“I desired to take her hand and lead her up among the beatific mountains, but she held back. I urged, and she refused. She then acknowledged having resisted Mrs. Fordham in the same way when that honored messenger made my house bright with her presence. Oh, it is distressing me beyond utterance!”
“Can you trace the cause?” inquired the man.
“No.”
“Your sphere is not strong enough.”
“Who has a stronger sphere than Mrs. Fordham?” queried the mother. “She has set her at defiance also: nay, her power of resistance just now proved more than our combined influence was able to overcome.”
“I can do it!” said Dyer, after a pause. “Leave her in my hands. I will exorcise the spirits of evil.”
“Your sphere repels her.”
Dyer was on the alert again, and his keen glances were upon the face of his companion.
“Has she said so?”
“Yes. And you heard her strange language just now.”