“Forgive me, Ricardo!” he exclaimed; “I was a fool last night, and worse than that, too great a coward to confess it! I was horribly nervous and alarmed, but thinking the matter over has made me see the folly of which I was guilty. But I am convinced, that if you were, as you declared yourself to be (and I cannot doubt your word), in the centre of the floor, there was some force ulterior to my own in that little room last night, and I will not rest till I have found out the truth. Will you re-admit me to your séances? Will you forgive my first alarm, and let me pursue the study of the Occult with you?” “My dear Karl!” exclaimed Ricardo, heartily shaking his proffered hand, “nothing would give me greater pleasure. But if we are to go in for these researches together, and in earnest, we must try and think of some plausible excuse for our spending our nights together, as I find my landlady, Mrs. Battleby, is much opposed to anything that she cannot understand. We have just been holding a conversation respecting her maid-of-all-work, Hannah Stubbs.” Ricardo then went into the subject of his talk with Mrs. Battleby at some length, and was pleased to see the interest which it excited in Doctor Steinberg. “Have the girl up by all means,” he said eagerly, “she may be what I have heard you call a physical medium, and we may evolve great things from her. She is countrified and stupid, you say! She probably in that case knows nothing of her own powers, and is frightened at the effects which she produces. I saw her last evening, did I not? She is just an animal, with grand vitality and perhaps magnetism--with any amount of bodily strength, and no brain. Have her up, Ricardo, by all means, and let us see something of these mysterious powers of hers.” “If she will display them,” replied his friend, as he rang the bell. Hannah appeared, looking as stolid as before, but with a faint smile for the gentleman who had promised to intercede for her. “Shut the door, Hannah, and sit down. I want to have a little talk with you,” commenced the Professor, gently, “I have been having a few words with Mrs. Battleby, and she says the only fault she has to find with you is that you can make the chairs and tables dance. Will you try and make them dance now, that my friend and I may see?” The girl looked startled and edged towards the wall as if she wished to avoid contact with any of the furniture of the room. “O! no, Sir, please don’t arsk me,” she said in a scared voice, as she glanced timidly in the direction of the tea-table, “’tain’t my fault indeed, I’ve told the missus that over and over again. I don’t know nothink about it, and I wish they wouldn’t come after me--I do indeed!” All this while, with her skirts gathered up tightly in her hand, Hannah was looking fearfully in the direction of the table, which now commenced slowly, but perceptibly, to move towards her.