"No; it is so different from this plane that I have no words in which to
describe it. All I can say is that it seems glorious and happy and very
light."

Something in her gentle accent excited Fowler's sympathy. "Mrs. Smiley,
you have the blood of the martyrs in you. It takes courage to put one's
self into the hands of a cold-blooded scientist like Miller. Even
Garland, here, has no pity. He's like a hound on the trail of a fawn.
It's all 'material' for him. Now, I am nothing but a mild-mannered
editor. I have all the facts I require concerning the spirit world. I am
busied with trying to make people happy here on this earth. But these
scientific 'sharps' are avid for any fact which sustains the particular
theory they happen to hold. Not one in a hundred will go where the facts
lead. Their investigation is all a process of self-glorification,
wherein each one thinks he must prove all the others liars or
weak-minded in order to exalt himself."

To this I could only reply: "I'm not a scientist, though, I must say, I
sympathize with the scientific method. And as for my treatment of Mrs.
Smiley, I am following exactly the advice of her controls. They assure
me that they will take care of her."

"And so they will," responded the devoted little psychic.

By the closest questioning I had never been able to change a single line
of her simple faith. She was perfectly certain of the spirit world. She
had daily messages from "Wilbur" and her spirit father, partly by
voices, but mainly by intuition. Her children hovered over her while she
slept. "Mitchell" healed her if she were ill. "Maudie" comforted her
loneliest hours. These voices, these hands were an integral part of her
world--as necessary and as dear to her as those of her friends in the
flesh. As she talked on I experienced a keen pang of regret. "Why
disturb her belief in the spirit world?" I asked myself. "Why attempt to
reduce her manifestations to natural magic? To rob her of her conviction
that 'Maudie' is able to come back to her would leave her poor indeed."

However, as the scientist cannot permit pity to hinder his purpose, I
was determined to disassociate the _facts_ of spiritualism from the
_cult_ of spiritualism. I was not concerned with faith or consolation. I
returned to a study of the facts as a part of nature. I was now
observing closely the three levels of sleep into which Mrs. Smiley
seemed to lower herself at will, or upon the suggestion of those