"Mrs. Kane replied that the manifestations at both séances had been of an unsatisfactory nature, so unsatisfactory that _she could not really blame the Commission for arriving at their conclusion_. In her present state of health she _really_ doubted whether a third meeting would prove any better than the two already held. It might even be more unsatisfactory, and instead of removing the present belief of the Commission it might add confirmation of it. In view of these considerations, she decided not to hold another séance." * * * * * Mrs. Kane declares that with her muscles and the joints of her toes so educated by long practice, and her ability to produce the noise of "raps" with no perceptible movement, she could have gone on deceiving the world indefinitely without being detected. She explains that the making of the "raps," when she is stationed on glass tumblers, requires a far greater effort than when her feet are in contact with the carpet or floor. The shock must in that case be conveyed through a comparatively non-conducting substance. For this reason, when the floor was especially hard or thick and lacking in sonorousness, she sometimes failed in the expected effect. In every instance, it was most difficult to produce the "raps" under those circumstances. * * * * * The verdict, however, is now complete. Spiritualism is guilty. The court of mankind so declares it. IV. REPENTANCE. CHAPTER XIV. THE HEART PLEADS FOR THE SOUL. The most interesting feature, after all, of Margaret Fox's career, was perhaps that sad and abortive romance of which Dr. Elisha Kent Kane, the gallant Arctic explorer, was the hero. This history should be known to the reader in order that the exact aspect of Spiritualism to her developed conscience in after years may be understood. Dr. Kane first saw Maggie Fox in the autumn of 1852, when she was staying with her mother at a hotel in Philadelphia, being then engaged in "spiritualistic manifestations." Dr. Kane, whose heart had never before been touched, at once succumbed to the sweet charm of this erratic child, and conceived the romantic idea of removing her from the life she then was leading, educating her and marrying her. The project, when it became known, awakened the bitter hostility of his friends, and from this hostility, the unfortunate separation between them which it caused, and Dr. Kane's untimely death, all of the sorrow that afterwards engulfed her life and deprived her of the ambition for a nobler career, directly sprang. Margaret was but thirteen years old when Dr. Kane first saw her. A friendly hand[4] has thus traced her portrait: