"Both of us, boy. She came in and kissed you after you were asleep, and said she wanted us to come and see her before I went out."
"Where are you going? May I go? I get so lonesome here with only Dinah and James."
"You may go if you wish. I should like to have you. You love Merle. I am going to him, and try to finish my book upon science."
"Father, are you going to make him look dead?"
"I am going to put him in a trance, Augustus. You are too brave a boy to be afraid of anything your father does. Do you think I would injure Merle?"
"No; but mamma looked as though she were dead. I do not want to go."
"You will always be nervous, Augustus, until you have watched the process of mesmeric influence. When you know what I am doing, you will not feel as you did, when, without warning, you found your mother in a mesmeric state. Come, my boy, be brave. I like to have you with me, if you will come. I will take you to the theatre after my work is done, and we will ask Merle to go with us. Merle loves me. Would he love me if I did him any injury?"
"No; but it makes me nervous just to think of it."
"All that nervousness will go when you see me work. Will you come?"
"May I go away if I do not like it?"