The patient passed the day quietly (after sleeping late) and was advised not to see her lover, although Dr. Leroy did not insist upon this. Mrs. Wells agreed, however, that any conversation with Christopher might be harmfully agitating, and was content to send him a loving message, together with a sealed communication that was not to be opened unless--unless things went badly. "Do you think I am going to pull through tonight, doctor?" she asked tremulously about three in the afternoon. "I am sure you will, Mrs. Wells, if you will only trust me and do what I have told you to do. Your fate is in your own hands--entirely." Dr. Leroy spoke confidently, but she shook her head in distress of mind. "I wish I could believe what you say. I would give anything to feel sure that my mother is watching over me, trying to come to me; but I can't believe it. If she wants to come, why doesn't she do it? Why didn't she come to me last night when I needed her so terribly?" "Seraphine has told you why, she says the conditions are not right. Is that so surprising? Take a telephone--you can't talk over it unless the connections are right, can you? Take a telescope or a microscope--you can see nothing through them unless the instruments are in focus, can you? Take an automobile--it will not move an inch unless all the parts are properly adjusted, will it? You may have the finest photographic camera in the world, yet you will get no picture unless you expose the sensitive plate in just the right way--isn't that true? Suppose a savage refused to believe in photography, or in the telephone, or the telescope, or in any of our great inventions, unless they would operate according to the fancy of his ignorant mind, regardless of scientific laws? What results would he get? The very same kind that we get in the psychic world if we refuse to obey psychic laws." The fair patient moved wearily on her pillow with signs of increasing discouragement. "I have not refused to obey psychic laws, I don't know what the laws are. How can I believe in something that is entirely unknown to me? I can't do it, I can't do it." "But, Mrs. Wells, when so much is at stake, when everything is at stake, can't you take an open-minded attitude toward these mysteries? Why not submit to the indicated conditions and see what happens? If there is only one chance in a hundred that your mother can really come to you and help you, why not take that chance? You believe that your mother is an exalted spirit, don't you?" "Oh, yes. I am sure she is." "You don't doubt that she would be glad to help you in your present trouble, if she could, do you?" "No, of course not, but what can I do? I say my prayers, I try to have good thoughts--what else can I do?" The spiritual healer answered with sudden impressiveness.