Keppel, whose personality employs my material body for expression. So far as I have been able to learn, he appears to have been a vigorous and cultured man, who died about fifteen years ago and in life here was both a physician and a preacher, having been a medical missionary to India. As he often acts merely as guide to get through to us messages from our friends deceased, he sometimes reports in the third person, sometimes in the first and sometimes speaks for himself.
"The blinds will be drawn and red-shaded lamps used because, while not necessary for communication, the substitution of red illumination seems to facilitate extra-corporeal phenomena."
Thereupon servants drew the window blinds and turned on the lights in the ceiling above Mrs. Brand and in several brackets on the walls, all of which lights had been covered with red silk. This illumination, though dim, was sufficient for clear observation of the medium.
When Barney had attended séances in London with Mrs. Brand, she had entered into the trance without preliminary "twilight" interval of clairvoyance; and this sitting was similar; for after a few minutes of silent waiting, it was evident that some profound transformation influenced Mrs. Brand's posture and her manner of utterance; and, when her lips next moved, her speech indicated the control of a markedly robust, abrupt and masculine seeming personality:
"What a cloud of witnesses are present! So many come here to meet you! There is a spirit here with moustache and small, pointed beard; good forehead; delicate lips; hair grayish and brown—yes, it was brown before it went away; good, pleasant hazel eyes.
