The Necromancers

form of narrow-mindedness. As has been said before, when things did not fit with her own scheme, either they were not things, but only fancies o

ove it filled with a number of the little leather-bound books in which her soul delighted. She did not use these books very much; but she liked to see them there. It would not be decent to enter the sanctuary of Mrs. Baxter's prayers; it is enough to say that they we

ogue; and she scrutinized these through her spectacles, sitting by the fire. When she had done she noticed a letter lying by Maggie's place, directed in

ose vague inattentive murmurs that are the sign of a distracted mind; and, looking up presently

," said Mrs. Baxter, with an a

urmured Maggie, an

r to drive home her sense of injury, and met Maggie's eyes, sudde

what is th

ioning both herself and the other, and finally h

it," s

e of a plate, and a slight turning to catch the light. Mrs. Baxter read it,

she said querulously

Morton thinks we ought to do some

ached out for

e done. You know what Laurie i

ked at her

uld do someth

an-if Laurie had been really unwell. You see he on

ck into the envelope, and went on with breakfa

out into the garden, spud in hand, to think

the hours of a week-end-a brusque, ordinary kind of barrister without much imagination and a good deal of shrewd force. It was surely rather an extreme step for a man like this to write to a girl in such a condition of things, asking her to use her influence to dis

rchard path, took out the letter, and re

ect, and Mr. Baxter seems to me to be far too much wrapped up in it. I enclose the address of a friend of mine in case you would care to write to him on the subject. He was once

iev

sinc

s Mo

a particular date, February 25, as the date by which the medium would have returned, and some sort of further effort was going to

ress he had mentioned-a Mr. Cathcart. Surely he

with Mr. James Morton that the whole thing was nonsense; yet, further, that this nonsense was capable of doing a good dea

ther was so annoyingly serene. Surely it was her business, rather than Maggie's own, to look after Laurie; yet the girl knew perfectly well that if Laurie was left to his mother nothing at all would be done. M

calling presently; and then to some unseen pe

her pocket and hurried

said, with

eacups in the Bon Marché catalogue," said the old lady. "The

But as they passed up the garden

she said. "I rather want to see

eep you three minutes,"

o talk for an hour

certain devotions till half-past ten; read the paper till eleven, and theology till twelve. Then he considered

, and went on picnics with other ecclesiastics in straw hats, and joined in cheerful songs in the evening. He was a priest, with perfectly defined duties, and of admirable punctuality and conscientiousness in doing them. He disliked the English quite extraordinarily; but his sense of duty was such that they never suspected it; and his flock of Saxons adored him as people only can adore a brisk, businesslike man with

things as scruples, nuances, and shades of tone and meaning; but if you put a plain question to him plainly, he gave you a plain answer, if he knew it; if not, he looked it up then an

e, as he came in to find her in his hideous little sitting

e, as the clock struck twelve, and had left it just now upon a s

er.... May I sit down? It's rat

rm-chair covered with hors

wn, my

once tight and baggy, with his rather large boots cocked

hen,"

gan rather hurriedly. "It's about Lauri

or whom he knew himself at least partly responsible. The English were bad enough, but English c

wn to Mr. Morton's letter. He put a question or two to her during her story, look

come about," said the girl. "You won

orbed in the letter, and presently

sensible fel

know anything at all about spiritualism. Is it-is it

ughed

d. "Of course we know that souls don't com

t's all

said, "but it's very superstitiou

was at least a clear issue to

o real power underneath? That's what Mr. Rymer said to

face became

Sabetti says," h

air and fetched out

we a

piritism, or the consulting of spirits in order to know hidden things, especially that pertain to the future life, certainly is divination properly so called, and is ... is full of even more impiety than is m

began

t no commerce with the Demon is intended, is per se grave sin; but it can sometimes be excused from mortal sin, on account of simplicity or ignorance

t all fraud, then?" asked

ith a resonance tha

ke, what I've said, and that it's grave sin for him to play wi

was p

" she asked-"at least not

again re

t think Master Laurie's likely to get mixed up with the de

should write t

convert, isn't he? I bel

hink

ny harm; though I shoul

was s

. "He's got a good, sensible friend in Mr. Morton. I can see

igar, and found to his pleasure that it was still

this boy. It was not that Laurie had actually neglected his religion while at Stantons; he was always in his place at mass on Sundays, and even, very occasionally, on weekda

And as for this Spiritualistic nonsense-of course the whole thing was a trick. Things did not happen like that. Of course the devil could do extraordinary things: or at any rate had been able to do them in the past; but as for Master Laurie Baxter-whose

be content with the sober workaday facts of the Catholic creed. They must be always running af

iest went in to roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, apple

I

Laurie was merely tiresome and foolish, she distrusted herself, she made little rules and resolutions, and deliberately k

was forbidden; as to what the reality behind was, whether indeed there were any reality at all, she did not allow herself to consider. Laurie was in a state of n

d her half-formed resolution; and after tea

ible letter, explaining first who she was; then, without any names being mentioned, she described her adopted brother's positi

y stiff little air of dignity, and a touch of patronage. And the interpretation of these things was that the old lady did not wish the subject to be

e a long tim

re, and looking out upon the yew walk that led to the orchard. It was a cheerful little place enough, papered in brown, hung all over with wa

zen times in the hour or two that she lay thinking, she turned resolutely over in bed, dismissed the l

lking to a severe-looking tall man with a sardonic smile; Laurie having te

ff into sleep; and it had therefore that particular vividness that characterizes the thoughts when the cons

he said, to be alarmed at an empty room and Laurie's back. Once more she turned on her side,

those quiet waves that lull the mind towards sleep; fin

ld look at i

th his back turned to her, looking, it seemed, with an intense expectation at the very dull door in the wall opposite him. He was in his evening dress, she saw, knee

nt upon the entrance, was that he, no more than she, had any idea as to the character of the person who was to come in. She became quite interested as she watched-it was a method she followed sometimes when wooing sleep-and she began, in h

s understanding that it was all as unfurnished as this room, that the house stood solitary among trees, and that even these, and the tangled garden that she determined must surround

, wide awake again, in her own familia

as a curious thing; and

she had written