Thereupon I called out, sharply: "That is enough! Wake! _Wake!_"
In answer to my command she ceased to groan; her face smoothed out, and
with a bewildered smile she opened her eyes. "What are you saying? Have
I been asleep?"
"You have, indeed," I replied, "and you've disclosed a deal of dubious
family history. How do you feel?"
"I feel very funny around my neck," she answered, wonderingly. "What
have you been doing to me?" She rubbed her throat. "My neck feels as if
it had a band round it, and my tongue seems swollen. What have you been
about?"
I held up a warning hand to the others. "You went off into a quiet
little trance, that's all. I was mistaken. Either you are a psychic or
you should have been an actress."
As we stood thus confronting one another, Mrs. Cameron came between us,
saying, "Do you know, Pauline came and talked with me--"
At the word _Pauline_ the spell seemed to fall again over the bright
spirit of Mrs. Harris. Her eyelids drooped, her limbs lost their power,
and she sank into her chair as before, a helpless victim, apparently, to
the hidden forces. For a moment I was at a loss. I could not believe
that she was deceiving us, but it was possible that she was deceiving
herself. "In either case, she must be brought out of this," I decided,
and, putting my hands on her shoulders, I said: "If there is any
'control' here, let them stop this. We want no more of it. Stop it!"
My command was again obeyed, and the psychic slowly came back to
herself, and as she did so I said, warningly, to Mrs. Cameron: "Do not
utter another word of this in Mrs. Harris's presence. She seems to be
extremely sensitive to hypnotic influence, and I think she had better
go out into the air at once."
In rather subdued mood we went below to rejoin the frankly contemptuous
members of the party.
"Well, what luck?" cried Howard.
"You all look rather solemn," said Harris. "What about it? Dolly, what
have you been doing?"
Mrs. Cameron described the sitting as wonderful, but Mrs. Harris only
smiled vaguely, and I said: "Your wife seemed to go into a trance and
impersonate a number of individuals. She shows all the signs of a real
sensitive."
Harris, who had been studying his wife with half-humorous intentness,
now took command. "If you've been shamming, you need discipline; and if
you haven't, you need a doctor. I think we'll go home and have it out,"
he added, and shortly after led her away. "Some nice cool air is what we
need," he said at the door.
No sooner were the Harrises out of the door than the women of the party
fell upon me.
"What do you think of it, Mr. Garland?" asked Mrs. Cameron.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account