use and in a room of
which I had absolutely no previous knowledge_. Those interested in these
subjects will naturally ask: "_Do you suppose that the spirit of Mr
Forbes came to you at the moment of your remarks to him and his to you?
If so, was he conscious of any such experience?_"

I can answer this last question decidedly, and in the negative; for four
years later, circumstances brought me once more within the orbit of Mr
Forbes' life. He was then living in the north of England, and he and his
wife and I have discussed the question more than once.

We can only suppose that the impression of his presence did in some way
cling to the surroundings; that my sleeping there, even in complete
ignorance of his tenancy, enabled me, as a "sensitive," to pick up this
special influence from many others presumably present; and that the
memories of the past galvanised the impression into some sort of
temporary astral existence. The entity to whom I seemed to be speaking
was doubtless _not_ the Judge Forbes of later life, but some distorted
image of his earlier days of disappointed and often reproachful
affection.

When Mr Myers suggested that I should get Mr Pound to sign a paper
mentioning that he had told me that Mr Forbes had occupied these special
rooms twenty-seven years previously, the latter did so readily, only
remarking that he had naturally concluded that I _knew_ my friend had
lodged with him.

"Pound will 'smell a rat' if I go," said Mr Myers.

So I went myself, and thus the story was made evidentially complete.

CHAPTER X

FURTHER EXPERIENCES IN AMERICA

My second visit to America was paid in the year of the Diamond Jubilee,
1897.

After wintering in the West Indies, I went on to America in the spring,
chiefly with the view of meeting Mrs Piper for the first time, and
securing a few sittings with her if possible.[5]

[5] The portion of this chapter referring to "Mrs Piper and her
Controls" is published by kind permission of Mr Ralph Shirley, editor
of _The Occult Review_, in which my article under this heading appeared
in March 1906.

I was writing some articles for _Borderland_ at the time, and Mr Stead
was specially anxious for me to take this opportunity of "sampling" the
famous American sensitive.

This proved no easy task. My visit to Boston, unfortunately, occurred at
the very time when an organised attempt was being made by the American
branch of the Society for Psychical Research to