He did not do so however until he had attended one _seance_ at least, at which a somewhat ridiculous event occurred, which is described in Home's _Memoirs_ with a gravity even more absurd than the incident.

Towards the end of the proceedings a wreath was placed in the centre of the table, and the lights being lowered, it was caused to rise slowly into the air, and after hovering for some time, to move towards Mrs.Browning, and at length to alight upon her head.

As the wreath was floating in her direction, her husband was observed abruptly to cross the room and stand beside her.
One would think it was a sufficiently natural action on the part of a man whose wife was the centre of a weird and disturbing experiment, genuine or otherwise.

But Mr.Home gravely asserts that it was generally believed that Browning had crossed the room in the hope that the wreath would alight on his head, and that from the hour of its disobliging refusal to do so dated the whole of his goaded and malignant aversion to spiritualism.

The idea of the very conventional and somewhat bored Robert Browning running about the room after a wreath in the hope of putting his head into it, is one of the genuine gleams of humour in this rather foolish affair.