All her life she had held the
conviction, which she supposed to be shared by all persons of culture and
respectability, that spiritualism was a low and immoral superstition,
invariably implying fraud in its professors, and folly in its dupes:
something, in fact, quite below the notice of persons of intelligence or
good taste. As for the idea that this medium could show her the spirit of
her former self, or any other real spirit, it was simply imbecile to
entertain it for a moment.
If, however, Miss Ludington was relieved by Mrs. Slater's letter, Paul
was keenly disappointed. His prejudice against spiritualism was by no
means so deeply rooted as hers. In a general way he had always believed
mediums to be frauds, and their shows mere shams, but he had been ready
to allow with Mrs. Slater, that, mixed up in all this fraud, there might
be a very little truth.
His mind admitted a bare possibility that this Mrs. Legrand might be able
to show him the living face and form of his spirit-love. That possibility
once admitted had completely dominated his imagination, and it made
little difference whether it was one chance in a thousand or one in a
million.
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