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 already presumed by the court—but not proved. So we prove it; witness, Agnes herself; testimony taken and sworn to by Sir Horace Clebourne, Doctor of Science, Baronet and the rest; sworn to by the best brains of England. We'll get 'em. I know it's new, son—it's new; but the old man never had to wait for some one else to show how to do a thing."

Luke gazed at his father, uncertain for a minute whether the old man were wholly serious. His father was never more offensive to him than when he chuckled in satisfaction at his own smartness.

"It would not be so entirely new," Luke said tartly. "They've had spirit cases in court in England."

"What? They have? To prove whether or not some one was dead?"

"Not that, so far as I know; but they've tried a case to determine the question of fraud in alleged spirit communication."

"So? How did it come out?"

"I don't know that I saw."

"Jaccard will know or find out," Lucas said confidently. "Of course, if we started the case here, we'd be laughed out of court," he repeated. "But in England, in its state of mind about spirits—"

Luke regarded his father more respectfully. "I wouldn't say about Chicago now," he volunteered after a moment. "Do you know Mrs. Stanton-Fielding?"

"Heard of her, of course," Lucas replied, lighting his cigar and pulling at it. The lady was in one those social circles, he knew, which frequently intersected Myra's, and she was famous for her energies in many directions. "What's she at now?"

"Spirit communication; she went in hard for it this winter. I heard last fall, when different men here