e was to some extent predetermined. A few days before
the first attack she informed the family that "there were persons in my
room last night, and they called 'Rancy, Rancy!' and I felt their breath
on my face"; and the next night, repeating the same story, she sought
refuge in her mother's bed. These fanciful notions, symptomatic of the
coming trouble and possibly provocative of it, would act in the way of a
powerful autosuggestion, and would of themselves explain why there
resulted an inchoate, tentative, vague personality, instead of the
robust, definite personality that assumes control in most cases.

At first, the reader will remember, she sought vainly and wildly and
wholly subconsciously--it cannot be made too clear that she was no
longer consciously responsible for her acts--for a satisfactory self of
ghostly origin. The aged Katrina, the masculine Willie, and other
imaginary beings were tried and rejected; principally, no doubt, because
her thirteen-year-old imagination was unequal to the task of investing
them with satisfactory attributes. From her relatives she obtained no
assistance in the strange quest. They, disbelieving in "spirits,"
persisted in calling her insane--a comfortless and far from beneficial
suggestion. But with the intervention of the Roffs and Dr. Stevens
everything changed. Not questioning the truth of her assertions, they
confirmed her in them, and offered her into the bargain a ready-made
personality.

Here at last was something tangible, a starting-point, a
foundation-stone. Mary Roff had had a real existence, had had thoughts,
feelings, desires, a life of flesh and blood. And Mary, they assured the
poor, perturbed, disintegrated self, could help her regain all that she
had lost. Very well, let Mary come, and the sooner she came the better.
For knowledge of Mary, of her characteristics, her relationships, her
friends, her earthly career, it was necessary only to tap telepathically
the reservoir of information possessed by Mary's family; and there would
be available besides a wealth of data in chance remarks, unconscious
hints, unnoticed promptings. She had been too long in search of a
personality not to grasp at the opening now afforded. Focused thus by
suggestion,--that subtle, all-pervasive influence which man is only now
beginning to appreciate,--the basic delusional idea promptly took root,
blossomed, and burst into an amazing fruition. Banished were the
spurious Katrinas and Willie