"I only wish I could believe everything you tell me." "You must either believe me or renounce all claim to intelligence," answered the little man, climbing from his chair and sitting upon the table at her elbow.

His short, sturdy legs swung at a considerable height above the floor, and he planted his hands firmly upon the board on either side of him.

The attitude was that of an idle boy, and was so oddly out of keeping with his age and expression that Unorna almost laughed as she looked at him.
"At all events," he continued, "you cannot doubt my absolute sincerity.
You come to me for an explanation.

I give you the only sensible one that exists, and the only one which can have a really sedative effect upon your excitement.

Of course, if you have any especial object in believing in ghosts--if it affords you any great and lasting pleasure to associate, in imagination, with spectres, wraiths, and airily-malicious shadows, I will not cross your fancy.