Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-09-20

for Miss Estrilla, a. she had done al
ways for her "first-class customers"
First, there was the approach; a
NIT Of hocus-pocus illuminated here
and there with the CLINT Of a secret
surprising fact which the medium
could not possibly know" This was
q period wherein the dupe was always
but fascinated. Some
PROGRESSED to be amused; and they
showed It by giggles which died pre-
maturely into long silences. Some
pretended to be unconvinced; but they
proved their dawning conviction by
brutal denials. Some put tests to her.
obvious and subtle, according to their
natures. None had ever attempted %
daring and 80 clever q test ~ Miss e.
trilla, with her pretended revolver;
and this was bit OF evidence, guide
post which would have made slender
appeal to Inspector Martin MCGEE or
to any Jury that ever sat In Judgment.
Yet to Resale, skilled in weighing fac
tors which no male policeman would
ever preceive. adept at reading whole
volumes Of fact from the incidental
dropping Of lip or lifting Of an eye
brow, this was the most pertinent bit
OF evidence she had yet discovered. For
those who had most to conceal, most
to lose by the revelation Of their souls
to q blackmailer or q spy, were the
very people who put such tests to her:
and the harder the test, she had al
ways found, the deeper and blacker
the ultimate secret.
Could we have followed Resale
through all those years, we should
have discovered another most illumin-
atlng fact-thts one light on that
contradictory and complex character.
It was her impatience, as time wore
ON, with certain blasphemies on hui
man affection which she had COM
mitted lightly during the period of her
It is dreadful thing to
barter with the yearnings Of parents
for departed children, of bereaved
wives for the husband gone before
with mans deepest and highest-and
all for the paltry fee OF discredited
In her early period. Rosa
lie had committed this sin Of the heart
lightly, without inner blemish. Then
AS always in youth-her morals were
the morals Of environment. The
thoughts Of youth are not voices, but
echoes.
When the time came for her to think
on her own account, when, out OF her
infinitely diverse characteristics she
began to form character, Rosalie LIE
Grange salved her conscience with the
reflection that she was, after all, do
ing these people good; that she never
hunted, as others did, for big game:
that she took only legitimate fee and
gave IN return consolation and good
advice. That served her into her re-
Elective forties, the period when we
have walked over. the summit Of life,
when in lonely dawns and wakeful
midnights the thought of mans ulti-
mate end pierces all our meditations
on the future. In those somber lights,
things become plain to which the bril-
liant light of full active days blinds
u.s. And Resale, adept at reading
other hearts, had read her own.
For there was q strong streak CT
Scotch In Rosalie. From the race OF
and dreamers on the edge Of
the infinite had she got her taste and
talent for mysticism, her genuine clair
that may be. From
It had she taken her love for mystery,
her deep hidden leaning toward ro-
nance. From it, finally, had she taken
a conscience which, like tree wind.
planted in the cleft of rock, grew
and matured to bear fruit in spite of
an adverse environment. In these
forties, conscience mastered her. She
could no longer traffic with grief to the
shame Of her own heart. In her reve'
lation to Martin MCGEE she had con-
cealed one fact, as It was her habit to
conceal the very springs and sources
OF her actions. 1t was that she had left
the business Of professional medium.
ship" when turn in her romantic
life brought fortune, for conscience
and conscience alone. The hidden ex-
element and romance of the profess
sion, the contract with other and
strange minds, the opportunity for
for guiding destinies-
all these appealed. But she could no
longer endure the treacheries and sac
rileges Of her own method.
Here, now, when she had thought to
put 1t all behind her, she was en-
barked on the most treacherous adven-
ture of all. She was playing with hui
man affection, not for the ultimate
comfort and consolation OF the dupe,
but for an end which she dreaded to
think on. She had fought that out,
1t is true, on the afternoon when she
heard through the half-open door Con-
stances weak appeal to Betsy Barbara.
She faltered no more-except in her
lonely communings with herself-but
her very distaste for the work drove
her to hasten 1t, as one drinks noxi.
GUS draught at single mouthful. I'm
der the pretense that her obsession
was driving her, that she had bottled
1t up too long, that 1T just had to
come out Of her." Rosalie LIE Grange
multiplied the seances with Miss Es-
trilla to the point of danger and incau-
ton.
On the second day after the session
in which Miss EstriIla had tried the
test Of the fictitious revolver, she was
back again. This time-having assur.
ance that this was the true line of at.
tack-she brought both Victoria and
Miguel. Victoria, according to Doctor
Carver, was the stronger: she spoke
much, though vaguely. Miguel drop
ped only few phrases Spanish,
u. e.. I'll