CHAPTER VI.IN WHICH THE WITCHES ASSEMBLE.A few minutes later she glided into the study, overthrowing a small table, round which her littleséanceswere accustomed to be made, and which the doctor had providently placed against the door.Aunt Dinah held under her arm the 8vo “Revelations of Elihu Bung, the Pennsylvanian Prophet,” a contribution to spiritual science which distanced all contemporary competition; and the chapter which shows that a table of a light, smart build, after having served a proper apprenticeship to ‘rapping,’ may acquire the faculty of locomotion and self-direction, flashed on her recollection as she recognised prostrate at her feet, in the glimmer of her taper, the altar of their mysteries, which she had with reverent hands herself placed that evening in its wonted corner, at the opposite end of the room.Such a manifestation was new to her. She looked on it, a little paler than usual, and bethought her of that other terrible chapter in which Elihu Bung avers that spirits, grown intimate by a long familiarity, will, in a properly regulated twilight—and her light at the moment was no more—make themselves visible to those whom they habitually favour with their advices.Therefore she was strangely thrilled at sight of the indistinct and shadowy doctor, who, awakened by the noise, rose at the opposite end of the room from the sofa on which he had fallen asleep. Tall and thin, and quite unrecognisable by him, was the white figure at the door, with a taper elevated above its head, and which whispered with a horrid distinctness the word “Henbane!”—the first heard on his awakening, the last in his fancy as he dropped asleep, and which sounded to him like the apparition’s considerate announcement of its name on entering the room; he echoed “Henbane” in a suppressed diapason, and Aunt Dinah, with an awful ejaculation, repeated the word from the distance, and sank into a chair.“Henbane!” cried the doctor briskly, having no other exclamation ready and reassured by these evidences of timidity in the spectre, he exclaimed, “Hey, by Jove! what the plague!” and for some seconds he did not know distinctly where he was.“Merciful goodness! Doctor Drake, whywillyou try to frighten people in this manner? Do you want tokillme, Sir?”“I? Ho! Ha, ha! Ma’am,” replied the learned gentleman, incoherently.“What are you doinghere, Sir? I think you’re mad!” exclaimed Aunt Dinah, fiercely.The doctor cleared his voice, and addressed himself to explain, and before his first period was reached, William and old Winnie, wofully sleepy, had arrived.Luckily the person who approaches such oracles as “Henbane,” it is well known, must do so with a peaceful and charitable soul. So Miss Perfect was appeasable, and apologies being made and accepted, she thus opened her mind to the doctor—“I don’t complain, Doctor Drake—William, light the candles over the chimney-piece—although you terrified me a great deal more than in my circumstances I ought to have been capable of.”The candles were now lighted, and shone cheerfully upon the short, fat figure, and ruddy, roguish face of Doctor Drake, and as he was taking one of his huge pinches of snuff, she added—“And I won’t deny that Ididfancy for a moment you might be a spirit-form, and possibly that of Henbane.”William Maubray, who was looking at the doctor, as Miss Perfect reverently lowered her voice at these words, exploded into something so like a laugh, though he tried to pass it off for a cough, that his aunt looked sharply on him in silence for a moment.“And I’m blowed but I was a bit frightened too, Ma’am, when I saw you at the door there,” said the doctor.“Well, let us try,” said Miss Perfect. “Come, we are four; let us try who are present—what spirits, and seek to communicate. You don’t object, Dr. Drake?”“I? Ho! oh! dear no. I should not desire better—aw-haw—instruction, Ma’am,” answered the doctor.I am afraid he was near saying “fun.”“Winnie, place the table as usual. There, yes. Now let us arrange ourselves.”The doctor sat down, still blinking, and with a great yawn inquired—“Do we waw—haw—wa—w—want any particular information?”“Let us first try whether they will communicate. Wealwayswant information,” said Miss Perfect. “William,sit you there; Winnie,there. I’ll take pencil and paper and record.”All being prepared, fingers extended, company intent, Aunt Dinah propounded the first question—“Is there any spirit present?”There was a long wait and no rejoinder.“Didn’t you hear something?” inquired the doctor.William shook his head.“I thought Ifeltit,” persisted the doctor. “What doyousay, Ma’am?” addressing himself to Winnie, who looked, after her wont, towards her mistress for help.“Did you feel anything?” demanded Miss Perfect, sharply.“Nothing but a little wind like on the back of my head, as I think,” replied Winnie, driven to the wall.“Wind on her head! That’s odd,” said Miss Perfect, looking in the air as if she possessed the porcine gift of seeing it, “veryodd!” she continued, with her small hand expanded in the air. “Not a breath stirring, and Winnie has no more imagination than that sofa pillow. You never fancy anything, Winnie?”“Do I, Ma’am?” inquired Winnie Dobbs, mildly.“Well,doyou, I say? No, you don’t; of course you don’t. You know you don’t as well as I do.”“Well, I did think so, sure, Ma’am,” answered Winnie.“Pity we can’t get an answer,” remarked the doctor, and at the same moment William felt the pressure of a large foot in a slipper—under the table. It had the air of an intentional squeeze, and he looked innocently at the doctor, who was, however, so entirely unconscious, that it must have been an accident.“I say itisa pity, Mr. Maubray, isn’t it? for wemighthear something that might interest Miss Perfect very much, possibly, I say?”“I don’t know; I can’t say. I’ve never heard anything,” answered William, who would have liked to kick the table up to the ceiling and go off to bed.“Suppose Ma’am, we try again,” inquired Doctor Drake.“Certainly,” replied Aunt Dinah; “we must have patience.”“Will you ask, Ma’am, please, again if there’s a spirit in the room?” solicited the doctor; and the question being put, there came an upward heave of the table.“Well!” exclaimed the doctor, looking at Winnie, “did you feel that?”“Tilt, Ma’am,” said Winnie, who knew the intelligence would be welcome.“What doyousay?” inquired Miss Perfect triumphantly of William.“Doctor Drake was changing his position just at the moment, and I perceived no other motion in the table—nothing but the little push he gave it,” answered William.“Oh, pooh! yes, of course, there was that,” said the doctor a little crossly; “but I meant a sort of a start—a crack like, in the leaf of the table.”“I felt nothing of the kind,” said William Maubray.The doctor looked disgusted, and leaning back took a large pinch of snuff. There was a silence. Aunt Dinah’s lips were closed with a thoughtful frown as she looked down upon the top of the table.“It is very strange. I certainly never witnessed in this house more unequivocal evidences—preliminaryevidences, of course—of spiritual activity.”“I think, Ma’am, I have read,” said the doctor, with his hands in his pockets, “Ithink, somewhere, that if anyone of the manipulators happens to be an unbeliever⸺”“An unbeliever in the manifestations, of course the spirits won’t communicate,” interrupted Miss Perfect, volubly laying down the law. “Winnie is a believer as much as I. We all knowthat. Nephew, how are you? Do youbelieve? You shake your head.Speak out. Yes or no?”“Well, I don’t,” said he, a little sheepishly.“You don’t? And, not believing, you sit here with your fingers on the table, keeping Doctor Drake out of his—his⸺”She could not say bed, and the doctor relieved her by saying, “Oh, as to me, Ma’am, I’m only too happy; but you know it’s a pity, all the same.”“Very true, doctor. Much obliged. We shall set it to rights. My dear William, you might have told us at starting; but we’ll commence again. Sit by the fire, William, and I trust in a little time you may be convinced.”
CHAPTER VI.
IN WHICH THE WITCHES ASSEMBLE.
IN WHICH THE WITCHES ASSEMBLE.
IN WHICH THE WITCHES ASSEMBLE.
A few minutes later she glided into the study, overthrowing a small table, round which her littleséanceswere accustomed to be made, and which the doctor had providently placed against the door.
Aunt Dinah held under her arm the 8vo “Revelations of Elihu Bung, the Pennsylvanian Prophet,” a contribution to spiritual science which distanced all contemporary competition; and the chapter which shows that a table of a light, smart build, after having served a proper apprenticeship to ‘rapping,’ may acquire the faculty of locomotion and self-direction, flashed on her recollection as she recognised prostrate at her feet, in the glimmer of her taper, the altar of their mysteries, which she had with reverent hands herself placed that evening in its wonted corner, at the opposite end of the room.
Such a manifestation was new to her. She looked on it, a little paler than usual, and bethought her of that other terrible chapter in which Elihu Bung avers that spirits, grown intimate by a long familiarity, will, in a properly regulated twilight—and her light at the moment was no more—make themselves visible to those whom they habitually favour with their advices.
Therefore she was strangely thrilled at sight of the indistinct and shadowy doctor, who, awakened by the noise, rose at the opposite end of the room from the sofa on which he had fallen asleep. Tall and thin, and quite unrecognisable by him, was the white figure at the door, with a taper elevated above its head, and which whispered with a horrid distinctness the word “Henbane!”—the first heard on his awakening, the last in his fancy as he dropped asleep, and which sounded to him like the apparition’s considerate announcement of its name on entering the room; he echoed “Henbane” in a suppressed diapason, and Aunt Dinah, with an awful ejaculation, repeated the word from the distance, and sank into a chair.
“Henbane!” cried the doctor briskly, having no other exclamation ready and reassured by these evidences of timidity in the spectre, he exclaimed, “Hey, by Jove! what the plague!” and for some seconds he did not know distinctly where he was.
“Merciful goodness! Doctor Drake, whywillyou try to frighten people in this manner? Do you want tokillme, Sir?”
“I? Ho! Ha, ha! Ma’am,” replied the learned gentleman, incoherently.
“What are you doinghere, Sir? I think you’re mad!” exclaimed Aunt Dinah, fiercely.
The doctor cleared his voice, and addressed himself to explain, and before his first period was reached, William and old Winnie, wofully sleepy, had arrived.
Luckily the person who approaches such oracles as “Henbane,” it is well known, must do so with a peaceful and charitable soul. So Miss Perfect was appeasable, and apologies being made and accepted, she thus opened her mind to the doctor—
“I don’t complain, Doctor Drake—William, light the candles over the chimney-piece—although you terrified me a great deal more than in my circumstances I ought to have been capable of.”
The candles were now lighted, and shone cheerfully upon the short, fat figure, and ruddy, roguish face of Doctor Drake, and as he was taking one of his huge pinches of snuff, she added—
“And I won’t deny that Ididfancy for a moment you might be a spirit-form, and possibly that of Henbane.”
William Maubray, who was looking at the doctor, as Miss Perfect reverently lowered her voice at these words, exploded into something so like a laugh, though he tried to pass it off for a cough, that his aunt looked sharply on him in silence for a moment.
“And I’m blowed but I was a bit frightened too, Ma’am, when I saw you at the door there,” said the doctor.
“Well, let us try,” said Miss Perfect. “Come, we are four; let us try who are present—what spirits, and seek to communicate. You don’t object, Dr. Drake?”
“I? Ho! oh! dear no. I should not desire better—aw-haw—instruction, Ma’am,” answered the doctor.
I am afraid he was near saying “fun.”
“Winnie, place the table as usual. There, yes. Now let us arrange ourselves.”
The doctor sat down, still blinking, and with a great yawn inquired—
“Do we waw—haw—wa—w—want any particular information?”
“Let us first try whether they will communicate. Wealwayswant information,” said Miss Perfect. “William,sit you there; Winnie,there. I’ll take pencil and paper and record.”
All being prepared, fingers extended, company intent, Aunt Dinah propounded the first question—
“Is there any spirit present?”
There was a long wait and no rejoinder.
“Didn’t you hear something?” inquired the doctor.
William shook his head.
“I thought Ifeltit,” persisted the doctor. “What doyousay, Ma’am?” addressing himself to Winnie, who looked, after her wont, towards her mistress for help.
“Did you feel anything?” demanded Miss Perfect, sharply.
“Nothing but a little wind like on the back of my head, as I think,” replied Winnie, driven to the wall.
“Wind on her head! That’s odd,” said Miss Perfect, looking in the air as if she possessed the porcine gift of seeing it, “veryodd!” she continued, with her small hand expanded in the air. “Not a breath stirring, and Winnie has no more imagination than that sofa pillow. You never fancy anything, Winnie?”
“Do I, Ma’am?” inquired Winnie Dobbs, mildly.
“Well,doyou, I say? No, you don’t; of course you don’t. You know you don’t as well as I do.”
“Well, I did think so, sure, Ma’am,” answered Winnie.
“Pity we can’t get an answer,” remarked the doctor, and at the same moment William felt the pressure of a large foot in a slipper—under the table. It had the air of an intentional squeeze, and he looked innocently at the doctor, who was, however, so entirely unconscious, that it must have been an accident.
“I say itisa pity, Mr. Maubray, isn’t it? for wemighthear something that might interest Miss Perfect very much, possibly, I say?”
“I don’t know; I can’t say. I’ve never heard anything,” answered William, who would have liked to kick the table up to the ceiling and go off to bed.
“Suppose Ma’am, we try again,” inquired Doctor Drake.
“Certainly,” replied Aunt Dinah; “we must have patience.”
“Will you ask, Ma’am, please, again if there’s a spirit in the room?” solicited the doctor; and the question being put, there came an upward heave of the table.
“Well!” exclaimed the doctor, looking at Winnie, “did you feel that?”
“Tilt, Ma’am,” said Winnie, who knew the intelligence would be welcome.
“What doyousay?” inquired Miss Perfect triumphantly of William.
“Doctor Drake was changing his position just at the moment, and I perceived no other motion in the table—nothing but the little push he gave it,” answered William.
“Oh, pooh! yes, of course, there was that,” said the doctor a little crossly; “but I meant a sort of a start—a crack like, in the leaf of the table.”
“I felt nothing of the kind,” said William Maubray.
The doctor looked disgusted, and leaning back took a large pinch of snuff. There was a silence. Aunt Dinah’s lips were closed with a thoughtful frown as she looked down upon the top of the table.
“It is very strange. I certainly never witnessed in this house more unequivocal evidences—preliminaryevidences, of course—of spiritual activity.”
“I think, Ma’am, I have read,” said the doctor, with his hands in his pockets, “Ithink, somewhere, that if anyone of the manipulators happens to be an unbeliever⸺”
“An unbeliever in the manifestations, of course the spirits won’t communicate,” interrupted Miss Perfect, volubly laying down the law. “Winnie is a believer as much as I. We all knowthat. Nephew, how are you? Do youbelieve? You shake your head.Speak out. Yes or no?”
“Well, I don’t,” said he, a little sheepishly.
“You don’t? And, not believing, you sit here with your fingers on the table, keeping Doctor Drake out of his—his⸺”
She could not say bed, and the doctor relieved her by saying, “Oh, as to me, Ma’am, I’m only too happy; but you know it’s a pity, all the same.”
“Very true, doctor. Much obliged. We shall set it to rights. My dear William, you might have told us at starting; but we’ll commence again. Sit by the fire, William, and I trust in a little time you may be convinced.”