lf. Seraphine was
sleeping in the next room--she has not left me since I came to this
place yesterday--and I longed to waken her for a last talk, but decided
not to. What was the use? I must settle this for myself--whether it was
possible for me to go on living or not, I must fight out this battle
alone--with my own soul.

I decided to kill myself because I felt sure, after what had happened,
that I was condemned to madness. This is evidently a place where mad
people are treated. They call it a Sanitarium, but I know what that
means. Seraphine speaks of Dr. Leroy (I have only seen him once) as a
wonderful spiritual healer and she says I will love him because he is so
kind and wise; but none of this deceives me. I know they have brought me
to a place for mad people.

Here is a thought that makes me waver--what if death is not
annihilation? What if I find myself in some new state where there are
other horrors and terrors--worse than those that I have suffered? The
Voices tell me this--taunting me. And then Christopher! He loves me so
much! He will be so sorry, if I do this!

While I was hesitating--it was just before dawn--Seraphine came to me.
She talked to me, soothed me, and, at last, she told me the truth about
myself. She said that all my troubles come from this, that I am
possessed by an evil spirit! _Literally possessed!_ This is what she was
leading up to when she told me about the great company of earth-bound
souls that are hovering about us since the war, striving to come back!

The extraordinary part of it is that I no longer regard this as a
fantastic impossibility. I no longer reject it. I am not terrified or
horrified by the thought, but almost welcome it, since it offers an
explanation of what has happened that does not involve madness. I am
either possessed by an evil spirit or I am mad, and of these two I
prefer the evil spirit. That, at least, is a definite cause carrying
with it the hope of a cure, for we read that evil spirits were cast out
in olden times, and they may be again.

* * * * *

One thing convinces me that what Seraphine says is true--I did something
at Roberta's party that my own soul or spirit, even in madness, could
never have done. I accused Christopher of committing a crime. I accused
him of treason! Christopher! My love! Seraphine bears witness to this.
I _must_ be possessed by an evil spirit! This would account for
something else that happened la