Part 41 (2/2)

Of the original entry in the almanac diary, Mr. B. says: ”I recollect having made it within a week or so of the occurrence of the experiment, and whilst it was perfectly fresh in my memory.”

Miss Verity's account is as follows:--

_January 18th, 1883._

On a certain Sunday evening, about twelve months since, at our house in Hogarth Road, Kensington, I distinctly saw Mr. B. in my room, about 1 o'clock. I was perfectly awake and was much terrified. I awoke my sister by screaming, and she saw the apparition herself. Three days after, when I saw Mr. B., I told him what had happened, but it was some time before I could recover from the shock I had received; and the remembrance is too vivid to be ever erased from my memory.

L. S. VERITY.

In answer to inquiries, Miss Verity adds: ”I had never had any hallucination of the senses of any sort whatever.”

Miss E. C. Verity says:--

I remember the occurrence of the event described by my sister in the annexed paragraph, and her description is quite correct. I saw the apparition which she saw, at the same time and under the same circ.u.mstances.

E. C. VERITY.

Miss A. S. Verity says:--

I remember quite clearly the evening my eldest sister awoke me by calling to me from an adjoining room; and upon my going to her bedside, where she slept with my youngest sister, they both told me they had seen S. H. B. standing in the room. The time was about 1 o'clock. S. H. B. was in evening dress, they told me.

A. S. VERITY.

Mr. B. does not remember how he was dressed on the night of the occurrence.

Miss E. C. Verity was asleep when her sister caught sight of the figure, and was awoke by her sister's exclaiming, ”There is S.” The name had therefore met her ear before she herself saw the figure; and the hallucination on her part might thus be attributed to suggestion. But it is against this view that she has never had any other hallucination, and cannot therefore be considered as predisposed to such experiences. The sisters are both equally certain that the figure was in evening dress, and that it stood in one particular spot in the room. The gas was burning low, and the phantasmal figure was seen with far more clearness than a real figure would have been.

”The witnesses” (says Gurney) ”have been very carefully cross-examined by the present writer. There is not the slightest doubt that their mention of the occurrence to S. H. B. was spontaneous. They had not at first intended to mention it; but when they saw him, their sense of its oddness overcame their resolution. Miss Verity is a perfectly sober-minded and sensible witness, with no love of marvels, and with a considerable dread and dislike of this particular form of marvel.”

[I omit here for want of s.p.a.ce the next case, in which Mr. S. H. B.

attempted to appear in Miss Verity's house at two different hours on the same evening, and was seen there, at both the times fixed, by a married sister who was visiting in the house.]

Gurney requested Mr. B. to send him a note on the night that he intended to make his next experiment of the kind, and received the following note by the first post on Monday, March 24th, 1884.

_March 22nd, 1884._

DEAR MR. GURNEY,--I am going to try the experiment to-night of making my presence perceptible at 44 Norland Square, at 12 P.M. I will let you know the result in a few days.--Yours very sincerely,

S. H. B.

The next letter was received in the course of the following week:--

_April 3rd, 1884._

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