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Sprung’s sister. Sad, isn’t it?”
    With the arrival of a paying customer, Lewis’s dilemma regarding Clementine Elliott’s activities had suddenly moved from the theoretical to the actual. He tried again to persuade Daniel to put a stop to it. “Do you really think we should be subscribing to this?” he insisted. “It can’t be anything more than party tricks, and she’s using your premises to perform them in.”
    Daniel was having none of it. “I don’t see that it’s any of our concern what she does in her rooms as long as it’s not illegal or outright immoral. If she wants to carry on her business while she’s here, who are we to stop her?”
    Lewis felt that this statement was on extremely shaky ethical ground. “But if it’s fraudulent in any way, that would be neither legal nor moral. And you could be held culpable in the consequences.”
    â€œI don’t see how,” Daniel scoffed. “Besides, who’s to say that she doesn’t have a genuine ability to communicate with the afterlife? God has wrought greater miracles. Think of Daniel in the lion’s den, or Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace.”
    Lewis was at a loss as to how he should counter this argument. God had indeed wrought many miracles in the Bible, but the preacher had a great deal of difficulty believing that the same agency was at work in a hotel room in Canada West. But as Daniel pointed out, it was a difficult argument to uphold. How could you convince people of the miracle of God’s grace if you denied them what they perceived as evidence of that grace, especially when it was impossible to prove it otherwise?
    It was obvious that Daniel was not to be persuaded. For now, all Lewis could do was keep his eyes and ears open. When he had collected enough information to make his case, and he was certain that he would, he would once again ask Daniel to put a stop to the nonsense.
    Lewis made sure to be standing near the landing when the two women descended the staircase two hours later. Tears were running down Mrs. Sprung’s face and she dabbed at her eyes with a handkerchief. Whatever had happened upstairs must have been upsetting, indeed, he thought, but then he realized that her sister wore a puzzled expression that was tinged with more than a little awe.
    â€œThere, there, Clara,” she said, patting the woman on the back. “It’s what you wanted, after all.”
    â€œI know, I know, it was wondrous to see her again. It’s just that it’s given me such a turn.”
    Lewis stepped back into the dining room before the women spotted him. He was puzzled. Whatever had happened in the upstairs room had affected Mrs. Sprung profoundly. Her sister less so, perhaps, but she had obviously been impressed. How had Mrs. Elliott convinced them that a dead girl was communicating from beyond?

Chapter Five
    Clara Sprung might well have remained Clementine’s only client if it hadn’t been for the early winter storm that blew in the next evening.
    Lewis had known it was coming. One of the enduring effects of his wife’s prolonged struggle with ill health was her ability to foretell the weather. All would appear to be fine until, in the middle of cooking dinner or sweeping the floor, she would suddenly stand stock-still with a preoccupied expression on her face. The next moment she would be clutching the table, her legs barely able to support her weight, and it would be a struggle for her to make it even as far as the kitchen bed, where she would collapse in agony. This pain was merely a herald. After an hour or so of lying immobile she could often get up again and resume her chores, but she would know that the respite was temporary, for as soon as the wind started to blow in from the east she would have to return to her bed.
    He found her there when he carried in the supper Susannah had made for them. Martha, like