"We can't do that. They come from the other side. My father induces the trance, and it is entirely in his hands."
He fixed a keen look upon her. "Did it ever occur to you that the words of your 'guides' were, in reality, but a reflex of the wishes of Pratt or Clarke?"
"How could that be when they came to me long before I even knew Anthony?"
"But was not the advice of a different quality at that time? Maybe your father yields to the will of living people when they are strong enough."
"Oh no, quite the contrary. He opposes Mr. Clarke often. Sometimes he opposes us all."
"I am perfectly sure that the voices that spoke to us last night were a subtle delusion, an emanation from our own bodies--or the work of a joker. My reason repels them as spirits."
She smiled a little. "I think you scientific people go a long way round to explain a very simple thing. I've read some of the explanations of the way in which you think these phenomena come, but they are harder to understand than the thing itself. My father, my husband, and my little son are alive. I know that. No one can destroy that faith in me."
"I do not wish to destroy that faith--only so far as it seems to threaten your daughter."
"I am perfectly sure they know better what we should do than any one on the earth-plane. I cannot see why you people oppose the idea of the spirit-world when it is so beautiful and could fill the world with hope. The Bible teaches it when you read it right. It is full of references to spirits. Did not Christ rise from the dead and manifest to His disciples?"
"And did He not cast out devils?"
She was momentarily at a loss, but soon recovered. "But if you admit there are evil spirits--"
"But I don't. I said that merely to show you that a sceptic can quote Scripture to his purpose. There is no place in my philosophy for the supernatural."
"That is what we believe," she eagerly responded. "I used to be frightened by the things that happened to Viola, but now I know they are natural, just as natural as anything else. My loved ones are not far away, they are very near, but, oh, so intangible. If I could only touch them!" In this was the cry of her soul. She deeply sighed. "I am growing old, and that means I live in the past more and more. When Waltie comes I can imagine myself as I was when we first went to the mountains. Robert means more and more to me, and all fear of 'the change' is gone. Really, if it were not for Viola I would like to go over to the other side to-night. The spirit-plane seems so much more care-free and bright. This life is but a preparatory school at best."