"If I were you," she said, "I would send that letter, and then I would
not do another thing. Take my word for it, you will never hear from
those people again."

We resolved, of course, that we would say nothing to Mr. Kilbright or
Lilian about this matter, for it was unwise to needlessly trouble their
minds; but we could not help talking about it a great deal ourselves. In
spite of the reassuring arguments which we continually thought of, or
spoke of to each other, we were troubled, anxious, and apprehensive.

"If we could only get them safely married," said Mrs. Colesworthy, "I
should feel at ease. Certainly those people would not do anything to him
then."

"I don't believe they can do anything to him at all," I answered. "But
how a marriage is going to protect him I cannot imagine."

"Of course, you can't explain such things," said my wife, "but I do
wish they were married and settled."

Not long after this she came to me with a supposition. "Supposing," she
said, "that those people find it impossible to dematerialize him, they
might do something which would be a great deal worse."

"What could that possibly be?" I asked.

"They might materialize his first wife," said she, "and could anything
be more dreadful than that? I suppose that woman lived to a good old
age, and to bring her forward now would be a height of cruelty of which
I believe those people to be fully capable."