"If that be your explanation," said Delapine, "how do you overcome the difficulty that both Mr. Funk and the cashier were convinced that the coin had been returned? No person at the séance knew anything about the coin except Mr. Funk. The incident had been entirely forgotten by the latter for many years. Again, how could the medium know from Mr. Funk's mind that he had not returned it, when he was certain that he had done so? And lastly you must remember that the medium had never seen the cashier, nor had she ever known of the existence of the drawer of the safe." "No," cried Villebois, rising from the table and spreading out his hands with an emphatic gesture to the company, "I am convinced it is due to spirit intelligences. They find out everything. Mr. Beecher must have had a talk with George about it in the spirit world, and made him promise that he would see that the coin was sent back. Oh! it is as clear as daylight," he added, thumping the table with his fist. "Ha! ha! really you are too funny, doctor," said Riche sarcastically. "Spirits! Oh mon Dieu! what are we coming to? In the twentieth century no sensible man believes in such things." "Oh! how dreadful," cried Madame Villebois, "to imagine that there are spirits about. Really, I think it is most improper to talk about such things, especially before ladies. What would my adored mother have said to all this? If I had thought that my dear Adolphe had believed in spirits I would never have married him, never! Oh! what will my confessor say when I tell him?" And the good lady dabbed her eyes with her scented handkerchief, as she sat back in her chair perspiring. "I think the professor and Villebois have clean gone off their heads," said Pierre sotto voce to Marcel. "Much learning hath made them mad." "I am not so sure about that," replied Marcel. "Spiritualism, you know, is becoming quite fashionable, and it is no longer a heresy among the ladies to believe in it. I became quite lionised by the adorable creatures at a garden-party the other day when I quoted a passage from 'Le Livre des Esprits' by Allen Kardec, and they insisted on my relating my adventures in a haunted house near the Bois. It was very absurd of course, but they all believed it as if it were Holy Writ." At this moment the door opened and Monsieur Payot was announced. The latter was a typical specimen of a well-to-do Bourgeois citizen. He possessed a large bald head, smooth and polished like a billiard ball, while his blue smiling eyes, and clean shaven double chin bespoke a man who seemed well pleased with the world and himself in particular. He was attired in faultless evening dress, with the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour in his button-hole.