“What is it, father?” he cried. “What is it? You have seen something. Tell me what it is.”
Sir Selwyn, in whose expression exhaustion and pain were mingled, fixed his eyes for a while on his son’s face before he replied:
“If I should tell you, Gaston, you would not believe it. I do not believe it myself. And yet I see it, and know that it is there.”
“I shall believe whatever you tell me, father,” answered Gaston.
“Gaston,” began the baronet, “you are a doctor, and have read, read widely in all branches of science. Tell me, do you believe that we who are in the body may see and know a spirit from the dead?”
“You believe, father, that you have seen such a spirit?”
“The whole force of my reason cannot persuade me otherwise,” answered his father. “All the powers of my mind compel me to deny it, and yet the thing is there before my eyes.”
The baronet had by this time regained his usual calm of manner, and his voice was resolute and quiet.
“Is it here now, father?” asked Gaston.
“Yes,” answered Sir Selwyn.