You are a believer in spirits

“More shame for him!” replied my friend, with the usual inconsistent indignation that good Protestants invariably display when their pet corn, the Bible, is accidentally trodden on. “It has been very well said that the devil can quote Scripture, and this musician (a good job he IS dead, I’m sure) is perfectly blasphemous to quote the Testament in support of his ridiculous ideas! St. Paul did not mean by ‘a cloud of witnesses,’ a lot of ‘air multitudes’ and ‘burning, immutable eyes,’ and all that nonsense.”

“Well, what DID he mean?” I gently persisted.

“Oh, he meant — why, you know very well what he meant,” said Amy, in a tone of reproachful solemnity. “And I wonder at your asking me such a question! Surely you know your Bible, and you must be aware that St. Paul could never have approved of spiritualism.”

“‘And there are bodies celestial and bodies terrestrial, but one is the glory of the celestial?” I quoted with, a slight smile.

Mrs. Everard looked shocked and almost angry.

“My dear, I am ashamed of you! , I do declare! Why, I thought Maskelyne and Cook had cured everybody of such notions; and now here’s this horrid book going to make you more nervous than ever. I shall have you getting up one night and shrieking about burning, immutable eyes looking at you.”

I laughed merrily as I rose to pick up the discarded volume from the floor.

“Don’t be afraid,” I said; “I’ll give back the book to Signor Cellini to-morrow, and I will tell him that you do not like the idea of my reading it, and that I am going to study the Bible instead. Come now, dear, don’t look cross!” and I embraced her warmly, for I liked her far too well to wish to offend her. “Let us concentrate our attention on our finery for to-night, when a ‘dense and brilliant multitude,’ not of air, but of the ‘earth earthy,’ will pass us under critical survey. I assure you I mean to make the best of my improved looks, as I don’t believe they will last. I dare say I shall be the ‘sick nun’ that you termed me again to-morrow.”