"
"That might account for the matter of the first appearance of the flame
in daylight. If you look very steadily at some object, a kind of slight
mirage will often intervene between you and it."
"Perhaps. But I have seen this shadow of a flame when I was not thinking
of it or expecting it."
"When?"
"Just now. As you came into the room I saw it float out at that door."
"You are sure?"
"I believe so. Yes, I am."
"But why should this soul, if soul it be, haunt you?"
"I can't tell. Perhaps, Val, you and I ought not to have played at
spiritualism as we should play at a game. Perhaps--"
Julian paused. He was looking anxious, even worried.
"Suppose we have not stopped in time," he said.
Valentine raised his eyebrows.
"I don't understand."
Julian was standing exactly opposite to him, leaning against the
mantelpiece and looking down at him.
"We ought never to have sat again after our conversation with the
doctor," Julian said. "I feel that to-day, so strongly. I feel that
perhaps we have taken just the one step too far,--the one step in the
dark that may be fatal."
"Fatal! My dear Julian, you are unstrung by the events of the night."
But the calm of Valentine's voice did not seem to sway Julian.
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