It was with an access of a certain nervous anxiety that Verrian found himself next Miss Macroyd, whose frank good-fellowship first expressed itself in a pleasure at the chance which he did not share, and then extended to a confidential sympathy for the success of the enterprise which he did not believe she felt.  She laughed, but ‘sotto voce’, in bending her head close to his and whispering, “I hope she’ll be equal to her ‘mise en scene’.  It’s really very nice.  So simple.”  Besides the gauze veil, there was no preparation except in the stretch of black drapery which hid the book-shelves at the farther wall of the library.

“Mrs. Westangle’s note is always simplicity,” Verrian returned.

“Oh yes, indeed!  And you wish to keep up the Westangle convention?”

“I don’t see any reason for dropping it.”

“Oh, none in the world,” she mocked.

He determined to push her, since she had tried to push him, and he asked, “What reason could there be?”

“Now, Mr. Verrian, asking a woman for a reason!  I shall begin to think some one else wrote your book, too!  Perhaps she’ll take up supplying ideas to authors as well as hostesses.  Of course, I mean Mrs. Westangle.”

Verrian wished he had not tried to push Miss Macroyd, and he was still grinding his teeth in a vain endeavor to get out some fit retort between them, when he saw Bushwick shuffling to his feet, in the front row of the spectators, and heard him beginning a sort of speech.

“Ladies and gentlemen:  Mrs. Westangle has chosen me, because a real-estate broker is sometimes an auctioneer, and may be supposed to have the gift of oratory, to make known the conditions on which you may interview the ghosts which you are going to see.  Anybody may do it who will comply with the conditions.  In the first place, you have got to be serious, and to think up something that you would really like to know about your past, present, or future.  Remember, this is no joking matter, and the only difference between the ghost that you will see here and a real materialization under professional auspices is that the ghost won’t charge you anything.  Of course, if any lady or gentleman—­especially lady—­wishes to contribute to any charitable object, after a satisfactory interview with the ghost, a hat will be found at the hall-door for the purpose, and Mrs. Westangle will choose the object:  I have put in a special plea for my own firm, at a season when the real-estate business is not at its best.”  By this time Bushwick had his audience laughing, perhaps the more easily because they were all more or less in a hysterical mood, which, whether we own it or not, is always induced by an approximation to the supernatural.  He frowned and said, “No laughing!” and then they laughed the more.  When he had waited for them to be quiet he went on gravely, “The conditions are simply these:  Each person who chooses may interview the ghost, keeping