The Prince shrugged his shoulders.
"Prince, leave him alone," said the Abbé smiling. "His theory is a great deal more sensible than yours; and if I could bring myself to believe that at your séances any real phenomenon does take place (which of course no sane person can), I should be much more apt to accept Frontignan's interpretation of the matter. Let us follow it out a little further, for the mere sake of talking nonsense. Doubtless the dominant passion of a man would be the most likely to appear—that is to say, would be the most tangible."
"That would depend," replied the Duke, "upon circumstances. If the phenomenon should take place while the man is alone, doubtless it would be so; but if while at a séance attended by many people, the apparition would be the product of the master passions of all, and thus it is that many of the visions which appear at séances where the sitters are not harmonized are most remarkable and unrecognizable anomalies."
"I thought I understood from Mme. de Girardin that certain spirits always appeared."
"Pooh, pooh! Mme. de Girardin never went deep enough into the matter. The most ravishing vision I ever saw was when I fancied I saw love."
"What? Love! An emanation from yourself?"
The Duke sighed.
"Ah, that is what proved to me that what I saw could not be love. That sentiment has been too long extinguished in me to awaken to a corporeal expression."
"What made you think it was love?" asked Pomerantseff.
"It was a white dove with something I cannot express that was human about it. I felt ineffably happy while it was with me."