The latter being shut up, nothing even of the
furniture could be saved, and the entire contents, including the picture
in the sitting-room, were consumed. The tourists were much shocked by the
receipt of the intelligence, but Paul expressed the inmost conviction of
both when he finally said, "Now that she is gone, perhaps it is as well.
Ashes to ashes! The past has claimed its own."
They never rebuilt the village or the homestead, but on their return to
this country took up their residence in New York. The site of the mimic
Hilton is once more tilled as a farm.
It is scarcely necessary to add that Ida made such provision for her
family as enabled them to retire from the medium business. Paul insisted
that this provision should be at the most generous nature, for was he not
indebted to them for the happiness of his life? He never would admit that
Mrs. Legrand was a fraud, but always maintained that none but a truly
great medium could have materialized the vaguest of love-dreams into the
sweetest of wives.
As for Dr. Hull, or, rather, Mr. Slater, he became in time quite a crony
of Paul's, and the book on which the latter is engaged, setting forth the
argument for the immortality of past selves, will owe not a little to the
suggestions of the old gentleman.
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