With this ambiguous observation, which might have been construed to cast rather a sinister reflection upon the return to life of the young lieutenant, she swept out of the vestry, complete mistress of the situation; and although Archie Lovell always strenuously denied that he had ever been engaged to any woman besides the one he married, a general feeling prevailed in Tuskamuck that no girl could have carried it off with a high hand as Mattie did, if she had not had some sort of an understanding to serve her as a support. But never again while the Civil War lasted did a girl in Tuskamuck put on black for a lover unless the engagement had been publicly recognized before his death. A MEETING OF THE PSYCHICAL CLUB I The meeting of the Psychical Club had been rather dull, and it was just as the members were languidly expecting an adjournment that the only interesting moment of the evening came. The papers had been more than usually vapid, and, as one man whispered to another, not even a ghost could be convicted upon evidence so slight as that brought forward to prove the existence of disembodied visitants to certain forsaken and rat-haunted houses. At the last moment, however, the President, Dr. Taunton, made an announcement which did arouse some attention. "Before we go," he said, smiling with the air of one who desires it to be understood that in what he says he distinctly disclaims all personal responsibility, "it is my duty to submit to the Club a singular proposition which has been made to me. A gentleman whom I am not at liberty to name, but who is personally known to many--perhaps to most--of you, offers to give to the Club an exhibition of occult phenomena." The members roused somewhat, but too many propositions of a nature not dissimilar had ended in entire failure and flatness for any immediate enthusiasm. "What are his qualifications?" a member asked. "I did not dream that he possessed any," Dr. Taunton responded, smiling more broadly. "Indeed, to me that is the interesting thing. I had never suspected that he had even the slightest knowledge or curiosity in such matters, and still less that he made any pretensions to occult powers. The fact that he is a man of a position so good and of brains so well proved as to make it unlikely that he would gratuitously make a fool of himself is the only ground on which his proposition seems to me worth attention." "What does he propose to do?" "He does not say." "He must have given some sort of idea." "He said only that he was able to perform some tricks--experiments, I think, was his word; or no--he said demonstrations. He thought they would interest the members." "Did he say why he offered to do them?" "No further than to observe not over politely that he was weary of some of the nonsense the Club circulated, and that he would therefore take the trouble to teach them better." The members smiled, but some colored a little as if the touch had reached a spot somewhat sensitive.