THO UGHT-EEADING. 



313 



"a perfectly original genius, putting any sort of 

 knowledge of legerdemain such as I supposed that I 

 possessed at utter defiance " : 



" You are to observe/' says Dickens, " that he was 

 with the company, not in the least removed from them, 

 and that we occupied the front row. He brought in 

 some writing-paper with him as he entered, and a 

 black-lead pencil ; and he wrote some words on half- 

 sheets of paper. One of these half-sheets he folded 

 into two, and gave to Catherine [Mrs. Dickens] to 

 hold. ' Madame/ he says aloud, ' will you think of 

 any class of objects ? ' 'I have done so/ ' Of what 

 class, madame ? ' ' Animals/ ' Will you think of a 

 particular animal, madame ? ' ' I have done so/ ' Of 

 what animal?' 'The lion/ 'Will you think of 

 another class of objects, madame ? ' f I have done 

 so/ < Of what class ? ' ' Flowers/ ' The particular 

 flower ? ' ' The rose/ ' Will you open the paper you 

 hold in your hand ? ' She opened it, and there was 

 neatly and plainly written in pencil : The Lion. Th& 

 Rose. Nothing whatever had led up to these words, 

 and they were the most distant conceivable from 

 Catherine's thoughts when she entered the room/' 



Unless we suppose that by some amazing feat of 

 legerdemain the conjuror, after Mrs. Dickens had 

 named the rose and the lion, substituted for the paper 

 in her hand one on which he had written these twa 

 words, doing this in the momentary interval between 

 her naming the rose, and opening the paper in her 

 hand, we must suppose that he influenced her mind in 



