“You may well say ‘magnificent,’” replied the Doctor, “and if you give them up, I shall call you a fool. Supposing she does not wish to be developed, what of that, compared to the advancement of Science? She is like an ignorant person who shrinks from having an operation performed that will restore him to health and strength. Should I be justified, because the patient did not understand the value of what I was doing, in allowing him to have his own way and die? This young woman has a splendid future. She may be the means of regenerating mankind. Are we to let the interests of a Joe Brushwood, or her supposed passion for her bucolic lover stand in her way? Certainly not! For the sake of the world, you must not let her go. If you do, I venture to say you will never get such another medium--such an embodiment of animal health and vigour, combined with the psychic forces which make such demands upon them. With Hannah Stubbs under our own eyes, we may be the pioneers of a new Science. Without her we sink down where we were before, into a slough of uncertainty and disbelief. My dear friend, whatever you do, do not let your natural goodness of heart lead you to throw away a grand chance, which may never be renewed. Besides, do you not depend upon her offices, to restore your lost wife to you?” “Yes! yes!” exclaimed Ricardo, “it is what I have been working and studying for, for the last ten years. I cannot give up that hope, whoever’s happiness stands in the way. We must raise Hannah Stubbs above her low tastes, Steinberg! We must give her something better instead--a love of the Unseen--an ambition to benefit her fellow-creatures--a sense of the high duties to which she has been called.” “True!--if we can,” replied the Doctor, thoughtfully; “but she is terribly ignorant and gross. Fancy! a maid-of-all-work being called to undertake a Mission--a creature without an idea beyond her breakfast and her dinner--without an ambition, higher than to become the wife of a farm labourer! It is enough to make one laugh, until one thinks with what it is coupled--the Power, denied to so many, to pierce the Infinite! She is as good and pure a girl as ever breathed, that I fully believe--and she seems very docile and good-tempered--but she is a hopeless clod!” “No! no! not hopeless,” exclaimed the Professor, quickly, “when once she is sufficiently developed for good and high spirits to control her, she must become refined and softened under their influence. If my Leonora, for example, who came of one of the noblest families in Italy, should speak through Hannah, the mere contact must intuitively teach her much that she never knew before.” “I expect that your Leonora could teach Hannah much in every way,” thought Doctor Steinberg to himself, but he did not say so to his friend. CHAPTER VI. Two mornings after, Ricardo, whilst on his way to his professional duties, met Mrs. Battleby on the staircase, with a very stiff lip.