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It was about eighteen ht of Mrs Stapleton's enthusiass had not been as satisfactory as she wished, until Mr Vincent had appeared Then indeed s, and the effect of them had been doubled by thepersonality He was to her as a resolute priest to a timid penitent; he had led her forward, supported by his own conviction and his extreun to feel at hoer to make proselytes

Then Laurie had appeared, and almost immediately a dread had seized her that she could neither explain nor understand She had attempted a little tentative conversation on the point with dearest Maud, but dearest Maud had appeared so entirely incapable of understanding her scruples that she had said no more But her inexplicable anxiety had already reached such a point that she had determined to say a word to Laurie on the subject This had been done, without avail; and now a new step foras to be made

As to of what this step consisted she was perfectly aware

The "controls," she believed--the spirits that desired to coraduated steps by which the communications could be e froh appearances, also incoherent and intangible, right up to the final point of assu in an audible voice This process, she believed, consisted first in a mere connection between spirit and matter, and finally passed into an actual assumption of matter, molded into the form of the body once worn by the spirit on earth

For nearly all of this process she had had the evidence of her own senses; she had received es, inexplicable to her except on the hypothesis put forward, frohts, and faces, and even figures for-rooh dearest Maud had been ures, to satisfy the sense of touch, as well as of sight, in proof of the reality of the phenomenon

Yes; she was satisfied even hat she had seen; she had no manner of doubt as to the theories put before her by Mr Vincent; yet she shrank (and she scarcely knehy) from that final consummation which it was proposed to carry out if possible that evening But the shrinking centered round soer to Laurie Baxter rather than to herself