"But I ask myself in sober earnest, 'Was there a seance held in the salon last night ?' Did the tambourine rattle in the darkness on the wall ?" "But if Helene Vauquier's story is all untrue ?" cried Wethermill, again in exasperation.
"Patience, my friend.

Her story was not all untrue.

I say there were brains behind this crime; yes, but brains, even the cleverest, would not have invented this queer, strange story of the seances and of Mme.
de Montespan.

That is truth.

But yet, if there were a seance held, if the scrap of paper were spirit-writing in answer to some awkward question, why--and here I come to my first question, which M.Ricardo has omitted--why did Mlle.