After a moment's pause, the old man continued:

"Ghosts, Mr. Henley, are as real as you; and when a spirit returns to
earth in visible form, it is the result of some disquieting influence
immediately before the death of the body, or, as I might say,
previous to the new life. At the hour of physical birth, such
influences cause idiocy or such imperfection of the bodily functions
that death ensues, and the spirit returns to seek another entrance
into the world of matter. When a man dies dominated by some intense
earthly desire, his mind is barred against the higher powers and
greater possibilities of spirit; his whole nature is closed against
their reception, so that he perceives and hopes for nothing save the
continuance of that life which has so completely filled his nature.
His old environment overpowers the new by the very force of his will;
and if this continues, he becomes not only a haunting spirit, but a
materialized one, visible to certain people under certain conditions,
and compelled to live out his life amid the scenes which had so
attracted him. This, Mr. Henley, has been my case. I shall live upon
earth, and be visible to the spiritually susceptible, until the
strong impression made at the hour of death shall have worn away."

"And the young lady, is she your daughter?" inquired Paul.

"She is my daughter," answered the old man solemnly.

"How comes it, then, that she addresses you by so singular a name?"

"It is the one she first learned to use in infancy. As I partially
explained to you, my mother was a Hindoo, while my father was
English. The name Ah Ben belongs to the maternal side of my family."