"Well," said Frank, "what proofs have you that it was really this woman who caused your cow to give up the ghost?"
"What proofs?" ejaculated the old man; "well, I think there were proofs enough; but, to be quite sure, Mr. Fouret consulted a white witch. She told him it was an old woman who was jealous of him, and gave my employer a powder to burn. 'You may be certain that the culpable person will come to you, when you have burnt that powder,' she said to him.
"Mr. Fouret did as he had been told to do, and Mrs. X. came on the following morning. She said: 'I thought I would call so as to have a look at your new acquisition.'"
"I do not care to hear any more," interrupted Frank; "science and reasoning will in time do away with all this."
It was now time for them to attend to their work. They went. Not one word did they exchange. There seemed to be a gap between them. Old Pierre was vexed at being rebuked by a young man. Frank was in despair.
The next day when they were seated as usual having a chat after dinner, Pierre quietly produced from his pocket the Gazette de Guernesey. He had not said a word about superstition during the morning, but silently handed the paper to Frank, pointing with his finger at a paragraph.
Not a word was exchanged. The young man took the paper and read aloud: "Spiritualism. Another convert to spiritualism is reported, the learned ——. He is well known as the able and energetic editor of the ——."
The old man looked at Frank and in a deep voice said: "Is it ignorance?"
"This is a different thing altogether," he responded; "it is not that base superstition about which we were speaking yesterday. Besides, learned people are not always the first to discover trickery."
Then he thought of the superstitious, albeit educated people who frequent the gambling hell at Monte Carlo; and stopped short.