il in which they
must be living, _if on this side the veil_, was implied by the
impression I received. _It was some acute and additional danger which
threatened her at the moment._ Feeling it was useless to waste time
trying to find out by writing or other means what the exact nature of
this danger might be, I jumped out of bed as quickly as possible,
saying: "Never mind trying to make me understand--I will pray for you,
whatever it is!" So I knelt down, and prayed most earnestly that this
poor woman, whose spirit had appealed for help at some dread crisis,
might be comforted, and delivered from any dangers threatening her at
the time.

I had been very comfortably tucked up in bed, looking forward to the
pleasant drowsiness which promises sleep, and I am quite sure I should
not have put myself to all this inconvenience without a very strong
motive.

When I felt the poor, tormented spirit was calmed and soothed by the
atmosphere of prayer, I returned to my bed, and eventually fell asleep.

Next morning I told Mrs Forbes of my experience, making the remark
quoted about the date.

The following week she and I were together at one of the meetings of the
Society for Psychical Research, at the close of which, in shaking hands
with Mr Frederic Myers, I begged him to make a note of my experience and
the date.

"Ah, Miss Bates!" he said, taking out a small note-book, "I will make a
note of it, but I fear there is not the remotest chance of any of them
having been alive ten days ago."

"Then my experience goes for nothing," I answered. "It was a living
woman, not an excarnate one, who came to my bedside on the 4th July."

Later, when the Embassy was relieved, and this lady (who had presented
such a "stiff upper lip" to Fortune) was once more safe at home for a
much-needed rest, I found that she had gone through a special time of
accentuated suffering just when I felt her presence in my room. Her
husband was down with dysentery, and she had not enough food either for
him or for her poor little children, and the strain was almost too
great, even for that brave soul.

Of course, she had been quite unconscious of any appeal to me.

But she has Scottish as well as Irish blood in her veins, and this
heredity may have enabled her subconscious self to sense my locality and
to realise my power and will to help her in her desperate need.

Truly it was a case of "vain is the help of man," or woman either! But
we know too little