Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/40

32 "Well, say no more! You contradict yourself. You are a deist as well as an atheist. Go, and never come to me again."

Without a word, the medium gave a sudden start, and opened her eyes upon the daylight. She sat silent for a moment, and then, looking up at a clock which was on the mantle, said: "Yer hour hain't up yet, and I'm impressed to say to ye there's a right pretty 'ooman here as wants to talk with ye. It won't cost ye no more."

"I had seen quite enough of this kind of "manifestation;" but an insane spirit of curiosity led me to reply, "Well I will listen."

The woman's eyes again closed, and then rising, and coming to where I sat on a ragged sofa, she took my hand, and said: "He meant no harm; ye'll forgive him for deceiving you."

"Yes, and thank him into the bargain; for he has shown me some of the dangers of Spiritualism."

"Thet is spoke jest like ye—yer the best man that ever lived. It's for thet thet I loved ye so the first minnit I saw ye," she answered, putting her other hand on my shoulder.

Quietly holding her back, I asked, "Who are you that love me so?"

"Why, yer wife, yer sperrit bride, yer own beloved." And with a quick movement she sank down by my side on the sofa.

Half amused and half indignant, I said, "And what is your name?"

Her head sank to my shoulder as she answered, "Why, Charlotte, your own Charlotte Bront; [not Brontë] her as told ye of the airy cottage beyond the delectable mountains, where we shall live and love for ever."

I tore her arms away, and springing quickly to my feet, made rapidly for the door, saying, as I did so, "you profane the name of a good woman. You are an impostor and a cheat."

My hand was on the knob of the door, when the woman said, "Look a here. Mister; ye've forgot the pay. It's only a dollar."

I turned around. She was standing erect, but her eyes were still half closed, and she was making passes down her face as if to remove the "influence."

I paid the fee, and left the house, fully determined to never again meddle with "spirits" or Spiritualism.

But my nervous system had received a more severe strain than I was at first aware of. Often, for days after this, while walking the streets, or engaged in the duties of my profession, I would be seized with a sudden giddiness, that would have prostrated me, had I not taken prompt and powerful doses of belladonna, from a phial which I always carried in my pocket. I swallowed enough of this subtle poison to kill ten robust men; but for weeks it was all that kept me up, or enabled me to go about in safety.

At last it lost its power over me, and I was obliged to give up