e not so far removed after all. My brain and your
body are each the sources of attraction, and I confess that there is not
so much difference.'"

Never for an instant did the manly and robust intellect of Dr. Kane stoop
to the level of even a partial belief in the pretended wonders of
"Spiritualism." The allusions made to it in his letters, when not grave or
indignant, are full of a certain contemptuous playfulness, well calculated
to reprove the conscious deceitfulness practised by the childish Maggie,
while not offending the natural pride which was yet apart of her
imperfectly formed character. When the doctor was in Boston, he wrote to
her sister Katie:

"Well, now for talk. Boston is a funny place, and 'the spirits' have
friends here. You would be surprised if I told you what I have heard. * * *
There are some things that I have seen which I think would pain you.
Maggie would only laugh at them; but with me it gave cause for sadness. I
saw a young man with a fine forehead and expressive face, but a
countenance deeply tinged with melancholy, seize the hand of this
'medium,' whose name--as I never tell other's secrets--I cannot tell you.
He begged her to answer a question which I could not hear. Instantly she
rapped, and his face assumed a positive agony; the rapping continued; his
pain increased; I leaned forward, feeling an utter detestation for the
woman who could inflict such torment; but it was too late. A single rap
came and he fell senseless in a fit. This I saw with my own eyes.

"Now, Katie, although you and Maggie have never gone so far as this, yet
circumstances must occur where you have to lacerate the feelings of other
people. I know that you have a tender heart; but practice in anything
hardens us. You do things now which you would never have dreamed of doing
years ago; and there will come a time when you will be worse than Leah; a
hardened woman, gathering around you _the victims of a delusion_. * * *
The older you grow the more difficult it will be to liberate yourself from
this thing. And can you look forward to a life unblessed by the
affections, unsoothed by the consciousness of doing right! * * * _When
your mother leaves this scene, can you and * * * Maggie be content to live
that life of constant deceit?_"

To Maggie, Dr. Kane wrote from the sincerest depths of his heart,
recalling the first moment when he saw her, "a little Priestess, cunning
in the mysteries of her temple, and weak in everyth