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Page 12
"Very likely you are right," said Mrs. Slater. "In fact, I presume you
are quite right. And yet, if I really believed as you do, do you know
what I would do? I would go to some of the spirit mediums over in New
York, of whom the papers are giving such wonderful accounts, and let them
try to materialize for me the spirit of my youth. Probably they couldn't
do it, but possibly they might; and a mighty little sight, Mr. De Riemer,
is more convincing than all the belief in the world. If I could see the
spirit of my youth face to face, I should believe that it had a separate
existence from my own. Otherwise, I don't believe I ever could."
"But the mediums are a set of humbugs!" exclaimed Paul; and then he
added, "I beg your pardon. Perhaps you are a spiritualist?"
"You need not beg my pardon," said Mrs. Slater, good-humouredly. "I am
not a spiritualist beyond thinking--and that is only lately--that there
may possibly be something in it, after all. Perhaps there may be, for
example, one part of truth to a hundred parts of fraud. I really don't
believe there is more. Now, as you think the mediums humbugs, and I am
sure most of them are, their failure to accomplish anything would not
shake your faith in your theory, and you would only have lost an evening
and the fee you paid the medium. On the other hand, there is a bare
possibility--mind you, I think it is no more than that--a bare
possibility, say the smallest possible chance, but a chance--that you
would see--her," and Mrs. Slater glanced at the portrait.
Paul turned pale.
Miss Ludington, with much agitation, exclaimed, "If I thought there was
any possibility of that, do you suppose, Sarah, that I would consider
time or money?"
"I don't suppose you would," replied Mrs. Slater. "You would not need to;
but the money is something which I should have to consider, if it were my
case. The best materializing mediums charge pretty well. Mrs. Legrand,
who I believe is considered the leading light just now, charges fifty
dollars for a private seance. Now, fifty dollars, I suppose, does not
seem a large sum to you, but it would be a great deal for a poor woman
like me to spend. And yet if I believed this wonderful thing that you
believe, and I thought there was one chance in a million that this woman
could demonstrate it to me by the assurance of sight, I would live on
crusts from the gutter till I had earned the money to go to her."
Paul rose from his chair, and, after walking across the floor once or
twice, stood leaning his arm on the mantelpiece. He cleared his throat,
and said:
"Have you ever seen this Mrs. Legrand yourself? I mean, have you ever
been present at one of her seances?"
"Not on my own account," replied Mrs. Slater. "It was a mere accident my
chancing to know anything about her. I have a friend, a Mrs. Rhinehart,
who has recently lost her husband, and she got in a way of going to this
Mrs. Legrand's seances to see him, and once she took me with her."
Miss Ludington and Paul waited a moment, and then, perceiving that she
was not going to say anything more, exclaimed in the same breath, "Did
you see anything?"
"We saw the figure of a fine-looking man," replied Mrs. Slater. "We could
distinguish his features and expression very plainly, and he seemed to
recognize my friend. She said that it was her husband. Of course I know
nothing about that. I had never seen him alive. It may all have been a
humbug, as I was prepared to believe it; but I assure you it was a
curious business, and I haven't got over the impression which it made on
me, yet. I'm not given to believing in things that claim to be
supernatural, but I will admit that what I saw that night was very
strange. Humbug or no humbug, what she saw seemed to comfort my poor
friend more than all the religions or philosophies ever revealed or
invented could have done. You see, these are so vague, even when we try
to believe them, and that was so plain."
A silence followed Mrs. Slater's words, during which she sat with an
absent expression of countenance and a faraway look, as if recalling in
fancy the scene which she had described. Miss Ludington's hands trembled
as they lay together in her lap, and she was regarding the picture of the
girl over the fireplace with a fixed and intense gaze, apparently
oblivious of all else.
Paul broke the silence. "I am going to see this woman," he said, quietly.
"You need not think of going with me, aunty, unless you care to. I will
go alone."
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