Even the imperturbable Podmore started. Doyle glared wildly around the room, as if he feared that the Bell Spirit had returned to make its comment on the proceedings. A high-backed leather chair stood slightly to one side of the circle in which the friends were sitting. With unnerving abruptness a face rose into view over the back of the chair—a round, rosy, smiling face whose generous chin was supported by a clerical collar. This apparition went on, its tone and its language quite at variance with its benevolent appearance. "Your ignoble fatuities and monstrous extravagances, gentlemen, indicate that you are totally ignorant of the subject. The true nature of the Bell Witch is hideously apparent to anyone with an open mind. This suffering child, this unhappy maiden, was doomed to suffer because of the ignoble heresies of Calvin and Knox. The misguided ministers had neither the spiritual nor the practical knowledge to deal with so dark and difficult a task. The only thing that could have saved Betsy Bell was an exorcist—spiritualis imperator—specifically ordained to cast out demons by the grace of the Holy Ghost.
