Madame merely shrugged her shoulders, but a glance at the beaming face of the poet who happened to enter the room at the moment, entirely reassured her.
As for the other members of the house party, needless to say they were all on the tip-toe of expectation, not unmixed in the case of Renée with a certain amount of anxiety.
Delapine returned from the Sorbonne rather earlier than usual, in order to see that all the necessary arrangements were made in strict accordance with his wishes.
At his suggestion his host had given up for the séance a large room opening into the conservatory, and it was here that Delapine found Madame Villebois busy getting everything in readiness. All the blinds had been closely drawn down, and only a solitary paraffin lamp threw a subdued light over the apartment.
A heavy circular oak table had been placed in the centre of the room, and round this table were set some eight or nine chairs. The walls had been bared of all pictures and curtains, and with the exception of the table and chairs and a short grand piano, the only piece of furniture occupying the room was a large lightly built cabinet, which had been specially constructed of laths nailed together, and the whole surrounded by a green baize curtain. This curtain was so arranged that it reached the entire height of the cabinet, and it was simply folded in front so that its edges could be hooked back and aside, thus allowing the contents of the cabinet to be clearly visible. The result of this arrangement of the green curtain was that there was only one opening, where its edges nearly met in the middle line facing the audience.
This idea had been insisted upon by Delapine in order to obviate all possibility of fraud or collusion, so that before he went to sleep in the cabinet, every one of those present at the séance might have an opportunity of examining every nook and corner. As a further precaution, Delapine himself had seen that all the doors and windows were securely fastened on the inside, with the exception of the single entrance from the dining-room. And to crown all, a camera was fixed in position at one end of the room under the special care of Riche to enable him to take an indisputable record of any striking phenomena.
The first to arrive was Pierre, who in greeting his hostess, tendered his most profuse apologies for his unavoidable absence, explaining that nothing but a most urgent call to an appointment at his office could have taken him away at such a moment from his charming friends. And then, after a few words to each of the other guests, he quietly sat down next to Riche.
A moment later M. Payot, fresh and jaunty as if nothing had happened, came in beaming and wearing a large floral decoration in his button-hole, from behind the shelter of whose foliage he showered smiles on everybody.
Villebois nudged his better half and entreated her with a look not to broach the subject of the previous evening's quarrel, but she failed to take the hint.