"To me--why?"
"We have disobeyed you."
"But I should never give you an order."
"Your advice is a command to those who know you, doctor," said Valentine,
with a sudden laugh.
"And what advice of mine have you put in the corner with its face to the
wall?"
"We have been table-turning again."
"Ah!"
Doctor Levillier formed his lips into the shape assumed by one whistling.
"And this has been the result?"
"Yes," Julian cried. "Never, as long as I live, will I sit again. Val, if
you go down on your knees to me--"
"I shall not do that," Valentine quietly interposed. "I have no desire to
sit again now."
"You both seem set against such dangerous folly at last," said the
doctor. "Give me your solemn promise to stick to what you have said."
And the two young men gave it, Julian with a strong gravity, Valentine
with a light smile. Julian had by no means recovered his usual gaiety.
The events of the night had seriously affected him. He was excited and
emotional, and now he grasped Valentine by the arm as he exclaimed:
"Valentine, tell me, what made you give that strange cry just before
you went into your trance? Were you frightened? or did something--that
hand--touch you? Or what was it?"
"A cry?"
"Yes.
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