with the table or get raps. I do do that," she explained, glancing toward the three-legged table, "but only when the sitter prefers. I like better the straight talk in the trance; do you, Miss Harris?"
"Yes, please," Ethel said.
She had given the name Miss Harris instead of her own when she called in the afternoon; and Mrs. Davol said she was glad of that. She preferred not to know the names of her callers, and so she now desired no introductions to Ethel's companions.
"These your friends?" was all she inquired and, when Ethel replied, Mrs. Davol pointed to seats close together while she herself took the large, leather chair near the center of the room. She had closed the hall door behind her, and the four sat silent in the glow of the pink-shaded lamps.
"Sometimes, just before Eva comes, I'm clairvoyant; I see things pretty clear"; Mrs. Davol volunteered. "When I do, of course, I'll tell you what I see."
Strangely the presence of the medium, instead of intensifying for Ethel the solemnity of the room, had dispelled it; Mrs. Davol, lounging in the shaded red light, appeared only an over-fed, vulgar person, poorly playing a part as her head drooped back and her eyes, half open under their heavy lids, gazed dreamily at Barney and Bennet and Ethel.
"I feel a lot of force here, Miss Harris," the medium said.
"She ought to feel the police force," Bennet whispered derisively to Ethel, who made no reply while she watched Barney who had supplied himself with a pad and pencil, which he now took from his pocket, ready to record what would be said.
