“Very well, then, it is of no use my staying here,” said the Baron, “but I thought you would have had a little more heart!” “Our Hannah haven’t been sich a perticular good darter to us, Sir, arter all, you know! She wouldn’t give up them devils and things, as near broke ’er pore mother’s ’eart, and when she was married to rale gentlemen like Mr. Ricardo and yerself, she never come anigh us, nor sent us a word for years--not till she sent them twenty pounds, which I’m sure another little sum like that larst, would come in very convenient just now!” Karl von Steinberg was too much irritated by his refusal to visit his dying child, to feel very liberally inclined towards the cold-hearted old grumbler just then. “I cannot stay to hear any more of your troubles now,” he said, “for I must return to the side of my poor wife. By and by, perhaps, when I have time to think, I may help you a little, for her sake!” He tore back to London as quickly as he could, half expecting to find that Hannah had left _him_ also, without a last good-bye. But she was still alive, and in less pain--the cruel mortification had done its work--her spirit was holding on to earth by a single thread. As he entered her room, he found both the nurse and housekeeper there, whilst Hannah was sitting up in bed, notwithstanding her splints and bandages, with a bright look of expectation on her face. He was just about to try and soothe her last moments with some pleasing fiction of her mother coming to her soon, when he was startled by hearing her exclaim, as she stretched out her arms towards the foot of the bed, “O! mother! mother! I know’d as you’d forgive me at the larst! Ah! it _is_ good to see you, mother, arter all these years! But don’tee cry! I shall soon be well again, now you’ve come to fetch me, and forgive me for them devils and things, and take me ’ome to live along of you!” The plain face glowed with delighted anticipation--the swollen hands were stretched out with rapture--the eyes, lovely to the last, beamed upon the apparition that stood before her, and the spirit of Hannah Stubbs, with the most gratifying result of all her mediumship, flew into the arms of her waiting mother, whilst her body fell back lifeless on the pillows. She had passed away in total ignorance of all that had befallen her since she had left her mother’s care for that of Ricardo--she did not know that she had ever been obsessed by Leonora, or that her hand had committed a murder, or that she had been unfaithful, or insolent, or overbearing! Poor ignorant, innocent Hannah Stubbs! Stupid, plain and uninteresting, as she came from His hand, she returned to her Creator, to be beautified and refined and enlightened, under the process of her Father’s love! THE END. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES The Bernhard Tauchnitz (Leipzig, 1896) edition was consulted for the changes listed below.