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 chairs for the three of them near to Jaccard's but separated from his lawyer's by two women who spoke eagerly to Mrs. Lucas Cullen, Junior, and who offered to move; but old Lucas shook his head curtly, commanded "Quiet", and they all sat down. Almost immediately afterwards, the front doors were closed and, in a hush similar to the silence at a church service, Mrs. Stanton-Fielding entered through a door at the farther end of the room, escorting a slight, refined woman of about thirty years, who was dressed in a simple, loosely draped dark gown and whom Barney recognized—without need of Mrs. Stanton-Fielding's words of introduction—as the London psychic, Mrs. Brand.

When she sat in the chair at the center of the circle and glanced about in the relaxation preparatory to her trance, the sight of her powerfully returned Barney's thoughts to that remarkable sitting with her in London half a year before when he first heard facts about himself; and he found himself tingling again with excitement beyond that which, upon that night, had kept him tramping the London streets until daybreak. He had discovered, indeed, that most of those facts given to him at that particular time had been supplied by his mother who then—unknown to him—was in a hospital in London. Now his mother was here in this room. Barney himself could not decide which of the women, veiled from recognition, was his mother; indeed, he had no actual information that she was present; but he felt certain that she was.

"I explain for the benefit of those who otherwise may find confusion," said Mrs. Brand in a quiet, soft voice, "that when in the trance I appear to be generally subject to a 'control' who styles himself Doctor