He tried to get her back to talk about "Ghosts," again, but she answered
with indifference, and just then he was arrested by something a man was
saying near the head of the table.




VII.


It was rather a large dinner, but not so large that a striking phrase,
launched in a momentary lull, could not fuse all the wandering
attentions in a sole regard. The man who spoke was the psychologist
Wanhope, and he was saying with a melancholy that mocked itself a
little in his smile: "I shouldn't be particular about seeing a ghost
myself. I have seen plenty of men who had seen men who had seen ghosts;
but I never yet saw a man who had seen a ghost. If I had it would go a
long way to persuade me of ghosts."

Hewson felt his heart thump in his throat. There was a pause, and it was
as if all eyes but the eyes of the psychologist turned upon him; these
rested upon the ice which the servant had just then silently slipped
under them. Hewson had no reason to think that any of the people present
were acquainted with his experience, but he thought it safest to take
them upon the supposition that they had, and after he had said to the
psychologist, "Will you allow me to present him to you?" he added, "I'm
afraid every one else knows him too well already."

"You!" said his _vis-a-vis_, arching her eyebrows; and others up and down
the table, looked round or over at Hewson where he sat midway of it with