And really it was not necessary to make a long study of Mme. Giry’s excited features to understand what could be got out of that fine intellect with the two words “ghost” and “empress.”

But who pulled the strings of that extraordinary puppet? That was the question.

“You have never seen him; he speaks to you and you believe all he says?” asked Moncharmin.

“Yes. To begin with, I owe it to him that my little Meg was promoted to be the leader of a row. I said to the ghost, ‘If she is to be empress in 1885, there is no time to lose; she must become a leader at once.’ He said, ‘Look upon it as done.’ And he had only a word to say to M. Poligny and the thing was done.”

“So you say that M. Poligny saw him!”