That these powers involved a certain risk was evident too. He
proposed, therefore, to take all reasonable precautions. All the
catastrophes he had witnessed in the past were due, he thought, to a
too rapid development of those powers, or to inexperience. He
determined, therefore, to go slowly.
First, the boy must be convinced; next, he must be attached to the
cause; thirdly, his religion must be knocked out of him; fourthly, he
must be trained and developed. But for the present he must not be
allowed to go into trance if it could be prevented. It was plain, he
thought, that Laurie had a very strong "affinity," as he would have
said, with the disembodied spirit of a certain "Amy Nugent." His
communication with her had been of a very startling nature in its
rapidity and perfection. Real progress might be made, then, through
this channel.
* * * * *
Yes; I am aware that this sounds grotesque nonsense.
II
Laurie came back to town in a condition of interior quietness that
rather astonished him. He had said to Maggie that he was not
convinced; and that was true so far as he knew. Intellectually, the
spiritualistic theory was at present only the hypothesis that seemed
the most reasonable; yet morally he was as convinced of its truth as
of anything in the world.
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