He looked questioningly, penetratingly, into the girl’s distressed face.

Sir Lyon had always prided himself on his self-command and perfect self-control, and yet he would have given almost anything for a really honest answer to this question.

And poor Helen did give him an honest answer—­honest, that is, from her own simple-hearted point of view.  “I can’t account for it!” she exclaimed.  “But I am sure it was there.  I felt the hatred coming out from her towards me.  And oh, Sir Lyon, it was horrible!”

“Try and think it was not Mrs. Varick’s spirit,” he said impressively.  “Try and tell yourself that it was either a dream, a waking phantom of your brain, or—­or—­”

“Or what?” asked Helen eagerly.

But there are thoughts, questions, suspicions that no human being willingly puts into words.

* * * * *

During the last few days Sir Lyon had become convinced that Lionel Varick had resolved in his powerful, unscrupulous mind to make Helen Brabazon his wife.  It was in vain that he argued with himself that the question of Miss Brabazon’s future concerned him not at all.  He found himself again and again, when watching those two, giving a great deal of uneasy thought to the matter.  Now and again he would remind himself that Varick had been no greater an adventurer than many a man who, when utterly impecunious, has married an heiress amid the hearty approval and acclamation of most of the people about them.  And Varick could not now be regarded as impecunious; he was a man of substance, though no doubt even his present income would seem as nothing compared with the Brabazon fortune.

Sir Lyon was ashamed of his growing distaste, even dislike, of his courteous host.  It was as if in the last few days a pit had been dug between them.  It was not pleasant to him to be accepting the hospitality of a man whom he was growing to dislike and suspect more and more every day.  And yet though he could have made a hundred excuses to leave Wyndfell Hall, he stayed on, refusing to inquire too closely into the reason.

At times he tried to persuade himself that he was keenly interested in the problem presented by Bubbles Dunster.  The girl was beyond question a most rare and exceptional medium.  At one time he had made a close study of psychic phenomena; and though he had come to certain conclusions which had led to his entirely giving up the practices which had once seemed to him the only thing worth living for, he was still sufficiently interested in the subject to feel that Bubbles’ powers were well worth watching.

Sir Lyon would have given much to have been present at what, if Helen’s account were correct, had been an extraordinary example of what is called materialization.

Had this terrible vision of Mrs. Varick been an emanation of Helen Brabazon’s own brain—­some subconscious knowledge that she, Helen, was now the object of Varick’s pursuit?  Or was this woman, whom they all called “poor Milly,” an unquiet spirit, wandering about full of jealous, cruel thoughts, even with regard to the two who had evidently been so selflessly devoted to her—­her girl friend and her husband?