her own we can't know about. But she usually gets something."
"Eva," as Mrs. Davol explained, was her "control"; for Mrs. Davol was a medium who preferred to work chiefly through the trance; and in the trance, she became subject to a secondary personality, supposed to be a spirit, who was called in spiritualistic parlance, the "control" or "guide." Eva's duties were not only to take charge of Mrs. Davol's speech during the trance but to summon and lead up the spirits of the people who might be asked for by the sitters at the séance.
Ethel explained this detail of the mechanism of communication while Bennet, Barney and she drove to Mrs. Davol's in Bennet's car. Barney, having attended sittings in England, was of course familiar with the ordinary methods; but Bennet was almost wholly ignorant of the subject. Half with amusement, half with disgust, he observed the deterioration of the neighborhood through which they drove; and when at last he located the number in the illumined transom above Mrs. Davol's door, he locked his car with elaborate care before abandoning it and accompanying his cousin and Loutrelle up the steps.
A colored maid admitted them and led into a large, plainly furnished room on the first floor and at the middle of the house. The windows which faced the street evidently belonged to the room in front which was separated from this by closed doors. The single window of this room, from its position, plainly faced only an airshaft. Its shade and curtains were drawn; the door on the other side of the room was closed, and no sounds were to be heard either from other parts of the house or from the street. The room was softly
