"But you cannot believe in it!"
"I do most certainly believe in it."
"Dieu de Dieu!" exclaimed Gérard. "What folly! What are we all coming to?"
"It has always struck me as remarkable," said the Duke, "that with all your taste for the curious and unknown, you have never been tempted into investigating the matter, Abbé."
"I am, as you say, a lover of the curious," replied the priest, "but not of such empty trash as spiritualism. I have enough cares with the realities of this world without bringing upon myself the misery of investigating the possibilities of the next."
"That is a sentiment worthy of Abbé Dubois," said Pomerantseff laughing, and then the Duke, suddenly making some inquiry relative to the train which was to take him and the Prince to Brunoy on a shooting expedition the following morning, the subject for the nonce was dropped. It was destined, however, to be revived later in the evening, for when after dinner they were comfortably ensconced in the tabagie, Frontignan, who had been greatly excited by some extraordinary manifestations related to him by the Prince before the arrival of the Abbé, said abruptly:
"Now, Gérard, you must really let us convert you to spiritualism."
"Never!" cried the Abbé.
"It is absurd for you to disbelieve, for you know nothing about it, since you have never been willing to attend a séance."
"I feel it is absurd, and that is enough."