Next moment he was up, his face long and solemn, his hands palm to palm.
“What is this?” he asked in a precise and affected voice. “I am at a loss to know what right this Chinese person has to summon me here. Perhaps you can enlighten me.”
“It is that we may perhaps help you.”
“When I desire help, sir, I ask for it. At present I do not desire it. The whole proceeding seems to me to be a very great liberty. So far as this Chinaman can explain it, I gather that I am the involuntary spectator of some sort of religious service.”
“We are a spiritualistic circle.”
“A most pernicious sect. A most blasphemous proceeding. As a humble parish priest I protest against such desecrations.”
“You are held back, friend, by those narrow views. It is you who suffer. We want to relieve you.”
“Suffer? What do you mean, sir?”
“You realise that you have passed over?”
“You are talking nonsense!”