The Undiscovered Country. William Dean Howells
of Mrs. Le Roy. He greeted them with gay warmth as Mr. and Mrs. Merrifield, and was about to share their acquaintance with Ford and Phillips, when a tall man, with pale blue eyes and a thin growth of faded hair, of a like harshness on crown and chin, interrupted him with a solemnly proffered hand. "Why, Weatherby," said the doctor, shaking his hand, "I didn't hear you ring."
"I found the girl still at the door, and had no occasion to ring," said Mr. Weatherby.
"Right, right, —quite right!" returned Dr. Boynton. " Glad to see you. Mr. Weatherby, Mr. Ford and Mr. Phillips,— inquirers. Mr. Weatherby is known among us, gentlemen, for powers which he is developing in the direction of levitation." Mr. Weatherby silently shook hands, regarding Phillips and Ford meantime with a remote keenness of glance, and then took a seat in a corner, with an air of established weariness, as if he had found levitation heavy work.
Dr. Boynton continued to receive his guests, and next introduced to the strangers a large, watery-eyed man with a mottled face and reddish hair: "Mr. Eccles,—an inquirer like yourselves, gentlemen, but in a different spirit. Mr. Eccles has no doubt of the nature of the manifestations, but he is investigating the subject with a view— with a view"— Dr. Boynton looked for help to the gentleman whose position he was trying to state, and the latter came to his aid with a vigorous alacrity which was accented by the lavish display of an upper and lower set of artificial teeth.
"With a view to determine whether something cannot be done to protect us against the assumption by inferior spirits of the identity of the better class of essences. There are doubtless laws of the spirit-life, could we invoke them aright, which would hold these unruly masqueraders in check. I am endeavoring to study the police system —if I may use the expression—of the other world. For I am satisfied that until we have learned to appeal to the proper authorities against these pretenders, we shall get nothing of value from the manifestations. At present it seems to me that in most cases the phenomena are held in contempt by all respectable spirits. This deplorable state of things has resulted, I have no doubt, in great degree from the hostile manner in which investigation of the phenomena has been pursued in the material world."
"Yes," said Ford, "that's an interesting point. My friend here was just speaking of some things of the sort before you came in. He mentioned the disadvantage to the medium of what he called the ironical attitude; he contends that it makes them cheat."
"No doubt, no doubt," replied Mr. Eccles.
' But its effect upon the approximating spiritual sphere is still worse. It drives from that sphere all candid and sober-minded spirits, and none but frivolous triflers remain. Are you a believer in the phenomena, Mr.— ah—Phillips?"
" I am scarcely even a witness of them yet," said Phillips. "But as a mere speculative observer, I don't see why one shouldn't come as worshipfully minded to a stance as to a church."
"Precisely, precisely, sir," assented Mr. Eccles. "And yet I cannot say that a seance is exactly a religious service. No, it partakes rather of a dual nature. It will doubtless be elevated in character, as the retro- and interacting influences improve. But at present it is a sort of informal reception at which friends from both worlds meet and commingle in social intercourse; in short, a kind of bi-mundane—bi-mundane "—
"Kettle-drum," suggested Ford.
"Ah!" breathed Mr. Eccles. He folded his arms, and set his artificial teeth to smile displeasure upon Ford's impassible face. Anything that he may have been going to say further was cut short by the approach of a gentleman, at sight of whom his smile relaxed nothing of its displeasure.
"Hello! How do, Eccles?" said the newcomer, gaily. He was a short and slight man, and he planted himself in front of Mr. Eccles upon his very small, squarely stepping feet. Whatever may have been the temperament of the invisible presences, those in the flesh were, with the exception of this gentleman, not at all lively: they were, in fact, of serious countenance and low spirits; and they were evidently glad of this co-religionist who could take their common belief so cheerfully. He had come in the last, and he had been passing a light word with this one and that, before saluting Mr. Eccles, who alone seemed not glad to see him. He was dressed in a smart business suit, whose fashionableness was as much at variance with the prevailing dress of the company as his gaiety with its prevailing solemnity.
'"How are you?" he said, looking up into Mr. Eccles's dental smile. "Going to get after those scamps again? Well, I'm glad of it. Behaved shamefully at Mrs. Merrifield's, the other night; knocked the chairs over and flung the flowers about,—ridiculous! If they can't manage better than that, a man might as well go to a democratic ward meeting when he dies. Ah, doctor!"
Dr. Boynton approached from the other room, which had been closed, and on which he again shut the rolling doors. "Mr. Hatch!" said the doctor radiantly, while he pressed the other's hand in both his own, and made a rose-bud of his mouth. "You just complete our list. Glad to see you."
"Thanks, much!" said Mr. Hatch. " Where's Miss Egeria?"
"In a moment," replied the doctor mysteriously. Then he turned to the company, and said in a formal tone, "As we are all here now, friends, we won't delay any further." He advanced and flung open the doors to the back parlor, discovering, in the middle of the room, a common extending dining-table, draped merely with so much of a striped turkey-red supper-cloth as would fall over the edge and partly conceal the legs. The top of the table was pierced by a hole some ten or twelve inches square, and over this hole was set a box, open on one side, and lined with black velvet; a single gas jet burned at a half-light overhead.
"Now, if you will take seats, ladies and gentlemen!" said Dr. Boynton. "Mrs. Merrifield, will you sit on my right, so as to be next my daughter? And Mr. Phillips on my left, here? And you, Mr. Ford, on Miss Smiley's left, next to Mr. Eccles? Mr. Hatch, take your place between those two ladies "—
"I'm there, doctor, every time," said Mr. Hatch, promptly obeying.
"I must protest at the outset, Dr. Boynton," began Mr. Eccles, "against this sort of"—
"Beg pardon. You're right, Eccles," said Hatch; "I won't do it anymore. But when I get down at a table like this, I feel gay, and I can't help running over a little. But no spilling's the word now. Do we join hands, doctor, comme à l'ordinaire?"
"Yes, all join hands, please," answered the doctor.
"Well, I want these ladies to promise not to squeeze my hands, either of them," said Hatch. The ladies laughed, and Mr. Eccles, relinquishing the hands of the persons next him, made a movement to rise, in which he was met by an imploring downward wave of Dr. Boynton's hand.
"Please, Mr. Eccles, remain. Mr. Hatch, I may trust your kindness? Miss Merrill, will you sing—ah—something?"
A small, cheerful lady, on the sunny side of thirty, with a pair of spectacles gleaming on her amiable nose, responded to this last appeal. " I think we had better all sing, doctor."
"I have a theory in wishing you to sing alone," said the doctor.
"Oh, very well!" Miss Merrill acquiesced.
"Have you any preference?"
" No. Anything devotional."
"'Maiden's Prayer,' Miss Merrill," suggested Hatch.
This overcast Mr. Eccles again, but Miss Merrill took the fun in good part, and laughed.
"I don't believe you know anything about devotional music, Mr. Hatch," she said.
"That's so. My repertoire is out already," owned Hatch.
Miss Merrill raised her spectacles thoughtfully to the ceiling, and after a moment began to sing "Flee as a Bird to your Mountain," in a sweet contralto. As the thrilling tones filled the room all other sounds were quelled; the circle at the table became motionlessly silent, and the long sighing breath of the listeners alone made itself heard in the pauses of the singing. Before the words died away, a draught of cold air struck across the room, and through the door at the head of the table, which unclosed mysteriously, as if blown open by the wind, a figure in white was seen in the passage without. It drifted nearer, and with a pale green scarf over her shoulders