of the
phenomenon of clairvoyance? Is it not possible that there may exist in
Nature some as yet undiscovered analogue to the swinging windowpane
which may enable us to see before our eyes here and now events which are
transpiring at the other end of the world? In the mysterious,
subconscious world in which the clairvoyant lives, may there not be some
subtle, sympathetic lens, fashioned out of strong affection or some
other relation, which may enable some of us to see that which is quite
invisible to the ordinary eye?

_A Surrey Laundry Seen in Cornwall._

Such thoughts came to my mind when I asked the Housekeeper whether she
had ever seen any of the phantasmal apparitions of her mistress, my
hostess, Mrs. M. The housekeeper, a comfortable, buxom Cornish woman,
smiled incredulously. No, she had seen nothing, heard nothing, believed
nothing. "As to phantasmal bodies, she would prefer to see them first."
"Had she ever seen a ghost?" "No, never." "Had ever had any
hallucinations?" "No." But one thing had happened, "rather curious" now
that she came to think of it. Last year, when living on the coast far
down in the west country, she had suddenly seen as in a dream the house
in Hindhead where we were now standing. She had never been in Surrey in
her life. She had no idea that she would ever go there, nor did she know
that it was in Surrey. What she saw was the laundry. She was standing
inside it, and remarked to her husband how strange and large it looked.
She looked out at the windows and saw the house and the surroundings
with strange distinctness. Then the vision faded away, leaving no other
impress on the mind than that she had seen an exceptionally large
laundry close to a small country-house in a place where she had never
been in before.

Six months passed; she and her husband had decided to leave the west
country and take a housekeeper and gardener's post elsewhere. They
replied to an advertisement, were appointed by my hostess; they
transferred themselves to Hindhead, where they arrived in the dead of
winter. When they reached their new quarters she saw, to her infinite
astonishment, the precise place she had seen six months before. The
laundry was unmistakable. There is not such another laundry in the
county of Surrey. There it was, sure enough, and there was the house,
and there were all the surroundings exactly as she had seen them down on
the south-west coast. She did not believe in ghosts or phantasmal bod