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proprieties.

At least an hour every day Mr. Dingle spent with Madame Zyszynski, and often Beauty was

with him. The spirits possessed the minds of this pair, and the influence of the other world

spread through the little community. Beauty began asking the spirits' advice, and taking it in

all sorts of matters. They told her that these were dangerous times, and to be careful of her

money. The spirit of Marcel told her this, and so did the spirit of the Reverend Blackless—so he

referred to himself. Beauty had never taken his advice while he was living, but assumed he

would be ultra-wise in the beyond. As economy was what Lanny wanted her to practice, he felt

indebted to the shades. Being a talkative person, Beauty told her friends about her "guides," and

Bienvenu acquired- a queerer reputation than it had ever had, even when it was a haunt of

painters, munitions buyers, and extra-marital couples.

Lanny would try his luck with a seance now and then. The character of his spirit life

underwent a change; Marie receded into the background and her place was taken by Marcel and

Great-Great-Uncle Eli Budd. These two friends of his boyhood told him much about

themselves, and held high converse with each other in the limbo where they dwelt; just so had

Lanny imagined them after their death, and it confirmed his idea that he was getting an

ingenious reconstruction of the contents of his own mind. Now and then would appear some

fact which he hadn't known before; but he argued that he might have heard it and forgotten it.

He had had many intimate talks with both his former relatives, and surely couldn't remember

every detail.

His theory was confirmed by the fact that he received a cordial letter from Mr. Ezra

Hackabury, who was trying to keep out of bankruptcy in the town of Reubens, Indiana.

Terrible times, he reported; but he hoped people would still have to have kitchen soap. The

question was being answered in monthly sales reports, and meanwhile Mr. Hackabury pitched

horseshoes behind the barn, as in the old days, and wondered if Lanny had kept up his skill in

this art. When Lanny wrote what the spirits had said, the soapman replied that it was with him

as it had been with Mark Twain: the report of his death was exaggerated. In the course of a

year and a half of intercourse with Tecumseh, Lanny had recorded several cases of the

chieftain's failure to distinguish between the living and the dead, and Lanny drew from this

fact the conclusion which satisfied his own mind—at the same time overlooking a number of

other facts which didn't. In this behavior he had the example of many leading men of science.

X

So passed a pleasant period in the well-cushioned limousine in which Lanny Budd was

rolling through life. He was unhappy about the sufferings of the world, but not so unhappy

that he couldn't eat the excellent meals which the servants of both the villa and the Cottage

prepared; not so unhappy that he couldn't read the manuscripts which Rick sent him, and the

first draft of a Silesian Suite which Kurt submitted. He taught his Pink class, and argued with

the young Reds who came to bait him—and at the same time to borrow money when they got

into trouble. He spent his own funds, and some of Irma's, playing patron to the social

discontent of the Midi; but Irma didn't mind especially, because she had the money, and had

the instinctive feeling that the more the family was dependent upon-her, the more agreeable

they would make themselves. Who eats my bread, he sings my song!

A surprising incident. One afternoon Lanny was in his studio, playing that very grand piano

which he had bought for Kurt, but which was beginning to show the effects of a decade of sea air.

A sunshiny afternoon of spring; Lanny had the doors and windows open, and was filling the

surrounding atmosphere with the strains of Rubinstein's Waltz Caprice. The telephone rang,

for they now had phones in all the buildings on the estate; to Irma it had seemed ridiculous to

have to send a servant every time she wished to invite Beauty over to the Cottage for lunch, or

when she wanted to tell Lanny to come swimming. Now a servant was calling from the villa,

reporting that there was an elderly gentleman who said his name was "Monsieur Jean". Lanny

wasn't usually slow, but this time he had to have the name repeated. Suddenly he remembered

the town of Dieppe.

The Knight Commander of the Bath and Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor had held off for

the better part of a year, until Lanny had given up the idea of hearing from him. It seemed

hard to believe, for Zaharoff was bound to know that he had got something real at that seance

—and how could he bear not to get more? At last he had decided to give way, and

characteristically he wasn't taking half-measures; he had come in person, the first time he had

ever thus honored the Budd family. He honored very few persons in that manner.

"Monsieur Jean" was alone. He had seated himself on the edge of a straight chair, as if he

wasn't sure that he would be welcomed; he had kept his walking-stick, and was leaning on it

with both hands folded over it. The cold blue eyes met Lanny's. Was Lanny mistaken in

thinking that there was an anxious look on the face of the old spider, the old wolf, the old

devil? Anyhow, the younger man greeted his caller with cordiality, and the latter said quickly:

"For a long time I have known that I owed you an apology."

"Don't bother about it, Monsieur Jean," said the younger man. He used that name because

some servant might overhear. "I realized that you were upset. Several times in these seances I

have been told things which didn't happen to be true, and which would have been

embarrassing if there had been others present." Nothing could have been more tactful.

"I should have written to you," continued the other. "But I put it off, thinking you might

come to see me."

"I had no way of knowing what your wishes would be." To himself Lanny added: "You were

trying other mediums, to see if you could get what you want!"

"I decided that the proper thing to do was to make my apologies in person. I will make them

to the medium, if she is still with you."

"She is." Lanny would wait, and make the old man ask for what he wanted.

"Do you suppose it would be possible for me to see her again?"

"You mean, to try another seance?"

"I would esteem it a great favor."

"I can't answer for her, Monsieur Jean. As I explained at the time, it causes her distress if

anything goes wrong. She was very much upset."

"I realize that. I am thoroughly prepared now, and can give you my word that nothing of the

sort will happen again. Whatever comes, I will 'take it,' as you Americans say."

"Perhaps," suggested Lanny, "you might prefer to sit with her alone?"

"If she will trust me, that would be better. You may tell her that I will pay her generously."

"I would beg you not to mention that. We have a financial arrangement with her, and her

time is ours."

"Surely it would be proper for me to pay a portion of the cost?"

"There is no need to raise the question. The amount is small— and you may not get the

results you want."

"If I should get them, and if I might see her now and then, you will surely let me make some

financial arrangement?"

"We can talk about that by and by. First, I will see if I can persuade her to give you another

sitting."

"You have not told her about me?"

"I haven't told anybody. You remember I wrote you that that was my intention."