e or need me, but some day, if he is willing
to wait for me.' He just kept on pulling his beard and looking at me.
At last, when he did speak, he asked, 'In spite of me and--and your
mother?' It made me feel dreadfully wicked; I almost cried, I guess. But
I had to go through with it then, so I said: 'I don't want to marry "in
spite" of any one, father. You know I don't. And I shall never leave
you--never. But can't you PLEASE see Nelson as he is and not--and not--'
He interrupted me there; in fact, I doubt if he heard me. 'Your mother
has warned me against that young fellow,' he said. 'You know she has,
Lulie.' 'I know you THINK she has, father,' I said."

Martha's hands fell in her lap. Galusha shook his head.

"Dear me!" he observed. "Dear me!"

Lulie nodded. "Yes, I know," she said. "As soon as I said it I thought
'Dear me,' too. But I don't believe he heard that, either. He seemed
to be thinking and didn't speak for ever so long. Then he said, 'The
revelations from above ain't to be set aside. No, no, they lay a duty on
us.' Then he stopped again and turned and walked away. The last words he
said, as he was going out of the room, were, 'Don't let me ever see that
Howard around this house. You hear me?' And that is the way it ended. He
hasn't mentioned the subject since. But, at least," said Lulie, with an
attempt at a smile, "he didn't call Nelson a 'swab.' I suppose that is
some comfort."

Martha and Galusha agreed that it was. The latter said: "It seems to
me that you may consider it all quite encouraging, really. It is only
the--ah--spirits which stand in the way now."

"Yes, but oh, Mr. Bangs, they always will stand in the way, I'm afraid.
Other things, real things or real people we might change or persuade,
but how can you change a--a make-believe spirit that isn't and never
was, except in Marietta Hoag's ridiculous imagination? Oh, Martha," she
added, "you and Mr. Bangs don't think I'm horrid to speak like this,
do you? Of course, if I believed, as father does, that it was really my
mother's spirit speaking, I should--well, I should be.... But what is
the use? I CAN'T believe such a thing."

"Of course you can't, child," said Martha. "I knew your mother and if
she was comin' back to this earth she wouldn't do it through Marietta
Hoag's head. She had too much self-respect for that."

Galusha stroked his chin. "I suppose," he said, "if there were some
way in which we might influence that imagination of Mi