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the
sittings were almost, if not quite, "void of result." Mr Bradlaugh, in
giving his impression of Mr Home and the results obtained with him as
medium, said:--

"I am bound to say that Mr Home met me in the frankest manner possible.
He told me I was one of the few people he wanted very much to see, and
probably, as my address was not known, and I am not a very public man
in England, that was the reason he had not discovered me until I was
placed upon that Committee. But I met him in the same frank spirit;
and as he offered every opportunity for investigation, we took it. And
the first evening we changed every shred of clothing he had on for
some other. Perhaps that might have destroyed the proper combinations,
for we had not the slightest scintilla of anything. I sat with Mr Home
night after night till Mr Home was tired."[162] And the only result,
such as it was, of all this investigation may be summed up in a few
words. There was a tinkling of glass, a slight wave of the table, and a
few raps. The raps were such as could be easily produced by mechanical
means, and were so produced by my father afterwards--not that he
charged Mr Home with causing the raps in that particular way; but as he
pointed out, it was impossible for any one, under the circumstances,
to fix upon the precise spot whence such raps came; it was impossible
that the unguided ear could exactly relegate the sound. The tinkling
of glass was such as he had often heard in a room where there was gas
burning; the wave of the table--which did not move more than half an
inch--was afterwards repeatedly produced by Dr Edmunds and himself.
Beyond these trifles there was no other "semblance of manifestation,"
and yet some Spiritualists boldly asserted that the result of the
Dialectical Society's inquiry was to convert the investigators to
Spiritualism.[163]

[Footnote 161: Held at 4 Fitzroy Square.]

[Footnote 162: _National Reformer_, Jan. 12, 1873.]

[Footnote 163: _Human Nature_, Jan. 1871.]

Mr Bradlaugh opened the debate with Mr Burns, and as always, when he
made the opening speech, he used the most careful language in trying
to make his position clear. Beyond that speech, and for what he told
during the two nights of his personal experiences and inquiries into
Spiritualism, the debate is really of little importance. Mr Burns
afterwards apologised for his treatment of the subject on the ground of
ill-health.[164]

[Footnote 164: _The Medium and Daybreak_, Dec. 20, 1872.]

CHAPTER XXXIV

FAMILY AFFAIRS.

When our home was broken up in May 1870, and my father went to live
by himself in those two little rooms in Turner Street, he was very
downcast and lonely. Apart from the many weighty reasons he had to
make him heavy-hearted, he felt the separation from his children,
young though we were, much more than might be imagined or than we
indeed quite realised ourselves at the time. He felt it for his own
sake, but even more he felt it for ours. We had been away from him but
little more than two weeks--weeks crowded with worry and work--when he
wrote us a little letter, which I shall always keep amongst my dearest
treasures, so much does it seem to convey a sense of his fatherly
love for us, and his fatherly anxiety for our lives in the difficult
circumstances in which we were placed. The letter is written in French
and very legibly, the foreign language making a sort of excuse for the
letter. He writes:--

 "MY DEAR LITTLE DAUGHTERS,--I have a notion to write you from
 time to time in French, because by that means more than by any other I
 shall make you learn the language. Unfortunately for your instruction,
 my own knowledge of this beautiful tongue is very limited, but I hope
 that you will correct me each time you find mistakes. I want to know
 every thought, every act of your lives, because, as you will be too
 long out of my sight, I would keep you very close to my heart, and I
 want to watch in thought the steps I cannot see each day with my own
 eyes.--À vous, mes petites bien aimées,

 C. BRADLAUGH."

Our brother's death drew us yet nearer to him, and while we were at
Midhurst he wrote to us constantly, scolding us if we delayed too long
in answering his little letters. As soon as he was able, he took a
third room at Turner Street, and sent for each of us by turns to spend
a month with him, to write for him; but as he was unwilling to separate
my sister and me for long together this was by no means a regular
arrangement.

After he became acquainted with Madame de Brimont, she soon expressed
a desire to know us. I have said that she was a staunch friend to my
father; to my sister and to me she was goodness itself. She asked my
father to let her find a school for us in Paris, and as he had always
been very anxious for us to know French, he let himself be persuaded,
in spite of sundry misgivings about the extra expense. A school was
found, and to Paris my father took us at the end of September 1872. We
went a few days before the beginning of the school-term and stayed with
him at his old hotel in the Rue Vivienne--now demolished to make room
for the extension of the _Bibliothéque_. We were very proud to be with
him, and proud of course to be for the first time in Paris; we lunched
or dined at Madame de Brimont's, and our leisure moments were filled
up by most delightful drives outside Paris, or walks along the Champs
Elysées or the Boulevards. Before entering school, we three went one
day with Madame de Brimont to make acquaintance with the Directress of
the establishment and to look over the building. The two ladies walked
on first, chatting of the school arrangements and so on, whilst we
behind admired, but could not imitate, the deliberate calmness with
which they trod the highly polished parquet floors. My sister and I,
as we slipped about and frantically caught at each other for support,
thought we never should be able to walk steadily on these waxed floors.
Before we left, Madame la Directrice asked what was our religion. Mr
Bradlaugh, inwardly expecting difficulties, answered, "None, Madame."
Madame's "Ah! Monsieur, that saves trouble," brought a smile of
surprise and amusement to my father's face. Seeing this, the Directress
went on: "You know, Monsieur, I have young ladies here of various
religions, but they are principally Roman Catholic, Jewish, and Greek
Church; it is sometimes difficult to make their different religious
duties fit in with the studies."

We were very happy at this school; there were good masters, and we had
plenty of work to do. On Thursday afternoons, the "at home" day for the
school, Madame de Brimont visited us, and our Saturday afternoons and
Sundays were spent with her. Unfortunately, I was never very strong,
and during the winter I fell ill. At Christmas my father came quite
unexpectedly to fetch us home for the holidays. My sister went back
in the course of a week or two, but the doctor would not allow me to
return. The details of that journey home, and the sad story t

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