It seems to me only common
sense to believe that we're obliged to work them off somewhere until we
are free of them. That is the way my first lady used to talk anyhow, and
I've never found anybody that could give me a more sensible idea."
"And isn't there any way to stop it? What has Mrs. Vanderbridge done?"
"Oh, she can't do anything now. It has got beyond her, though she has
had doctor after doctor, and tried everything she could think of. But,
you see, she is handicapped because she can't mention it to her husband.
He doesn't know that she knows."
"And she won't tell him?"
"She is the sort that would die first--just the opposite from the Other
One--for she leaves him free, she never clutches and strangles. It isn't
her way." For a moment she hesitated, and then added grimly--"I've
wondered if you could do anything?"
"If I could? Why, I am a perfect stranger to them all."
"That's why I've been thinking it. Now, if you could corner her some
day--the Other One--and tell her up and down to her face what you think
of her."
The idea was so ludicrous that it made me laugh in spite of my shaken
nerves. "They would fancy me out of my wits! Imagine stopping an
apparition and telling it what you think of it!"
"Then you might try talking it over with Mrs.
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