Barry Pain

“ She said that I was wonderful, and must certainly come and help them. If she might mention terms, she knew that her husband would pay a guinea for each sitting; at any rite, I must come while the Wentworth Holding business was on. She urged that I owed it to myself to develop my marvellous powers. As she was talking, I heard the click of a key in the front door, and Mr. Dentry entered, his hat and gloves still in his hands.
“Well?” he said eagerly. “Did you get anything?”
“Anything?” said his wife. “Everything. Miss Castel is a really wonderful medium.” ”

“ Well, he heard of my husband and of his medium Una. I was always known as Una. I have heard it said that these hard men of business are often superstitious. I should put it that they are shrewd enough to see that there is something beyond them. Mr. Holding wrote to my husband to ask him to find out the future of a certain stock. Now, that money-making kind of question is one which the spirits always dislike. ”

“ Each chapter is complete in itself, and relates an absolutely independent adventure in the career of a penniless but brave and resourceful girl with no one to depend upon but herself. On the death of her father, a clever but shiftless literary ne'er-do-weel, she collects all the little property that is available and boldly sets forth to seek her fortune In London. ”

“ And it was Minnie Saxe's belief that they were engaged in the manufacture of false coin.
It was all quite clear to me now. The Dentrys had required an accomplice. And an accomplice is a very dangerous person. If they could get some simple honest fool, like myself, to believe she was a medium and that she was in reality responsible for the manifestations, all would be safe. The accomplice would not even know that there was any trickery. On the first occasion when I was at Hanford-gardens Mr. Dentry had not left the house. A front door may shut heavily, though no one goes in or out. ”

“ It is not very easy to be severe with a woman who is crying because her husband is a blackguard and she is a failure. I, at any rate, am not clever enough for it. Before she went she gave me some curious scraps of her personal history. She and her husband had always been, and still were, firm believers in Spiritualism. ”

“ Holding has written again and wishes to engage the services of my husband and his medium exclusively. My husband has warned him that the spirits will not continue to interest themselves in his business, but he says that he does not mind that, and that there are other things that interest him as much as business. ”

“ She presented her husband, and in a few words explained the situation. He had a pleasant voice, and rather a dreamy, abstracted manner.
“It is very kind of you,” he said hesitatingly. “I do not know, of course, if you have a spiritual power, and one meets with many dis appointments—as I have already done this evening. Still, one can try.”
“My husband,” said Mrs. Dentry in explanation, “has been to-night to see a medium who professed to get most wonderful results. ”

“ He had removed a couch and examined that particular piece of wainscot with the utmost care, and I am sure that he had been perfectly satisfied with it.
In the meantime, what was I to do? Ought I to inform the police, or to write to Mr. Wentworth Holding, or to call on Dr. Morning? Great though my disgust with the Dentrys was, I had a stupid woman's reluctance to get them into serious trouble. As I was thinking over these things there came a tap at my outer door. Minnie Saxe had gone, and I opened the door myself. Mrs. Dentry stood there, looking very nice and fresh and neat. ”

“ It is easy enough for a girl who is alone in London to make friends, but in nine cases out of ten they are not friends. The friend is not made, but arrives in the usual formal channels. And when these usual channels are closed, it is perhaps better to do without friends. Yet I had made one or two acquaintances. ”

“ There was a clerk at work in that office, and the clerk made me nervous. If I could have rung and had him removed I might have got on better. As I was pretty and well-dressed and did not look poor, and might have called to complain of the quality of the bacon supplied, the managerial person was at first extremely polite, and asked in what way he could serve me.
“I believe,” I said, “that this is a business in which new ideas are of value.” ”

“ If the conditions are not right you will get no results, and in any case you will be tiring yourself. We want you to-night to be as fresh and full of vitality as possible. If you could get an hour's sleep this afternoon it would be all the better. ”

“ In London I'm playing a lone hand, as they say.”
“Well, it ain't right. And I sha'n t be lookin' in We'n'sday night, 'cos I've promised to do up Mrs. Saunders.” She always spoke of her employers as if they were parcels. ”

“ I had warned my husband against it before. The carpet has a long, thick pile. When anybody crawls across a carpet of that kind they leave a trail that it does not take an Indian to discover. Dr. Morning chanced to think of that, and saw that the trail led directly under the sofa. He began this morning by saying to me, 'If you will not let me see the room on the other side of this wall, the whole thing is a swindle, and I shall give Mr. ”