y
returning to the curtain (close to which I stood), but vanishing into
thin air.

Some ten days later my friend and I went again to an evening _seance_ at
the same house, different people being present on this occasion. A
stupid, "_unintelligent_ sceptic" woman put us all out of harmony by
making inane suggestions, always declaring that "_she would not for the
world interfere with the conditions_," but doing so all the same. The
"Angel Mother" came again, and rather lost her temper, I thought, with
an aggravating, illogical man in the circle, who hammered away about
Faraday's opinions on the spirit world without much idea of what he was
talking about. "Nels Seymour" _appeared_, as well as spoke, this time.
He took my hand and kissed it; but he does not leave the cabinet, as he
is the "control." It was eleven years on this day since he had "passed
over," so he called it his "birthday."

A very beautiful female spirit materialised and offered to sit on my
lap; an offer I closed with at once.

She was some five feet eight inches in height, and a large,
well-developed woman. Anticipating the possibility of her resting her
feet on the ground, and so concealing her real weight, I moved my own
feet from the ground the moment she sat down, which was easily done, as
my chair was a high one.

She remained for several minutes in this position, resting, of
necessity, her whole weight upon me, which was about equal to that of a
small kitten or a lady's muff, in the days when small muffs were in
fashion. There was an _appreciable_ weight, but I have never nursed any
baby that was not far heavier.

The veil this time was materialised in the usual way, my friend going up
to watch the process.

My spirit friend appeared again, and more strongly this time. At a
public _seance_, where so many are eager to communicate with their
friends, it is impossible to monopolise more than a few minutes of the
public time, and consequently any communications are as hurried and
unsatisfactory as a conversation with an intimate friend in the public
reading-room of a hotel would be.

* * * * *

I pass over another most excellent and evidential incident as a
concession to family prejudice. It has already appeared in my book on
America entitled "A Year in the Great Republic," and may be found there.

* * * * *

At a third materialising _seance_ at the same house an excitable Italia