shows, if it shows anything, how perfect and universal must be the
social intercourse of the respected departed. It is worthy of note,
also, that if the spirit--I will not say the medium--perceives after one
knock that it were wiser to say yes, he can conveniently add the second
tap. Some such arrangement in real life would, it appears to me, be
highly desirable.

It seemed that the spirit was that of Vidocq, the French detective. I
had just read a translation of his memoirs, and he seemed to me a very
available spirit to call upon.

As soon as I explained that the spirit who answered had been a witness
of the theft, the old man became strangely agitated. "Who was it?" said
he. At once the spirit indicated a desire to use the alphabet. As we
went over the letters,--always a slow method, but useful when you want
to observe excitable people,--my visitor kept saying, "Quicker--go
quicker." At length the spirit spelled out the words, "I know not his
name."

"Was it," said the gentleman--"was it a--was it one of my household?"

I knocked "yes" without hesitation; who else, indeed, could it have
been?

"Excuse me," he went on, "if I ask you for a little whisky."

This I gave him. He continued: "Was it Susan or Ellen?"

"No, no!"