The man drew out his cigarette-case, smiling, offering it to the two men. Laurie took one; the clergyman refused.
"And now, Mr. Vincent."
Again he smiled, in a half-embarrassed way.
"But no speeches, I think you said," he remarked.
"Oh! well, you know what I mean; just like friends, you know. Treat us all like that."
Mrs. Stapleton rose, came nearer the circle, rustled down again, and sank into an elaborate silence.
"Well, what is it these gentlemen wish to hear?"
"Everything—everything," cried Lady Laura. "They claim to know nothing at all."
Laurie thought it time to explain himself a little. He felt he would not like to take this man at an unfair advantage.
"I should just like to say this," he said. "I have told Mrs. Stapleton already. It is this. I must confess that so far as I am concerned I am not a believer. But neither am I a skeptic. I am just a real agnostic in this matter. I have read several books; and I have been impressed. But there's a great deal in them that seems to me nonsense; perhaps I had better say which I don't understand. This materializing business, for instance.... I can understand that the minds of the dead can affect ours; but I don't see how they can affect matter—in table-rapping, for instance, and still more in appearing, and our being able to touch and see them.... I think that's my position," he ended rather lamely.