"That I cannot tell you," she answered, gravely. "They exist, and their influence is already beginning to make itself felt. But it would be a poor triumph to unveil the highest wisdom that humanity can ever learn, in order to satisfy the idle and the curious, and the lovers of marvels. Those who desire to learn can always do so, but nothing is forced upon you, or even obtruded. I should not have opened my lips on the subject had you not expressed a desire to hear something about it." "I suppose," said Mrs Jefferson, eagerly, "you yourself are a believer in occultism?" "Madame Zairoff is a great deal more than that," said Colonel Estcourt; "she is one of its most earnest students and most ardent votaries. If you knew half of her marvellous powers you would congratulate yourselves upon being permitted to receive her, unless, indeed," he added, with a questioning glance at the beautiful woman beside him, "she has a fancy to make converts." The men became eager of entreaties to her so made, but the women held back a little. Princess Zairoff, however, assured them she had no intention of proselytising. "It is quite true I am deeply interested in this subject," she said, "but I should be sorry to bore you all with my views, or the reasons for my holding those views. Psychic inquiry demands a great deal more than cursory study. There are many mysteries of nature that men have looked upon as enigmas, until patience and research have solved them for them. Then they marvel how they could have been blind so long! Magnetism, spiritualism, and clairvoyance have all their mystical, as well as their explicable, side. It is only because they don't readily lend themselves to the comprehension of our material nature, that we try to scoff them into the limbo of absurdity and imposture." "Ah," said Mrs Jefferson. "Talking of clairvoyance, _that_ I do believe in. I knew a coloured woman in America--the way that woman would tell you things--it was enough to make your flesh creep! She'd just go quietly off to sleep, and you might ask her anything you liked, and she'd tell you; and it was all as true as possible." The princess met Julian Estcourt's eyes, and smiled strangely. Mrs Jefferson caught the glance. "Perhaps," she said, "you're a clairvoyant?"