Helene Vauquier despised them both, hated them both, and yet must nurse her rancour in silence and futility.

Then came the seances, and at once, to add fuel to her hatred, she found herself stripped of those gifts and commissions which she had exacted from the herd of common tricksters who had been wont to make their harvest out of Mme.Dauvray.Helene Vauquier was avaricious and greedy, like so many of her class.

Her hatred of Celia, her contempt for Mme.

Dauvray, grew into a very delirium.

But it was a delirium she had the cunning to conceal.