"Believe me," Marc said relentlessly, "I'd make it deeper if I could."
"You're going to be ashamed you've spoken to me like this," George said. "I've come here to do you a favor."
"Then do me one. Go away. I've enough trouble as it is."
"Trouble?" George asked with sudden interest. "What kind of trouble?"
"Everything serious," Marc said. "Especially now that you're here."
George smiled thoughtfully. "Conditions seem about perfect for my mission," he murmured.
"Mission?" Marc looked on the spirit with open consternation.
"It's the High Council," George explained. "The big brass in the spirit world. They're making me do penance for the way I behaved the last time I was here." A shame-faced expression swept over his features. "They threw the book at me. They say I've set Spirit-Mortal relations back five hundred years and knocked their good neighbor policy into a cocked hat. Anyway, the upshot of the thing is that they've ordered me back here to haunt you until I've done you a good turn to make up for last time. And if I don't...." Here his voice broke with emotion and he shuddered. "They've only given me thirty-six hours to make good." He waved an unhappy hand at his materialized body. "And I can't stay like this too long, either. They only gave me an emergency issue of ectoplasm, so I have to use it sparingly." He looked at Marc pleadingly. "Though the idea thoroughly repels me, you've just got to let me do something nice for you. What can I do?"
"Off hand," Marc said unpleasantly, "I can think of any number of things for you to do. Without exception they are fatal and extremely messy."
"You don't like me very well, do you?"