Laurie winced a little.  Mr. Jamieson cleared his throat in gentle approval.

“Now I don’t ask you to accept anything contrary to your faith,” went on the other gently; “but if you really wish to look into this matter, you must set aside for the present all other presuppositions.  You must not begin by assuming that the theologians are always right, nor even in asking how or why these things should happen.  The one point is, Do they happen?”

His last words had a curious little effect as of a sudden flame.  He had spoken smoothly and quietly; then he had suddenly put an unexpected emphasis into the little sentence at the end.  Laurie jumped, internally.  Yes, that was the point, he assented internally.

“Now,” went on the other, again in that slow, reassuring voice, flicking off the ash of his cigarette, “is it possible for you to doubt that these things happen?  May I ask you what books you have read?”

Laurie named three or four.

“And they have not convinced you?”

“Not altogether.”

“Yet you accept human evidence for a great many much more remarkable things than these—­as a Catholic.”

“That is Divine Revelation,” said Laurie, sure of his ground.

“Pardon me,” said the other.  “I do not in the least say it is not Divine Revelation—­that is another question—­but you receive the statement that it is so, on the word of man.  Is that not true?”

Laurie was silent.  He did not quite know what to say; and he almost feared the next words.  But he was astonished that the other did not press home the point.

“Think over that, Mr. Baxter.  That is all I ask.  And now for the real thing.  You sincerely wish to be convinced?”

“I am ready to be convinced.”

The medium paused an instant, looking intently at the fire.  Then he tossed the stump of his cigarette away and lighted another.  The two ladies sat motionless.

“You seem fond of a priori arguments, Mr. Baxter,” he began, with a kindly smile.  “Let us have one or two, then.

“Consider first the relation of your soul to your body.  That is infinitely mysterious, is it not?  An emotion rises in your soul, and a flush of blood marks it.  That is the subconscious mechanism of your body.  But to say that, does not explain it.  It is only a label.  You follow me?  Yes?  Or still more mysterious is your conscious power.  You will to raise your hand, and it obeys.  Muscular action?  Oh yes; but that is but another label.”  He turned his eyes, suddenly somber, upon the staring, listening young man, and his voice rose a little.  “Go right behind all that, Mr. Baxter, down to the mysteries.  What is that link between soul and body?  You do not know!  Nor does the wisest scientist in the world.  Nor ever will.  Yet there the link is!”

Again he paused.

Laurie was aware of a rising half-excited interest far beyond the power of the words he heard.  Yet the manner of these too was striking.  It was not the sham mysticism he had expected.  There was a certain reverence in them, an admitting of mysteries, that seemed hard to reconcile with the ideas he had formed of the dogmatism of these folk.