"I shall live to believe it true, doctor, please God!"
"Tut tut! You see that it is true."
"Yes, indeed, and I know that yonder is Maisie, come back to life. I know it by thinking; but 'tis all I can do, not to think her still dead."
"She can talk, I suppose—recollects things? Things when you were kids?"
"God 'a' mercy, yes, doctor! Why—hasn't she told me how she drew my tooth, with a bit of silk and a candle, and knew which drawer-knob it was, and the days she saw her husband first, a-horseback?... Oh, merciful Heavens, how had he the heart?"
"Some chaps have the Devil in 'em, and that's the truth!"
"That's what she says. She just made my flesh creep, a-telling how the devils come out of the black savages, to seize on Christians!"
But the doctor was not prepared to be taken at his word, in this way. Devils are good toys for speech, but they are not to be real. "Lot of rum superstitions in those parts!" said he. "Now look you here, ma'am! When I come back, I shall expect to hear that you and your daughter.... Oh ah!—she's not your daughter! What the deuce is she?"
"Ruth has always been my niece, but we have gone near to forget it, times and again. 'Tis so many a long year!"
"Well—I shall expect to hear that you and your niece have had a substantial breakfast. You understand—substantial! And you must make her take milk, or gruel. You'll find she won't eat."