such a figure!
But no effort availed me to distinguish one articulate sound. I
tried to speak, but could not. With desperate effort I shook out
the words, "Speak louder!" The face grew more intent, the voice
louder and more emphatic. Was there something amiss in my own
hearing, then, that I could distinguish no word amidst these deeply
emphasized tones? Slowly and deliberately the figure vanished,
through the same stages of indistinctness, back to the globular,
lamp-like whiteness, till it faded into nothingness. Before it had
quite faded away, the face of a woman arose, indistinct and calm.
The same emphatic hum, though in a subdued note, indistinct and
dim. The same paralysis of voice and muscle, the same strange
force, as if it were overshadowing me. With the disappearance of
this second and far less interesting figure, I recovered my power
of movement, and arose.

"My first impulse was to look round for the origin of this strange
force; my second was to rush to the looking-glass to make sure I
was myself. There could be no delusion! There I was, paler than
usual, and greatly agitated; I walked hurriedly to and fro. True,
there had been nothing alarming in the apparition itself, but the
sensation preceding had been vivid in the extreme. What was it? Was
it night, or had I been in some strange sleep? Certainly not! Was I
in my right mind? I believed so. Then, if so, and the conditions
being the same, would it be possible to bring back this strange
phenomenon that I might know it had really existed, whether
subjectively or objectively? Like an inspiration I determined that,
if this experience had a basis in objective or subjective fact, it
might certainly recur. I would sit down in the same position, try
to feel calm, open a book, and remain as still and passive as I
could. To my intense interest, and almost at once, the strange
sense of some power operating on the nerve-forces within, followed
by the same loss of muscular power, the same wide-awakeness of the
reason, the same drawing out and concentrating of the energies on
that spot in front, repeated itself, this time more deliberately,
leaving me freer to take mental notes of what was happening. Again
rose the same noble, earnest figure, gazing at me, the hands moving
in accompaniment to