Challenger, Professor (Fictitious character) -- Fiction; Spiritualism -- Fiction
“Oh, yes, so gloriously happy.”
“Is it right that you can come back?”
“Would God allow it if it were not right? What a wicked man you must be
to ask!”
“What religion were you?”
“We were Roman Catholics.”
“Is that the right religion?”
“All religions are right if they make you better.”
“Then it does not matter.”
“It is what people do in daily life, not what they believe.”
“Tell us more, Lucille.”
“Lucille has little time. There are others who wish to come. If Lucille
uses too much power, the others have less. Oh, God is very good and
kind! You poor people on earth do not know how good and kind He is
because it is grey down there. But it is grey for your own good. It is
to give you your chance to earn all the lovely things which wait for
you. But you can only tell how wonderful He is when you get over here.”
“Have you seen him?”
“Seen him! How could you see God? No, no, He is all round us and in us
and in everything, but we do not see Him. But I have seen the Christ.
Oh, He was glorious, glorious! Now, good-bye--good-bye!” She backed
towards the cabinet and sank into the shadows.
Now came a tremendous experience for Malone. A small, dark, rather broad
figure of a woman appeared slowly from the cabinet. Mrs. Linden
encouraged her and then came across to the journalist.
“It is for you. You can break the circle. Come up to her.”
Malone advanced and peered awestruck into the face of the apparition.
There was not a foot between them. Surely that large head, that solid,
square outline was familiar! He put his face still nearer--it was almost
touching. He strained his eyes. It seemed to him that the features were
semi-fluid, moulding themselves into a shape, as if some unseen hand
was modelling them in putty.
“Mother!” he cried. “Mother!”
Instantly the figure threw up both her hands in a wild gesture of joy.
The motion seemed to destroy her equilibrium and she vanished.
“She had not been through before. She could not speak,” said Mrs.
Linden, in her businesslike way. “It was your mother.”
Malone went back, half-stunned, to his seat. It is only when these
things come to one’s own address that one understands their full force.
His mother! Ten years in her grave and yet standing before him. Could he
_swear_ it was his mother? No, he could not. Was he morally certain that
it was his mother? Yes, he was morally certain. He was shaken to the
core.
But other wonders diverted his thoughts. A young man had emerged briskly
from the cabinet and had advanced to the front of Mailey, where he had
halted.
“Hullo, Jock! Dear old Jock!” said Mailey. “My nephew,” he explained to
the company. “He always comes when I am with Linden.”
“The power is sinking,” said the lad, in a clear voice. “I can’t stay
very long. I am so glad to see you, Uncle. You know, we can see quite
clearly in this light, even if you can’t.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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