Beatrice occupied a position at a low table, upon which stood the vase that had attracted her curiosity on the previous day, the vase containing "the ashes of the dead."
She sat erect and silent, her hands resting on her lap, her face as rigid as if sculptured from marble: her attitude gave an impression that if pushed she would fall over like a dead weight. Her eyes were set upon the glittering vase with a curious far-off expression in them, as if observant of some scene a thousand miles away.
Facing her a few paces off, with her eyes concentrating all their brightness and force upon Beatrice's face, sat Lady Walden. It was clear at a glance that she held Beatrice's mind and will completely under her own control.
"As I live," murmured Idris, "she has hypnotized Beatrice. She is going to conduct some experiment with the vase."
Having an honourable man's aversion to play the spy he was about to make his presence known, when, suddenly, checked by some motive for which he could not account, he determined to remain an unseen watcher.
Lorelie rose and placed Beatrice's hands upon the vase, where they rested, passive and limp. This movement was accompanied by a shiver on the part of the medium. If the soul be capable of abstraction from the body, Idris might have believed that Beatrice's soul had left her at that moment to animate the vase, for the urn seemed to become instinct with motion, and to sparkle with a new light.
"Speak, Beatrice," said Lorelie in a solemn tone. "Speak from the depth of this vase: listen to the voice of its quivering atoms: recall from it the scenes and sounds of the past.—Tell me, what do you feel—hear—see?"
A hollow voice arose, a voice that sounded like a mockery of Beatrice's tones: and although her lips moved, the words seemed to emanate, not from her, but from the urn.
"It is dark ... very dark ... nothing can be seen.... No sun ... no stars ... no light.... All is cold ... and damp ... and still.... There is no air ... or wind ... no life ... or motion.... It is like the grave.... Above, beneath, on all sides, the earth presses.... Always the earth around ... nothing but earth.... For ages and ages, deep down in the ground."
She repeated this last sentence several times.