "although a chair or two for the spooks would
have been no more than hospitable. All right. Now bring on your
ghosts."

My wife, however, looked slightly displeased. "As a church-woman,"
she said, "I really feel that it is positively impious to bring back
the souls of the departed, before they are called from on High."

"Oh, rats," Herbert broke in rudely. "They'll not come. Don't
worry. And if you hear raps, don't worry. It will probably be the
medium cracking the joint of her big toe."

There was still a half hour until the medium's arrival. At Mrs.
Dane's direction we employed it in searching the room. It was the
ordinary rectangular drawing-room, occupying a corner of the house.
Two windows at the end faced on the street, with a patch of
railed-in lawn beneath them. A fire-place with a dying fire and
flanked by two other windows, occupied the long side opposite the
door into the hall. These windows, opening on a garden, were
closed by outside shutters, now bolted. The third side was a
blank wall, beyond which lay the library. On the fourth side were
the double doors into the hall.