here she was, this, whatever it was, would come over
her. She would sit there, perhaps in the centre of a gay crowd, and
gaze right out into space, not hearing or seeing a single thing that
went on around her.

"I remember one day in particular; we were sewing in my room. I looked
up and saw that Miriam's work had dropped on her knee and she was
leaning forward, her lips apart, her eyes gazing upward with an
unearthly expression.

"'Don't look like that, Miriam!' I said, with a little shiver. 'You
seem to be looking at something a thousand miles away!'

"Miriam came out of her trance or reverie and said, with a little
laugh:

"'How do you know but that I was?'

"She bent her head for a minute or two. Then she lifted it again and
looked at me with a sudden contraction of her level brows that
betokened vexation.

"'I wish you hadn't spoken to me just then,' she said. 'You
interrupted the message I was receiving. I shall not get it at all
now.'

"'Miriam,' I implored. 'I so wish my dear girl, that you wouldn't talk
so. It makes people think there is something queer about you. Who in
the world was sending you a message, as you call it?'

"'Sidney,' said Miriam simply.

"'Nonsense!'

"'You think it is nonsense because you don't understand it,' was her
calm response.

"I recall another event was when some caller dropped in and we had
drifted into a discussion about ghosts and the like--and I've no doubt
we all talked some delicious nonsense. Miriam said nothing at the
time, but when we were alone I asked her what she thought of it.

"'I thought you were all merely talking against time,' she retorted
evasively.

"'But, Miriam, do you really think it is possible for ghosts--'

"'I detest that word!'

"'Well, spirits then--to return after death, or to appear to anyone
apart from the flesh?'

"'I will tell you what I know. If anything were to happen to
Sidney--if he were to die or be killed--he would come to me himself
and tell me.'

"One day Miriam came down to lunch looking pale and worried. After
Dick went out, I asked her if anything were wrong.

"'Something has happened to Sidney,' she replied, 'some painful
accident--I don't know what.'

"'How do you know?' I cried. Then, as she looked at me strangely, I
added hastily, 'You haven't been receiving any more unearthly
messages, have you? Surely, Miriam, you are not so foolish as to
really believe in that!'

"'I know,' she answered quickly. 'Belief