As the drive over to East Tenth Street was a long one, the carriage had
been ordered at seven o'clock, and soon after tea, of which neither Miss
Ludington nor Paul had been able to take a mouthful, they set out.
"I am afraid we are doing something very wrong and foolish," said Miss
Ludington, feebly, as the carriage rolled down the village street.
During the drive of nearly two hours not another word was said.
The carriage at length drew up before the house in Tenth Street. It stood
in a brick block, and there was no sign of the business pursued within,
except a small white card on the door bearing the words, "Mrs. Legrand.
Materializing, Business, and Test Medium. Clairvoyant."
An old-looking little girl of ten or twelve years of age opened the door.
The child's big black eyes, and long snaky locks falling about a pale
face, gave her an elfish look quite in keeping with the character of the
house. She at once ushered the callers into the front parlour, where a
lady and gentleman were sitting, who proved to be Mrs. Legrand and her
manager and man of business, Dr. Hull.
The latter was a tall person, of highly respectable and even imposing
appearance, to which a high forehead, a pair of gold-bowed spectacles,
and a long white beard considerably added. He looked like a scholar, and
his speech was that of a man of education.
Mrs. Legrand was a large woman, with black hair sprinkled with grey and
worn short like a man's. She had a swarthy complexion, and her eyes were
surrounded by noticeably large dark rings, giving an appearance of
wretched ill-health. Her manner was extremely languid, as of a person
suffering from nervous exhaustion. She kept her eyes half shut, and spoke
as if with an effort.
"Did Mrs. Rhinehart tell you," she said to Miss Ludington, "of the
interest which I feel in your theory, that the souls of our past selves
exist in spirit-land? If my séance to-night realizes your expectations,
spirit science will have taken a great step forward."
"My conviction will remain the same whatever the result may be to night,"
said Miss Ludington.
"I am glad to hear you say so," replied Mrs. Legrand languidly; "but I
feel that we shall be successful, and my intuitions rarely deceive me."
A trembling came over Paul at these words.
There was a little more general conversation, and the silence which
followed was interrupted by Dr. Hull.
"I suppose there is no reason why the séance should not proceed, Mrs.
Legrand?"
"I know of none," assented that lady in lifeless tones. "Please show our
friends the cabinet."
Dr. Hull rose. "It is usual," he said, "for those who attend our séances
to be asked to satisfy themselves that deception is impossible by an
examination of the apartment which Mrs. Legrand occupies during her
trance, and from which the materialized spirit appears. Will you kindly
step this way?"
The room in which they sat was a long apartment, divided by double
sliding-doors into a front and back parlour, the former of which had been
the scene of the preceding conversation.
Dr. Hull now conducted the two visitors into the back parlour, which
proved to be of similar size and appearance to the front parlour, except
that it contained no furniture whatever. There was only one window in the
back parlour, and this was firmly closed by inside blinds.
It was also uncurtained, and in plain view from the front parlour.
Besides the connection with the front parlour, there was but one door in
the back parlour. This opened into a small apartment, about six feet by
five, which had been taken out of the right-hand rear corner of the back
parlour, and was separated from it by a partition reaching to the
ceiling. This was the cabinet. It had neither window nor door, except the
one into the back parlour. A sofa was its only article of furniture, and
this was of wicker-work, so that nothing could be concealed beneath it.
"Mrs. Legrand lies upon this sofa while in a state of trance, during
which the spirit is materialized, and appears to us," explained Dr. Hull.
A rug lay on the floor of the cabinet, the walls were of hard-finished
white plaster, quite bare, and the ceiling, like that of the parlours,
was plain white, without ornament.
There seemed no possibility of introducing any person into the cabinet or
the back parlour without the knowledge of those in the front parlour. But
Dr. Hull insisted upon making assurance doubly sure by pounding upon the
walls and pulling up the rug in the cabinet, to prove that no sliding
panel or trap-door trick was possible. There was something calculated to
make an unbeliever very uneasy in the quiet confidence of these people,
and the business-like way in which they went to work to make it
impossible to account for any phenomenon that might appear, on any other
but a supernatural theory. No doubt whatever now remained in the mind of
Miss Ludington or Paul that the wonderful mystery which they had hardly
dared to dream of was about to be enacted before them. They followed Dr.
Hull on his tour of inspection as if they were in a dream, mechanically
observing what he pointed out, but replying at random to his remarks,
and, indeed, barely aware of what they were doing. The sense of the
unspeakably awful and tender scene so soon to pass before their eyes
absorbed every susceptibility of their minds.
Nor indeed would this detective work have had any interest for them in
any case. They would have been willing to concede the medium all the
machinery she desired. There was no danger that they could be deceived as
to the reality of the face and form that for so many years had been
enshrined in their memories.
There might be as many side entrances to the cabinet as desired, but she
whom they looked for could come only from the spirit-land.
The front parlour, too, having been investigated, to show the
impossibility of any person's being concealed there, Dr. Hull proceeded
to close and lock the hall-door, that being the only exit connecting this
suite of rooms with the rest of the house. Having placed a heavy chair
against the locked door for further security, he gave the key to Paul.
Mrs. Legrand now rose, and without a word to any one passed through the
back parlour and disappeared in the cabinet.
As she did so a wild desire to fly from the room and the house came over
Miss Ludington. Not that she did not long inexpressibly to see the vision
that was drawing near, whose beautiful feet might even now be on the
threshold, but the sense of its awfulness overcame her. She felt that she
was not fit, not ready, for it now. If she could only have more time to
prepare herself, and then could come again. But it was too late to draw
back.
Dr. Hull had arranged three chairs across the broad doorway between the
back and front parlours, and facing the former. He asked Miss Ludington
to occupy the middle chair, and, trembling in every limb, she did so.
Paul took the chair by her side, the other being apparently for Dr. Hull.
The elfish little girl, whom they called Alta, and who appeared to be the
daughter of Mrs. Legrand, meanwhile took her place at a piano standing in
the front parlour.
All being now ready, Dr. Hull proceeded to turn the gas in the two
parlours very low. The jets in both rooms were controlled by a stop-cock
in the wall by the side of the doorway between them. There were two jets
in the back parlour, fastened to the wall dividing it from the front
parlour, one on each side of the door, so as to throw light on any figure
coming out of the cabinet. The light they diffused, after being turned
down; was enough to render forms and faces sufficiently visible for the
recognition of acquaintances, though a close study of features would have
been difficult.
It now appeared that the glass shades of the jets in the back parlour
were of a bluish tint, which lent a peculiarly weird effect to the
illumination.
Dr. Hull now took the remaining chair by Miss Ludington's side, and a
perfect silence of some moments ensued, during which she could perfectly
hear the beating of Paul's heart. Then Alta began, with a wonderfully
soft touch, to play a succession of low, dreamy chords, rather than any
set composition--music that thrilled the listeners with vague suggestions
of the unfathomable mystery and unutterable sadness of human life. She
played on and on. It seemed to two of the hearers that she played for
hours, although it was probably but a few minutes.
At last the music flowed slower, trickled, fell in drops, and ceased.
They had a sensation of being breathed upon by a faint, cool draught of
air, and then appeared in the door-way of the cabinet the figure of a
beautiful girl, which, after standing still a moment, glided forth, by an
imperceptible motion, into the room.
The light, which had before seemed so faint, now proved sufficient to
bring out every line of her face and form. Or was it that the figure
itself was luminous by some light from within?
Paul heard Miss Ludington gasp; but if he had known that she was dying he
could not have taken his eyes from the apparition.
For it was Ida who stood before him; no counterfeit of the painter now,
but radiant with life.
Her costume was exactly that of her picture, white, with a low bodice;
but how utterly had the artist failed to reproduce the ravishing contours
of her young form, the enchanting sweetness of her expression. The golden
hair fell in luxuriant tresses about the face and down the dazzling
shoulders. The lips were parted in a pleased smile as, with a gliding
motion, she approached the rapt watchers.
Her eyes rested on Miss Ludington with a look full of recognition and a
tenderness that seemed beyond the power of mortal eyes to express.
Then she looked at Paul. Her smile was no longer the smile of an angel,
but of a woman. The light of her violet eyes burned like delicious flame
to the marrow of his bones.
She was so near him that he could have touched her. Her beauty overcame
his senses. Forgetting all else, in an agony of love, he was about to
clasp her in his arms, but she drew back with a gentle gesture of denial.
Then a sudden and indescribable wavering passed over her face, like the
passing of the wind over a field of rye, and slowly, as if reluctantly
obeying an unseen attraction, she retreated, still facing them, across
the room, and disappeared within the cabinet.
Instantly Alta touched the piano, playing the same slow, heavy chords as
before. But this time she played but a few moments, and when she ceased,
Mrs. Legrand's voice was heard faintly calling her. She glided between
the chairs in the door-way and entered the cabinet, drawing a _portière_
across its door behind her.
As she did so, Dr. Hull touched the stopcock in the wall by his side,
turning on the gas in both parlours, and proceeded to unlock and open the
hall-door.
"It was the most successful séance I have ever witnessed," he said. "The
conditions must have been unusually favourable. How were you pleased,
Miss Ludington?"
The abrupt transition from the shadows of the between-world to the glare
of gas-light, from the communion of spirits to the brisk business-like
tones of Dr. Hull, was quite too much for the poor lady, and with a
piteous gesture, she buried her face in her hands. Alta now came out of
the cabinet, and said that her mother would like them to examine it once
more.
Miss Ludington took no notice of the request, but Paul, who had continued
to sit staring into vacancy, as if for him the séance were still going
on, sprang up at Alta's invitation and accepted it with alacrity. The
eagerness with which he peered into the corner of the cabinet, and the
disappointment which his face showed when he perceived no trace of any
person there save Mrs. Legrand and Alta, might naturally have suggested
to them that he suspected fraud; but the fact was very different. His
conduct was merely the result of a confused hope that he might gain
another glimpse of Ida by following her to the place within which she had
vanished.
When Paul looked into the cabinet, Mrs. Legrand was lying upon the
lounge, and Alta was administering smelling salts to her. As he turned
away disappointed, the medium rose, and leaning on her daughter, returned
to the front parlour. She looked completely overcome. Her face was
deathly pale, and the dark rings around her eyes were larger and darker
than ever. She leaned back in her chair, which had a special rest for her
head, and closed her eyes.
As neither Dr. Hull nor Alta showed any surprise at her condition, it was
apparently the ordinary result of a séance.
To her faint inquiry whether the materialization had been satisfactory to
Miss Ludington, the latter replied that it had been all, and more than
all, she had dared dream of. Dr. Hull, in a very enthusiastic manner,
went on to describe the manifestation more particularly. He declared that
the present evening a new world of spirit-life had been revealed, and a
new era in spiritualism had opened.
"I have been devoted to the study of spiritualism for thirty years," he
exclaimed; "but I have never been present at so wonderful a séance as
this. I grow dizzy when I think of the field of speculation which it
opens up. The spirits of our past selves--? And yet why not, why not?
Like all great discoveries it seems most simple when once brought to
light. It accounts, no doubt, for the throng of unknown spirits of which
mediums are so often conscious, and for the many materializations and
communications which no one recognizes."
Meanwhile the wretched appearance of the medium aroused Miss Ludington's
sympathies, in spite of the distracted condition of her mind.
"Is Mrs. Legrand always prostrated in this manner after a séance?" she
asked.
Dr. Hull answered for the medium. "Not generally quite so much so," he
said; "the strain on her vitality is always very trying, but it is
especially so when a new spirit materializes, as to-night. Out of her
being, somehow, and just how, I know no better than you, is woven the
veil of seeming flesh, yes, and even the clothing which the spirit
assumes in order to appear. The fact that Mrs. Legrand suffers from heart
disease makes séances not only more exhausting for her than for other
mediums, but really dangerous. I have told her, as a physician, and other
physicians have told her, that she is liable at any time to die in a
trance."
Paul now spoke for the first time since the conclusion of the séance.
"What do you fancy would be the effect on the spirit if a medium should
die during a materialization, as you have supposed?" he inquired.
"That can only be a matter of theory," replied Dr. Hull; "the accident
has never happened."
"But it might happen."
"Yes, it might happen."
"Is not the spirit as much dependent on the medium for dematerializing
and resuming the spirit-form, as for materializing?" asked Paul.
"I see what you mean," said Dr. Hull. "You think that in case the medium
should die during a materialization, the spirit might be left in a
materialized state. How does it strike you, Mrs. Legrand?"
"I don't know," replied that lady, with her eyes closed. "Spirits require
our aid as much to lay aside their bodies as to assume them. If the
medium died meantime, I should think that the spirit might find some
trouble in dematerializing."
"Is it not possible," said Paul, "that it might be unable to
dematerialize at all? Would not the medium's death close against it the
only door by which it could return to the spirit-world, shutting it out
in this life with us henceforth? More than that: would not the already
materialized spirit be in a position to succeed to the physical life
which the medium relinquished? Already possessed of a part of the
medium's vitality, would not the remainder naturally flow to it when
given up in death, and thus complete its materialization?"
"And give it an earthly body like ours?" exclaimed Miss Ludington.
"Yes, like ours," replied Paul. "I suppose it would simply take up its
former life on earth where it had been left off, ceasing to possess a
spirit's powers, and knowing only what and whom it knew at the point when
its first life on earth had ceased."
"After what I have seen to-night, nothing will ever seem impossible to me
again," said Miss Ludington.
"As Miss Ludington suggests," observed Dr. Hull, "in spiritualism one
soon ceases to consider whether a thing be wonderful or not, but only if
it be true. And so as to this matter. Now, if the death of a medium
should be absolutely instantaneous, the spirit might, indeed, be unable
to dematerialize, and might even succeed to the medium's earth life, as
you suggest. The trouble with the theory--and it seems to me a fatal
one--is, that death is almost never, if indeed it is ever, absolutely
instantaneous but only comparatively so; and it seems to me that the
least possible interval of time would be sufficient to enable the spirit
to dematerialize. Consequently, it strikes me, that while the result you
suppose is theoretically possible, it could, practically, never occur.
Still, the subject is one of mere conjecture at most, and one opinion is,
perhaps, as good as another."
"I think you are probably right," said Paul; "it was only a fancy I had."
"Why does Mrs. Legrand persist in giving séances if she is not in a fit
condition?" said Miss Ludington.
"Well," replied Dr. Hull, "you see we spiritualists do not regard death
as so serious a matter as do many others. Our mediums, especially, who
stand with one hand clasped by spirits and the other by mortals, are
almost indifferent which way they are drawn; besides, you see, she is
recognized as the most fully developed medium in the United States
to-day, and many spirits, which cannot materialize through other mediums,
are dependent upon her; she feels that she has a duty to discharge
towards the spirit-world, at whatever risk to herself. I doubt if
to-night's séance, for example, would have been successful with any other
medium."
Immediately after this conversation Miss Ludington and Paul took their
departure. Dr. Hull went, out with them to the carriage, and was obliged
to remind them of the little matter of Mrs. Legrand's fee, which they had
entirely forgotten.