The Necromancers

fast, filling his briar pipe thoughtfully,

variety of emotions. Bewildered terror was the first, a nervous interest the next, a truculent

mpagne; he had gone to his rooms, cheered and excited, and had leapt instantly into bed for fear that his courage should evaporate. For he was perfectly aware that fear, and a sickening kind of repulsion, formed a very large element in his emotions. For nearly two hours, unless three persons had lied consummately, he-his essential being, that sleepless self that underlies all-had been in strange company, had become identified in some horrible manner with the s

ted for by the fact that he himself knew it, that it had been a deeper element in his experience than he had known, and that he had told it aloud. It was no proof of anything more. There remained the rapping and what the medium had called his "appearance" during the sleep; but of all this he had read before in books. Why should he be convinced any more now than he had been previously? Besides, it was surely doubtful, was it not

ition. The normal life he lived, the large, businesslike face of the lawyer whom he faced day by day, a theatre or two, a c

begging his attendance, he wrote a most proper letter back again, thanking her for her kindness, but saying that he had come t

gain from Lady Laura, and again he answered by a polite refusal, add

called on him in person

nient to the Temple-two rooms opening into one

ting-room, and had then dropped off to sleep before his fire. He awakened s

porter's boy told me to come straigh

eep chair, to offer whisky and to supply tobacco. Ther

come, I expect," said

back, a litt

ether you will not rec

shook

k not,"

ts, I hope, from what h

after the f

eassure you at

e hes

ot really convinced. I don't see

explain,

said, that could not be accounted for by a very abnormal state of subjectivity. T

o my work," he ended. "Please don't thi

s being very str

was silent

I myself was able to get no resul

don't un

ng some sort of response by automatic handwriting. Ar

conside

ifts that way-they are your own words, Mr. Vincent-if that is so, I don't see why my own concentrati

that.... Then I take it that your theory is that the subconscious self is sufficient to account for it all-that in this hypnotic sleep, i

o," said Lau

, loud, continuo

important. I did not ac

need is some un

either I can't identify it as true, in which case it is worthless as evidence, or I

iled, half cl

very childish, Mr

his hand into his breast pocket, drew out a n

ther painful questi

ed. He felt

grave of this young girl since you left the country; seco

llowed in

d it to me. And I have not see

g ago wa

out September th

o. "And will you listen to this, Mr. Baxter?-'Tell Laurie that the ground h

book?" said th

it and returned

e sentence I have read is one of them, an answer given to a demand made by me that the control should g

ok the

ht it might distress you to know that such notes had been taken

, dumb and

t whether what has been said is correct or not. If it is not correct, t

me think!"

orne out by facts. And if it were-was there any conceivable hypothesis that would explain it except the one offered so confidently by this grave, dignified man who sat and looked at him with something of interested compass

were t

the man, who sat smoki

ical heart ... if it were indeed true that during those two hours she had had her heart's desire, and had been one with his very soul, in a manner to which no earthly union could aspire ... how had he treated her? Even at this thought a shudder of repulsi

here, bewildering, torturing, beckoning. He made

cent," h

ace turned t

Vince

tly understand that you must have time. You must think it all over, and verify this. You must not commit yourself. But I think you ha

n the little tea-t

ght, Mr.

ked for a moment into the kin

g over breakfast had had time to think it out, and

more than that. The terror seemed gone, and certainly the skepticism seemed

ting Maggie, and a certain instinct of propitiation towards her. Maggie had begun to stand for him as a kind of embodiment of a view of life which was sane, wholesome, and curiously attractive; there was a largeness about her, a strength, a sense of fresh air that was delightful. It was that kind of thing, he thought, that had attracted him to her during this past summer. The image of Amy, on the o

ggie had t

ed. They both would believe that he had dropped all this. There would then be no arguing, that at le

not his confessor; she was just a convent-bred girl who couldn't understand. He wo

s of smoke from his pipe an

e platform at the close of this wintry day, and saw Maggie, radi

hought better not. But he took her hand with

here's lots of room for the luggage on t

his knee once or twice under the fur rug, and looked at him with benevolent pleasure. It seemed at first

s as full to him of the memory of Amy-and more than the memory, it seemed-as if she was still alive. They drew up at the very gate where he had whispered her name; the end of the yew walk, where he had sat on a certain night, showed beyond the house; and half a mile beh

er noticed it, and it produced a remark from her t

he took her bedroom candlestick from him. "You have

estick to Maggie,

tly, "but I haven't touched t

She had just hesitated for a fraction of a second t

calling to her through the cheerful frosty air, made her

rtuously; "I haven't bee

the half-mile before them. At the

Protestant churchyard with me fo

ddenly that sh

he said

u to see s

ant with an incomprehensible expre

ting for her. She determined

f I shouldn't have said that...

ee?" he said without the fai

," she said. "You

m tremblin

that

What else c

thout another word. At the

gie ... I ... I'm rather upse

s beyond the church; and she saw him looking at the grave

ther ... rather awful.... Do

e a little blackened by the frost; and hardl

flowers?" she sai

his prolonged

hey're lovely.... Maggie, the grave's

he hardly

. what do

r in relief or no

ounds sinking sometimes, or crac

"But this was very bad yesterday

ness, and there was in it a look of suc

you sayin

said the girl hurriedly. "It wasn'

ctly in what condition this grave wa

round was sunk a little, and cracks were showing at the sides. I told the sexton

ant anything. She would not have been surprised if he had b

ie! Don't loo

way and left her. Sh

he told her the whole st

I

oom at the back of the house on the last night of Lau

Mrs. Baxter-not that that lady would have been of much service, but the very telling woul

er part of the story, and suggesting herself what seemed to her the most sensible explanation of the final detail. Graves did sink, she said, in two cases out of three, and Laurie was as aware of that as herself. Why in the world should not this then be

l entered into your mind for an hour and a half in Lady Laura's drawing-room. Why, what's purgatory,

er rather wearily

the soul is somewhere; and it's natural, isn't it, that she should want-oh! dash it all! Mag

e a tiny m

oh, I can't speak of it. You allowed yourself that up to this last thing you didn't really believe it; and

glanced

terial, her breast veiled in filmy white stuff, and her round, strong arms lay, bare to the elbow, along the arms of her chair. She was a very pleasant wholesome sight. But her face was troubled, a

lanation. The most natural seems to me to be what I have said; and you're quite right in saying that it's this last thing that has made the difference. It's exactly like the grain that turns th

?" cried

at his service when I came back to London. Not to have don

u wouldn't," said

isturbed by this very

nsense," he said, "what'

bid and horrible. Of course it's nons

lushed a

polite,"

id penitently. "But

enly blazed

he cried. "Suppose it was true-suppos

m the corner of the room. Even Maggie started and glanced at th

" he whispered

said tranquilly; "the t

her; his lips sti

ut-" h

t you see the s

sturbed; certain possibilities opened before her, and she regarded them. Then

" she said. "This

ve me ... Maggie .

n edge. She would not look at him, for fear that the meeting of eyes might hint at more than she meant. She threw her

night was

had begun. Twice during dinner there had come the thud of masses of snow falling from the roof on to the lawn outside, and the cle

night outside, the drip from the eaves slow and deliberate, the rustle of released leaves, and even the gentle thud on the lawn from the yew branches-all

witching with terror, even though one resolutely refrains from looking at him, without being slightly affected. One may argue with oneself to any extent, tap

erself became

hatever except that which she had stated-the relaxation of stiffened wood under the influence of the thaw. Nor had all Laurie's arguments p

became conscious of an uneasiness that she could not entirely repel. It was just physical, she said; it was the result

across at

ead, quite still and quiet, his hands still clasping the lion bosses of his chair-arms. Be

feet, slipped round the tabl

wake up.... Wha

hrough him. He sat up,

t?" he said. "

ds over his eyes

, Maggie? W

good acting! Maggie threw hersel

go to see Mr. Vincent. It's bad fo

inked at he

tand. What do y

ashamed of her

't go and see that man.

ching. Every sign of n

nse; of course I shall. You