Back at Hillside View, the boarding house ladies warn Miss Climpson off spiritualism. Mrs. Pegler is still furious that Mrs. Craig once claimed the late General had played the accordion at a seance, and Miss Tweedle suspects the henna haired Mrs. Craig of being on the make. Miss Climpson keeps her appointment anyway, and her invented control Pongo reveals himself as Pongocelli, a Renaissance acrobat who died nursing a child through the plague in Florence.

On Monday the Ouija board spells out a message from Cremorna, Mrs. Wrayburn’s stage name, asking that her will be sent to Norman and saying it is ‘in the B’. Miss Booth and Miss Climpson search the crammed, tasteless rooms for hours, stretching the letter B to cover bureaus, beds, boxes and anything big or black. A black notebook yields a row of seven figures, the library shelves swing out to reveal a safe, and on the second try the combination opens it. On top lies a sealed envelope: the will of Rosanna Wrayburn, dated June 5th, 1920.

• Miss Etheridge defending a spiritualist friend she calls a real saint
• Miss Climpson skipping Sunday’s sitting because her conscience revolts
• The corridor lined with portraits, programmes and relics of the Green Room
• Miss Climpson’s shame at the bedside of the tiny, helpless old woman
• Miss Booth deciding the B stood for black book, the hiding place of the combination