“Because I was told to do so. Things are very different here from what you earth-people expect. You do pretty much as you choose in this world, but you’ll have to obey when you pass over. I was told off to control this girl I suppose, because she’s likely to encounter the same sort of troubles as I did. Any way I’m here, and now I must go! Light the gas and turn the water out of her mouth, that you may be convinced she is not a fraud, and then lower it again and sit round the table in the dark, and I’ll see if I can show you something.” The Voice ceased, and the men doing as they were desired, were astonished to receive back the half tumbler of water from Hannah’s mouth, just as they had placed it there. Steinberg could not conceal his surprise. He sat gazing at the fluid as if it had been some sacred water brought from Jordan or Bethsaida, to cleanse him from his sins. “Well! I couldn’t have believed it possible unless I had seen it with my own eyes,” he exclaimed. “Ricardo, this is the most wonderful, incomprehensible, astonishing----” “Yes! my dear friend, but let us lower the light, now, and talk of these things afterwards. James has promised we shall see something! Supposing it should be my Leonora!” Steinberg turned off the gas altogether, and sat mute as a mouse, till something should arise from the darkness. Presently, the two friends perceived a bluish mist, like the smoke from a cigarette, rise from the other side of the table, and hover between the ceiling and the floor. “It is my wife, I am sure of it!” said the Professor in an agitated whisper, to the Doctor, “can’t you see the long white veil which Hannah described to us, and which she was so often in the habit of wearing. Wait a moment and we shall see her beautiful face peeping through the mist. How gracefully it rises--just like the swaying figure of a slender woman, such as she was! And now, cannot you see two eyes forming in the cloud--Leonora! my Beloved, speak to me, show yourself to me! O! I am as certain as I am of my own existence, that it is she!” “I cannot say that I see any features,” replied Steinberg, “but the form is certainly moving, and coming nearer to us! How cold the room seems to have suddenly become! My hands are like ice! What can be the reason of it? Surely, not the presence of a gentle woman spirit!” “No!” returned the voice of James from out the darkness, “but perhaps the presence of a gentle spirit man!!! It is I, after all, whom you mistook for that which you are looking for. So do you mortals continually deceive yourselves and bring the science of Spiritualism into disrepute. It was _my_ graceful figure which you saw floating in mid air, but don’t be disheartened. Remember! if you can see a costermonger, you can also see a Queen! There is no difference here, of rank or sex! Good-night! The medium has had enough for this evening! I am off! Light up the gas and let her come to herself.”