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of them how many ways they had discovered "I can think of no

escape except that ashould flutter down froed his

shoulders, "'I do not know'"

"Oh no no, monsieur," replied Helene Vauquier in pity for Hanaud's

misconception, "I see that you are not in the habit of attending

seances It would never do for a spirit to adone, and with it Mlle

Celie's as well But on the other hand, for inscrutable reasons

the spirit ht not be allowed to answer"

"I understand," said Hanaud, ht reply that it was forbidden to answer, but never that

it did not know"

"No, never that," [agreed] Helene So it seemed that Hanaud must

look elsewhere for the explanation of that sentence "I do not

know" Helene continued: "Oh, Mlle Celie--it was not easy to

baffle her, I can tell you She carried a lace scarf which she

could drape about her head, and in a ht, an old, old woman, with a voice so altered that no one

could know it Indeed, you said rightly, monsieur--she was

clever"

To all who listened Helene Vauquier's story carried its

conviction M wolibly described that

they could hardly have been invented, and certainly not by this

poor peasant-woled with Medici,

and Montespan, and the nareat ladies How,

indeed, should she know of them at all? She could never have had

the inspiration to concoct theitem of her story--

the queer craze of Mme Dauvray for an intervieith Mme de

Montespan These details were assuredly the truth