"Dear Laura was quite right," cried the lady; "there is something very unique about this place. How fortunate you are, dear Mrs. Baxter!"
"My dear husband's grandfather bought the place," observed the mistress plaintively. "We have always found it very soothing and pleasant."
"How right you are! And--and have you had any experiences here?" Mrs. Baxter eyed her in alarm. Maggie had an irrepressible burst of internal laughter, which, however, gave no hint of its presence in her steady features. She glanced at Laurie, who was eating mutton with a depressed air.
"I was talking to Mr. Vincent, the great spiritualist," went on the other vivaciously, "only last week. You have heard of him, Mrs. Baxter? I was suggesting to him that any place where great emotions have been felt is colored and stained by them as objectively as old walls are weather-beaten. I had such an interesting conversation, too, with Cardinal Newman on the subject"--she smiled brilliantly at Maggie, as if to reassure her of her own orthodoxy--"scarcely six weeks ago."
There was a pregnant silence. Mrs. Baxter's fork sank to her plate.
"I don't understand," she said faintly. "Cardinal Newman--surely--"
"Why yes," said the other gently. "I know it sounds very startling to orthodox ears; but to us of the Higher Thought all these things are quite familiar. Of course, I need hardly say that Cardinal Newman is no longer--but perhaps I had better not go on."
She glanced archly at Maggie.
"Oh, please go on," said Maggie genially. "You were saying that Cardinal Newman--"
"Dear Miss Deronnais, are you sure you will not be offended?"
"I am always glad to receive new light," said Maggie solemnly.
The other looked at her doubtfully; but there was no hint of irony in the girl's face.
"Well," she began, "of course on the Other Side they see things very differently. I don't mean at all that any religion is exactly untrue. Oh no; they tell us that if we cannot welcome the New Light, then the old lights will do very well for the present. Indeed, when there are Catholics present Cardinal Newman does not scruple to give them a Latin blessing--"
"Is it true that he speaks with an American accent?" asked Maggie gravely. The other laughed with a somewhat shrill geniality.
"That is too bad, Miss Deronnais. Well, of course, the personality of the medium affects the vehicle through which the communications come. That is no difficulty at all when once you understand the principle--"