forward is that some one personated
Thompson. Against this we have the fact that Mr. Dickinson, who had
never seen Thompson, recognised him immediately as soon as he saw the
negative of his portrait.

Further, if any one had come from Hebburn on behalf of Thompson, he
would not have asserted that he was Thompson himself, knowing, as he
would, that he was speaking to a photographer, who, if the photographs
had been ready, would at once have compared the photographs with the
person standing before him, when the attempted personation would at once
have been detected. Besides, no one was likely to have been so anxious
about the photographs as to come up to Newcastle an hour before the
studio opened in order to get them.

We may turn it which way we please, there is no hypothesis which will
fit the facts except the assumption that there is such a thing as a
Thought Body, capable of locomotion and speech, which can transfer
itself wherever it pleases, clothing itself with whatever clothes it
desires to wear, which are phantasmal like itself. Short of that
hypothesis, I do not see any explanation possible; and yet, if we admit
that hypothesis, what an immense vista of possibilities is opened up to
our view!

PART VI.

GHOSTS KEEPING PROMISE.

"There is something in that ancient superstition
Which erring as it is, our fancy loves."--Scott.

Chapter I.

My Irish Friend.

Many of the apparitions that are reported are of phantasms that appear
in fulfilment of a promise made to survivors during life. Of this class
I came, in the course of my census, upon a very remarkable case.

Among my acquaintances is an Irish lady, the widow of an official who
held a responsible position in the Dublin Post Office. She is Celt to
her back-bone, with all the qualities of her race. After her husband's
death she contracted an unfortunate marriage--which really was no
marriage legally--with an engineer of remarkable character and no small
native talent. He, however, did not add to his other qualities the
saving virtues of principle and honesty. Owing to these defects my
friend woke up one fine morning to find that her new husband had been
married previously, and that his wife was still living.

On making this discovery she left her partner and came to London, where
I met her. She is a woman of very strong character, and of some
considerable although irregular ability. She has many superstitions, and
her dreams were somet