sion, exactly as written down.

Later, in San Francisco, a clairvoyant at once referred to my friend
"Muriel," and described her, but in rather vague terms. When I pointed
this fact out she said a little impatiently, as though we were wasting
time in quibbling: "_Oh, well, it does not matter. The spirit tells me
you know perfectly well who it is. She has already appeared to you in
New York._"

I had gone to this particular medium with several young friends, who
were all in a very sceptical and rather frivolous state of mind. She
described "an uncle," apparently over the heads of two of my friends,
and gave the further information that he was surrounded by water, and
appeared to have been drowned; also that he was extremely musical.

This was declared to be perfectly untrue and without a grain of
foundation, in fact.

The woman looked puzzled and a little mortified, but turned to others in
the circle, with better success, let us hope!

On our return home, when the young people were telling their mother of
the "awful humbug" amid shouts of laughter, the mother said quietly:
"But surely you remember, my dear children, hearing of your Uncle
Robert, who was drowned years ago, before any of you were born? He _was_
a great musician. He wanted to give up his life to art, but he was
persuaded to take up another profession."

I give this as an instance of the carelessness with which, when we are
_determined_ to find fraud, we may do so sometimes at the expense of
truth. These young girls had doubtless heard of their uncle, but the
fact had possibly escaped their memories for the moment, and probably
they had no wish to recall anything which could cast a doubt on their
preconceived notion that "the whole thing was a swindle!"

Before closing the chapter of my American experiences in the years 1885
and 1886, I must give one more personal detail.

When investigating various clairvoyants in the Eastern States in March
and April of the year 1886, I had been told more than once that a
guardian band of six spirits was forming round me, and would be later
supplemented by another band of six protectors. Whether this had any
bearing upon the following incident, I must leave my readers to decide.

* * * * *

About three months after this pronouncement I found myself at Victoria,
Vancouver's Island. Miss Greenlow and I had gone there from San
Francisco for a week or two, not being able at that time