Sir
Charles owned that he had been present at the seance, but he would
never tell me what it was that frightened them all so; he said
that he preferred to forget the whole episode. Sir Charles had an
idea that I was a "sensitive," so, after getting my leave to try
his experiment, he poured into the palm of my hand a little pool
of quicksilver, and placing me under a powerful shaded lamp, so
that a ray of light caught the mercury pool, he told me to look at
the bright spot for a quarter of an hour, remaining motionless
meanwhile. Any one who has shared this experience with me, knows
how the speck of light flashes and grows until that little pool of
quicksilver seems to fill the entire horizon, darting out gleaming
rays like an Aurora Borealis. I felt myself growing dazed and
hypnotised, when Sir Charles emptied the mercury from my hand, and
commenced making passes over me, looking, with his slender build
and his white hair and beard, like a real mediaeval magician. "Now
you can neither speak nor move," he cried at length. "I think I
can do both, Sir Charles," I answered, as I got out of the chair.
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