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Page 18
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 _portiere_
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 seance 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 seance 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 seance.
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 seance 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 seance?" 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 seances 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 seance.
"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.
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