An Astral Partner. seemed a reflection on my professional acu men. "Very probably," he replied; " but Mr. Cooper's reputation might also have been ruined, and his family disgraced." "You know them?" "I dined there once when I first came to look the matter up. Esther was with me at the time, and was greatly attracted by his young daughter. Her name is Estella, and similarity of names and tastes made them fast friends. We regretted the suit, which of course broke this friendship off." "Well, it is for you to say what terms you will make with Cooper. He isn't en titled to any consideration, but —" "He has been weak; I don't think he is bad. But I must consult Esther before I decide on anything." Two hours later he entered my room with a memorandum in his hand. "This is what Esther says," was his com ment, "and I suppose it will have to be so." It was the first time I had heard him ex press the least hesitancy about submitting to his daughter's direction. In response to my look of inquiry, he said : — "I don't see how I am to stand the sepa ration from Willie." The following were the terms imposed by the invisible counselor: — "Mr. Cooper to be allowed to retain all that he has made by the operation of the mine, in consideration of having saved it from confiscation and greatly improved its value. "William Morris, who has just graduated, and has a fancy for mining engineering, to be given two-thirds of the property on con dition that he personally superintend its workings for three years. "Young Archibald Williams to be given one-third interest in it, on account of his father's faithfulness and his own honesty."
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"Well, I declare," I said after reading the terms, " she is rather liberal with your property." "Oh, I don't mind that," was the answer; "it is just so much found in the dishwater, you know. Besides, all I have is Willie's — now she is no longer here — but without him, — how shall I be able to speak with her?" I did not say it, but when I thought of the young young man's nervous condition — he really looked haunted — I could not but admit the wisdom of the conditions im posed, whether they came from another world or not. Two years afterwards, when he married Estella Cooper, and brought to the hungering father one who in part took the place of the lost daughter, I was inclined to accept the decision as worthy of the source claimed for it — especially as I learned that with more robust health the young man had ceased to be a medium. Deprived of what had come to be a weakening influ ence, this communion, or what he believed to be communion, with the departed, my client took greater interest in promoting the happiness of others, and from that time un til his recent death, his life was one of the sweetest and noblest I have ever known. What is my opinion of the " manifesta tions " which I saw? Exactly what it was when they began, — that I have no key to the solution of the mystery nor any time to hunt for one. In short, I do not care a fig whether they were suggestions of the strong man's own brain and heart, or of the dead daughter's love, to which they were attrib uted. That he was sincere in his belief I do not doubt, but I think in his later days he be gan to question whether the messages were not unconscious reflections of his own thought, impressed on the susceptible mind of his son.
