“I’ll tell you what we can say,” interposed the Doctor, “if the landlady is opposed to the girl’s practices, she will not be sorry to have them cured. Tell her that I attribute the whole business to the state of Hannah’s nerves--that she is a victim to what we call hysteria--and that if she will allow me to treat her for the complaint, I will undertake to cure her. And I say it with truth, Ricardo, for should she be shamming, I will soon find it out, and expose her; and should she be as you conclude, a medium, the exercise of her powers will be a drain upon her system, and prevent the exhibition of them elsewhere.” “I believe you are right, Steinberg, but where have you derived so much knowledge about media and their powers, considering that until this evening, you have refused to approach the subject of Spiritualism at all.” “I have declined to join in the pursuit of it, my friend, you mean. You cannot suppose that I have not heard, nor conceived some interest in, a matter which half the world is talking of to-day. But what I have read has predisposed me against it. I feel that it is fraught with more danger than good. For a sensitive man like yourself, I am sure it might, under certain circumstances, be _very_ dangerous. That is one reason that I have determined to join you in your studies. If there is any fear of harm, I will share it with you. What you said last night concerning your desire to open out a communication with your late wife, set me thinking deeply. If you draw her spirit back to earth, how can you tell that it will be for her good, or yours--how can you tell, indeed, that it is her spirit or that of some wandering Elemental (as you called them yesterday) who may take her shape? This is the danger I would share with you! If, on the other hand, good and pure spirits can return to earth, I am anxious to have the privilege of speaking to them. Do you understand my motives now?” “Perfectly,” said the Professor, grasping his hand. “And now for Mrs. Battleby.” But they found the landlady rather hard of conviction. In the first place she did not believe the phenomena were due to anything but Hannah’s “cussedness”, and if the gentlemen only knew as much of gals as she did, they would think the same; “wants to shirk ’er work, that’s what she do, and leave all the washin’ up and dirty work to ’er missus”; and in the second, she did not see how she could afford to spare her for two or three evenings a week, when there was more work than they could get through together now. “What should I want to ’ave ’er cured for?” she demanded, “it’ll be better and cheaper for me to send the ’ussy ’ome to ’er mother, who ought to be ashamed for having sent ’er my way at all, than to keep ’er here, a’worritin’ me day and night, and spending ’alf ’er time up with you gentlemen. Which I’m much obliged, I’m sure, and so Hannah ought to be, for your kind intentions, but in my opinion, she ain’t worth curing!”