"Mr. Henley, have you the ordinary feelings of humanity?"

"I hope so," answered Paul.

"Would you be willing to marry a ghost, and be haunted for the rest
of your life; for the ghost would be sure to outlive you?"

Paul started.

"I have put the case too strongly," continued Ah Ben; "Dorothy is not
a ghost in the ordinary sense. She is a materialized spirit, and
that, my dear friend, is exactly what you are, with this difference:
you have practically no control over your body; while she, having
returned from the summer land abnormally, can, like myself, become
invisible at will; but, upon the other hand, she is not always
visible, even to those whom she would like to have see her. In short,
as I have told you before, we belong to neither one world nor the
other. But through union with a human creature, Dorothy can once more
assume the functions of mortality, and after another period of earth
life, become fitted again for the land of spirits."

"I understand you entirely," answered Paul, "and can say, without
hesitation or reservation, that I love your daughter, and, be she
whom or what she may, will gladly marry her, if she can say as much
for me."

"I thought I could not be mistaken in my man," answered Ah Ben. "I
have believed in your frankness, honor, and courage from the
beginning; and although you came to this house with the intention of
deceit, I feel sure that in the more serious situations of life you