The House of Mystery: An Episode in the Career of Rosalie Le Grange, Clairvoyant

tured by nervousness over his own folly, Robert H. Norcross awaited her there. She stood a moment regarding him; in that moment, the quick perception, veiled away by an expression

iced her powerful head, her Grecian nose, rising without indentation from a straight forehead, her firm but pleasant mouth, her large, light gray eyes which looked a little past him. Here was a person on his own level of daring mental flight. He remembered only one other woman who h

peak, but she put

unknown visitor on professional business. Are you he? For if you are,

ity, new-comers, in trying to put him at his ease revealed themselves to his shrewd observation. But there was a real embarrassment at this meeting. He was approaching the subje

," he said, "al

seated herself in an old-fa

e unknowable. No human being ever thoroughly understood any other human being, I suppose,-and yet no human being knows himself. If you sear

ed Norcross. "That is t

ese clothes"-her long, expressive, ringless hand swept across the area of her skirt-"than you yourself, are real. All reality and unreality may dwell in the mind. Th

al with such things had wasted in him during thirty years in Wall Street. But the e

ing?" he asked, irrelevantly, y

bloweth where it listeth. That impatience is one of the

d the mustach

re are frauds in yo

erhaps you know something of the old alchemists. They had laid hold on the edge of chemistry. But because that truth came confused, because they all had things by the wrong handle, a thousand of them confused truth with error until, in the end, they did not know right from wrong. This force in which you and I are interested is a little like chemistry-it may be called mental and spiritual chemistry. But because it deals with the unseen, not with the seen, it is a tho

ne of his characteristic shifts to child

en are only boys," she said. "My dear sir-I could almost say 'my dear boy'-if I had, would I admit it? You must take me as I am and for

nt suspicion to hear of one's self. Now take yo

, as though expecting revelation

ophy, show that you are not in one of the learned professions, and it is easy to see, if I may make so bold"-here she smiled a trifle-"that you are no ordinary person. You have the air of great t

easier in his manner. "But you must remember that your prof

be. Still, I have a little sympathy with those who are. Did you ever consider," she went on, "that no fraud invents anything; that he is only imitating something ge

ng somewhere to the rear of the drawing-room. Mrs. Markham sat unmoving for an instant, as though con

t be better, in your present condition of suspicion, if I try to see what we can do without seeming any further

falling of all the masses and lines. Mrs. Markham rose, sat by the table, under the reading-lamp,

h me, rare with anyone, though often assumed for effect. Of you, I

as he rose, reached for the old-fashioned gas cha

for a pair of sensitive eyes. I feel everything when I am in this condition. Would you mind sitting a little further away?

s seat, Mrs. Markham's voice emitted the first quaver of a musical note. She held it for a moment, before she began to hum over and over three bars of an old tune-"Wild roamed an Indian maid, bright Alfaretta." Thrice she hummed it, still sitti

s Lal

riod of he

for her. But Martha shows me the picture of a child-a little girl in

istened his dry lips with his tongue the sl

tween those two." The rest came in scattered sentences, with long pauses between-"I hear that song again-it was her favorite-I unde

sting from a pore. He was on his feet, was pacing the floor in his jerky little walk. When, after one cou

-you do not know how much!" Her manner spoke a smothered irrit

him, Norcross straightened and stiffened, controlled the re

some questi

as you did, and wait for me." Norcross walked at his nervous, hurried little pace back to his seat on the sofa. His face was quite contr

ally. "Quick-with your question-with your lip

Lallie's r

el

other

use,

esting me. Tell something yo

e ever an

e agai

hing, just jealousy, during that last quarrel. She had alre

the corner of his eye at Mrs. Mar

I shall se

y that it overlapped the l

inutes; no more until Mrs. Markham dropped her hand from her e

ections. To your old love affairs, I had an unusually quick response to-night." She leaned heavily back in her chair. "Excuse me if I seem tired. There is a kind of inner strain

-before you interrupted by rising-the revelations are always accurate and true. The details I gave you are trivial. That is generally a feature of a first sitting. The scholars have found an explanation of that phenomenon, and I am inclined to agree with them. If I were talking to you over a telephone and you were not sure of my voice, how shoul

. "You're a marvelously clever woman, to think of that," he

ct. Probably the last thought of the disembodied, upon assuming the trance state-for I believe that the sender of these messages, like the receivers, have to enter an abnormal condition-is to prove their identity. That is only natural, is it not? Would not you do the same? Think. And what do they have to offer? One of those intimate memories of yea

u must be such a one-make their mist

ongue could be when he directed or tr

anted to kno

have no proof that natures change out there. I suppose that isn't all, either. Is she, keeping her soul for you in a life which I hope is better-is she interested in whether or no you make a little more money and position? I can conceive only one condi

call her-had brought some old business

t you suppose that some one of those very associates would have rushed to speak, instead of a dead love? In that way, I think I

e hint in her manner, and rose with her. A li

e said. "You are Robert H. No

oss s

was perplexed by a memory and a resemblance. Then, too, I caught the air of big things about you. That attitude which you have just taken solved i

s raised just a trifle,

of your revelations," he said

onality. It interferes. Understand, I'm really flattered to have a man like you take noti

ssional relation, may I

dollars a sitting-for t

he table beside her. "You see," she went on as though her mind were still following their discussion, "I don'

d-night. No more than that did she give him, however. He himself was obliged to int

llent result to-night I

n?" His voice broke o

ll you make an

day n

or Tuesday. Could you

poning a directors' meet

Say Friday

the attitude, without motion. For five minutes he sat so, until the chauffeur, wh

don, sir, did y

cross. And even on those w

drawing-room. Taking a key from her bosom, she unlocked a drawer and took out a packet of yellow legal cap paper. Holding this document concealed in a fold of her waist, she passed rapidly to an apartment upstairs. She opened the d

f-articulate cry of a sudden awakening, Mrs. Markham, still finding her way with marvel

borrow a handkerchief. Go to sleep. I'm sure it