man. Without saying a word about this, I
asked Mrs Wedgwood to come up into my room before she returned to
London, and then I told her that I could not sleep, and had not had a
peaceful night since I arrived. Could she find out what was the cause?
Mrs Wedgwood looked round for a moment, and then said in the most casual
way: "Not the smallest doubt of the cause. It is that old man, of
course. He is earth-bound, I expect, and haunting the house. You had
better take a message from him if you want to get rid of him. I would
help you if I could, but I shall be late for my train if I don't start
at once."
Next morning I took the poor old gentleman's message, which began with
an apology and regrets for disturbing me, but went on pathetically:
"You must forgive me, I was so very anxious to send a message to my
wife, and I saw that you were a sensitive and could take it from me--I
did not realise that it might cause you so much discomfort. That lady
called me earth-bound, but if I am, it is only through my deep love for
my dear wife, and I am permitted to watch over her. I was drawn here by
my old affection for this house, and also by your presence here, knowing
you could help me."
He then gave the message, of which I can only remember that it was most
touching in its expressions of deep affection and watchful care for his
widow.
As we did not know this lady's present address, and could not procure it
without raising inconvenient questions, my hostess and I settled that
she should lock up the message, in the hope that some day we might be
able to forward it.
A year later I had a most unpleasant experience of being made to feel
seriously ill when I came down for a night from town, and as another
clairvoyant assured me that this resulted from the message remaining
undelivered and the poor old man's frantic endeavours to reach his
wife's consciousness, I told my Wimbledon friend that something _must_
be done. Either she must procure the lady's address "_coute que coute_,"
or I could not come down again to Wimbledon until this step had been
taken.
Under pressure of this determination of mine the address was procured,
and this led to a rather unpleasant experience.
I wrote a very courteous letter to the lady, enclosing the message, and
explaining that I was quite debarred from visiting my Wimbledon friend
until it was delivered, that I hoped, therefore, she would excuse my
sending it, after more than a year's consid
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