wn. The "shekels" were then pouring in in great abundance at the
seances, and this explains sufficiently the hostile attitude of the one
person who was chiefly responsible for the ruin of her young life. Thus
the doctor wrote to Maggie in New York:

"Is the old house dreary to you? * * * Oh, Maggie, are you never tired of
_this weary, weary sameness of continual deceit_? Are you thus to spend
your days, doomed never to rise to better things?--you and that dear
little open-minded sister Kate (for she, too, is still unversed in
deception)--are you both to live on thus forever? You will never be happy
if you do; for you are not, like Leah, able to exult and take pleasure in
the simplicity of the poor, simple-hearted fools around you.

"Do, then, Maggie, keep to your last promise. Show this to Katie, and urge
her to keep to her resolution."[9]

By this time, Maggie had pledged herself to her lover to abandon the
"rappings" altogether; but they were both very cautious lest this
resolution should be known to her elder sister. Maggie appears to have
yielded to the influences around her, in spite of her respect and regard
for the doctor, and once or twice to have lapsed back into the ways that
he dreaded and abhorred. We find him then, writing from New York to
Washington:

"Don't rap for Mrs. Pierce.[10] Remember your promise to me. * * *

"Begin again, dearest Maggie, and keep your word. No 'rapping' for Mrs.
Pierce or ever more for any one. I, dear Mag, am your best, your truest,
your only friend. What are they to my wishes? Oh, regard and love me, and
listen to my words; and be very careful lest in an idle hour you lose my
regard and your own respect."

And later:

"All last night did this good friend of yours think about you and your
probable future.

"I can see that this is one of the turning points of your life, and upon
your own energy and decision now depend the success and happiness of your
future career. Dear Maggie, think it over well and _do not be turned aside
from what is right_ by the sincere but still misguided advice of others.
* * * But remember, Maggie, that all this will not last. * * * What will
it be when, looking back upon * * * misspent and dreary years, you feel
that there have been no acts really acceptable to your Maker, and that for
the years ahead, all will be sorrow, sameness and disgust! * * *

"Why, you know that sometimes, even now, when Leah is cross, or the
company coarse and vulgar,