Katherine, Chapters XVII-XX [pp. 394-416]

1884.] KATHARIKE. 413
"I am sure you are. I saw it in your eyes the first time I
looked at you. Would you like to try? If you don't mind my
saying it, I had that in my mind when I begged you to come
in this afternoon. We had a few sittings up at Dr. Lord's, and
there were some quite wonderful things happened; but my brother is so opposed to it, and ridiculed the mediums so much,
that for shame's sake none of his congregation will have anything
to do with it before him."
She drew up a little sewing-stand as she spoke, and, having
taken the precaution to lock her sitting-room door, the two sat
down opposite each other and the proceedings began. Katharine was quite in earnest and a little more anxious for results
than she would have been willing to avow. Her heart beat at
a more rapid rate than usual, and she was distinctly nervous
during the rather long interval in which they faced each other
solemnly and in silence. Presently Mrs. Price leaned back with
her head against the wall, her figure took an easy attitude, her
hands gradually slipped from the table, her eyes rolled upward
with a rapt expression and then closed. The great moment was
evidently at hand, and Katharine's inward trepidation was redoubled. She waited in a growing anxiety, but the revelations
were delayed; Mrs. Price remained motionless and her eyelids
ceased to flicker. Then her lips fell apart, and after perhaps
a quarter of an hour of intense expectancy the long-wished.for
sound issued from between them. The listener's ears tingled
sorely when they caught it. It was the faintest, the most ladylike, but, alas! the most unmistakable of snores.
"Was I unsympathetic or was she sleepy?" she said to herself, with a smile, as she slipped softly out of the room, leaving
her hostess to her slumbers. The absurdity of the situation
tickled her fancy so much that for a long time it was the most
effectual of barriers against further efforts at investigation in
that direction. In the end this sitting turned out to be only the
first one of a series, but, as far as results went, it was not by any
means the least interesting or important.
CHAPTER XX.
SCHOOL was to close about the middle of June, at which
time both of the girls expected their diplomas. It had been arranged the previous summer, during Katharine's brief visit, that
she was to accompany Anna home and be present at her Cousin
Mary's wedding. Circumstances had changed the face of things