Madonna with any such minx. The words are mine, but the meaning was
Marion's. When she found me taking the minx out, she went quietly back to
washing her dishes, and then returned in the body to give me a sitting."




III.


We were silent a moment, till I asked, "Is this true, Mrs. Alderling?"

"About," she said. "I don't remember the storm, exactly."

"Well, I don't see why you bother to remain in the body at all," I
remarked.

"We haven't arranged just how to leave it together," said Alderling.
"Marion, here, if I managed to get off first, would have no means of
knowing whether her theory of the effect of my unbelief on my future was
right or not; and if _she_ gave _me_ the slip, she would always be sorry
that she had not stayed here to convert me."

"Why don't you agree that if either of you lives again, he or she shall
make some sign to let the other know?" I suggested. "Well, that has been
tried so often, and has it ever worked? It's open to the question whether
the dead do not fail to show up because they are forbidden to communicate
with the living; and you are just where you were, as to the main point.
No, I don't see any way out of it."