I had
by no means an equal tendency to physical antipathy, though, in
common with most other people, I have had some experience of that
also. My very dear and excellent friend ---- always _m'agacait les
nerfs_, as French people say, though I was deeply attached to her
and very fond of her society. Mrs. ----, of whose excellence I had
the most profound conviction, and who was generally esteemed
perfectly charming by her intimates, affected me with such a curious
intuitive revulsion that the first time she came and sat down by me
I was obliged to get up and leave the room--indeed, the house. Two
men of our acquaintance, remarkable for their general attractiveness
and powers of pleasing, ---- and ----, were never in the same room
ten minutes with me without my becoming perfectly chilled through,
as though I had suddenly had the door of an ice-house opened upon
me. They were entirely dissimilar men in every respect....

Of the spiritualistic performances of Messrs. Hume, Foster, etc.,
etc., I never was a witness. An intimate acquaintance of mine, who
knew Hume well, assured me that she knew him to be an impostor,
adding at the same time, "But I also know him to be clairvoyant,"
which seemed to me mere tautology.

My sister and Charles Greville, having had their curiosity excited
by some of the reports of Mr. Foster's performances, agreed to go
together to visit him, and having received an appointment for a
_seance_, went to his house. Certainly, if Mr. Foster had taken in
either of those two customers of his, it would have gone near
converting me. Charles Greville, who was deaf, and spoke rather loud
in consequence of that infirmity, said, as he entered, to my sister,
"I shall ask him about my mother." Adelaide, quite determined to
test the magician's powers to the utmost, replied, with an air of
concern, as if shocked at the idea, "Oh, no, don't do that; it is
too dreadful." However, this suggestion of course not being thrown
away upon Mr. Foster, Charles Greville desired to be put in
communication with the spirit of his mother, which was accordingly
duly done by the operator, and various messages were delivered, as
purporting to come from the spirit of Lady Charlotte Greville to her
son. After this farce had gone on for a little while, Charles
Greville turned to my sister with pe