ll, Mrs Parks, you are going very much
against your own interests in giving me this message. I am a perfect
stranger to you in this city. I have told you that I am making some
little stay here, and as you have given me so much satisfaction I might
have been induced to come and see you several times again before
leaving."

She laughed, and answered: "That is quite true; but I am an honest
woman, and I am bound to give you the message that is given to me for
you, even when it goes against my interest."

Seeing her bright, pleasant home, with every trace of comfort about it,
and having received personal proof that money alone was not her
consideration, I could not help asking why she continued such an arduous
life.

"Well," she answered, "the truth is that I do it now against my own
wish. My husband has always objected to it more or less. He was afraid
it might injure my health, and for two years I gave it up entirely.
But," she added, "the spirits would not leave me alone. It seemed as if
I _had_ to come back to it, as if I were refusing to use the powers
that had been given to me for the help and comfort of my
fellow-creatures. I name a higher price than others, to limit my work
and to keep away those who would only come from idle curiosity." She
also told me that sometimes she had to give orders beforehand that
certain people should not be admitted on any pretext whatever. "I can
see their spirits round them before they reach the door very often, and
I would not have such people, bringing such an atmosphere into my
house--no, not if they gave me a hundred dollars for each sitting."

I must mention one more incident connected with this period of my
investigations, because it throws a strong light on some obscure
problems.

Whilst consulting these clairvoyants, in widely different parts of
America, two very near relatives of mine were almost invariably
described, and the names--one male and one female--were generally given.
The mediums invariably went on to say that the female spirit was further
on in development than the male spirit. Now there were circumstances
which made this statement, viewed from this world's standpoint, not only
absolutely mistaken, but almost ludicrously so. The woman's nature had
been a far more faulty one--more impetuous, less balanced, and so forth.
The male spirit described had been a man of very exceptional character
and spirituality, whilst on earth.

In spite of these facts the same