"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.
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