hey only must find some cause for it, some thing that
they could understand. The mother of the girl was brought to say her
daughter had been harmed, as well as poor Mrs Brink; and then the cause of
it all was found to lie with me.''
''When all the time it was the—naughty spirit?''
'' Yes.'' But what judge is there, she said, what jury—unless a jury made of
spiritualists, and God knows how she longed for that!—what judge is there,
that would believe her? ''They only said it couldn''t be a spirit, because
spirit-people don''t exist''— here she pulled a face. ''In the end they made it a
case of fraud, as well as assault.''
I asked her then, What had the girl said—the girl who was struck? She
answered that the girl had certainly felt the spirit, but had grown confused.
''The mother was rich, and
had a lawyer that could make the best of things. My own man was no
good, and still cost all my money—all the money I earned, through
helping people, all gone—like that!—on nothing.''
But if the girl had seen a spirit?
''She didn''t see him. She only felt him. They said—they said it must
be my hand she had felt. . .''
I remember her now pressing her two slender hands close together, and
slowly working the fingers of one across the rough and reddened
knuckles of the other. I said, Had she had no friends, to support her? and