“I think, Ma’am, I have read,” said the doctor, with his hands in his pockets, “I think, somewhere, that if anyone of the manipulators happens to be an unbeliever⸺”
“An unbeliever in the manifestations, of course the spirits won’t communicate,” interrupted Miss Perfect, volubly laying down the law. “Winnie is a believer as much as I. We all know that. Nephew, how are you? Do you believe? You shake your head. Speak out. Yes or no?”
“Well, I don’t,” said he, a little sheepishly.
“You don’t? And, not believing, you sit here with your fingers on the table, keeping Doctor Drake out of his—his⸺”
She could not say bed, and the doctor relieved her by saying, “Oh, as to me, Ma’am, I’m only too happy; but you know it’s a pity, all the same.”
“Very true, doctor. Much obliged. We shall set it to rights. My dear William, you might have told us at starting; but we’ll commence again. Sit by the fire, William, and I trust in a little time you may be convinced.”
CHAPTER VII.
THE FAMILIAR SPEAKS.