Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/136

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116
On Hallucinations in General

In the morning, upon inquiry, my mother (who was ill at the time) only told me she had had a very disturbed night.

Then I asked my brother, who told me that he had suffered in the same way as I had, starting up several times in a frightened manner. On hearing this, my mother then told me that she had seen an apparition of Mr. Rose.

Later in the day Mr. Rose came in, and my mother asked him casually if he had been doing anything last night; upon which he told us that he had gone to bed willing that he should visit and appear to us. We made him promise not to repeat the experiment.

A night or so just before, I remember the servant came into my mother's bedroom, alarmed, at 3 a.m.; she said she had heard the electric bell ring. The bell at that time of night is inaccessible to the casual passer-by, as the outer door is then closed. The servant, I believe, heard it more than once; she cried and fancied it was an omen of her mother's death.

Mrs. E., in narrating the incident of the electric bell, adds that she and Mrs. A. had both passed a restless and uncomfortable night on that occasion; and that on the Sunday following Mr. Rose happened to mention that he had tried on that day to "send his spook." Mrs. E. then continues:

Feb. 12th, 1896.

. . . Some weeks passed,[1] when I was struck down with a bad attack of influenza, and again my daughter came to nurse me.

I had quite recovered, but had not yet been out of my room. but was to go into the drawing-room next day. On this particular night, my daughter had gone to the theatre and my son remained with me. He had bid me good-night about half-past
  1. Mrs. A., who has just read this. seems to think now that the two occurrences were separated by some weeks, not days as she wrote in her statement (Note by collector).