THE NECROMANCERS _Other books by Robert Hugh Benson_ _The Light Invisible_ _By What Authority?_ _The King's Achievement_ _The History of Richard Reynall, Solitary_ _The Queen's Tragedy_ _The Religion of the Plain Man_ _The Sanctity of the Church_ _The Sentimentalists_ _Lord of the World_ _A Mirror of Shalott, composed of tales told at a symposium_ _Papers of a Pariah_ _The Conventionalists_ _The Holy Blissful Martyr Saint Thomas of Canterbury_ _The Dissolution of the Religious Houses_ _The Necromancers_ _Non-Catholic Denominations_ _None Other Gods_ _A Winnowing_ _Christ in the Church: a volume of religious essays_ _The Dawn of All_ _Come Rack! Come Rope!_ _The Coward_ _The Friendship of Christ_ _An Average Man_ _Confessions of a Convert_ _Optimism_ _Paradoxes of Catholicism_ _Poems_ _Initiation_ _Oddsfish!_ _Spiritual Letters of Monsignor R. Hugh Benson to one of his converts_ _Loneliness_ _Sermon Notes_ THE NECROMANCERS Robert Hugh Benson First published in 1909. Wildside Press Doylestown, Pennsylvania I must express my gratitude to the Rev. Father Augustine Howard, O.P., who has kindly read this book in manuscript and favored me with his criticisms. --Robert Hugh Benson. _Chapter I_ I "I am very much distressed about it all," murmured Mrs. Baxter. She was a small, delicate-looking old lady, very true to type indeed, with the silvery hair of the devout widow crowned with an exquisite lace cap, in a filmy black dress, with a complexion of precious china, kind shortsighted blue eyes, and white blue-veined hands busy now upon needlework. She bore about with her always an atmosphere of piety, humble, tender, and sincere, but as persistent as the gentle sandalwood aroma which breathed from her dress. Her theory of the universe, as the girl who watched her now was beginning to find out, was impregnable and unapproachable. Events which conflicted with it were either not events, or they were so exceptional as to be negligible. If she were hard pressed she emitted a pathetic peevishness that rendered further argument impossible. The room in which she sat reflected perfectly her personality. In spite of the early Victorian date of the furniture, there was in its arrangement and selection a taste so exquisite as to deprive it of even a suspicion of Philistinism. Somehow the rosewood table on which the September morning sun fell with serene beauty did not conflict as it ought to have done with the Tudor paneling of the room. A tapestry screen veiled the door into the hall, and soft curtains of velvety gold hung on either side of the tall, modern windows leading to the garden. For the rest, the furniture was charming and suitable--low chairs, a tapestry couch, a multitude of little leather-covered books on every table, and two low carved bookshelves on either side of the door filled with poetry and devotion.