'they can make you believe you are some place you are n't , that you 're seeing things when there 's nothing there they did that to my husband and you know why ' because my husband is a witch , a powerful witch do n't quibble over words like warlock it does n't matter the man is a witch i myself saw what he could do ' asked point-blank if her husband had ever done any evil to her , cortland 's wife said ( to this apparent stranger ) that no , she had to confess he had n't it was what he condoned in others , what he went along with , and what he believed she then began to cry and to say that she missed her husband , and she did n't want to talk about it anymore 'i 'll tell you this much , ' she said when she had recovered herself slightly 'if i wanted my husband to come to me tonight , he 'd do it how he 'd do it i could n't tell you , but he could make himself material in this very room all his family can do things like that they could drive you out of your mind with it but he 'd be here in this very room sometimes he 's in the room with me when i do n't want him to be and i ca n't make him go away ' at this point the lady was rescued by a grady niece , and no further contact was ever accomplished until some years later one further circumstance argues for a close bond between cortland and stella , and that is that after julien 's death , cortland took stella and her brother lionel to england and to asia , for well over a year cortland already had five children at this time , all of which he left behind with his wife yet he seems to have been the instigator of this trip , and was completely in charge of the arrangements and greatly prolonged the venture so that the party did not actually return to new orleans for some eighteen months .