At this moment a rapid step was heard ascending the creaking stairs; the door flew open rudely, and, without any announcement, the Spiritual Professor, with his hair all nice behind his ears, came bustling forward toward the table, beside the fainting young student. Rubbing his hands at the same time in prodigious glee of anticipation, he exclaimed—
“Ha! my son! my spiritual child! how is it with you? Have you finished? Is it done?”
The poor student shook his head slightly, and muttered feebly—
“No, no; I cannot finish it.”
The eager face of the Professor turned suddenly very blank and very white at the same time, as, straightening himself, he stammered out—
“Wh-what! c-cannot finish it! You must finish it! you shall finish it!” and then continuing with greater vehemence, without apparently noticing that the weary head of the poor being before him was slowly drooping yet lower—
“Here’s a pretty business, to be sure! This is the reward I am to get for all I have done for you—for all my efforts to advance you in the world—for all the heavy expenses I have incurred in bringing you on from Cincinnati, and supporting you here! The evil spirits must have re-entered the boy! Have I not striven for these six months faithfully, with all my spiritual strength, to drive them forth, that I might save him? The boy must be born again—he must be regenerated once more. Cannot finish it! He must be chastened, to rebuke this evil spirit in him; he must be reduced to bread and water. I must recall my liberal allowance for his food; he has been living too high. The evil demon has probably entered him through a meal of fat pork!” and the spiritually outraged Professor sniffed with an indignant and eager sniffle, that he might detect the presence of the forbidden food.
The poor youth, in the mean time, had been slowly sliding from his chair, and, as the Professor turned aside with the air of an injured cherub, the body lost its balance, and the fainting youth fell to the floor.
“Ha! what now?” shouted our cherub with the hair behind his ears, springing into the air with a nervous agility, as if he in reality wore wings. He placed himself on the opposite side of the room in a twinkling, and then turning his face, ghastly with fright, exclaimed, “I thought the house was coming down!” and seeing the prostrate body, he walked around it as cautiously as a cat crouches, and, with a stealthy inspection, peered into the half-open eyelids, at the upturned eyes, but without touching the body.
“Wh-why, the fellow’s gone and died! There goes my great speculation!” and springing back suddenly, he rushed towards the table, and seizing convulsively the papers, ran his eye eagerly over them, while his hands trembled violently; and his lips turned as ashy blue as those of the poor victim at his feet, while, with an expression of despair, too unutterable for words to paint, he groaned out in frantic exclamations—“No, no, no, it is not finished; nobody else can do it but him! I’m ruined! I’m ruined! Oh, my money’s gone—my money’s gone! To think that he should die, after all I’ve done for him—after all my liberality! O! O! O! booh! booh! hoo!”