“Does that hold good of evil purpose, too?”
It seemed to me that if Mr. Kendal had not received my letters, and was in possession only of the meager information contained in my telegram, it was best that he should read the record of the earlier interviews with his wife before coming to communicate with her, and to that end the book containing the whole story was to be sent to his club before his arrival. Having decided this, it occurred to me to consult Mary K., who emphatically negatived the plan.
“No. Mary Kendal is most anxious to tell him herself now.” She told us to make brief explanations, adding: “All he needs now is Mary Kendal.”
Shortly afterward Mary K.’s now familiar summons—an indescribable sensation in the arm or hand—recalled me to the pencil, and she wrote, quickly and firmly: “Mary Kendal wants you to change your record.”
Surprised, I asked what change she wished, and was told to take out everything relating to her banishment from Mansfield’s life, because she preferred to tell him that in her own way.
“Shall I show him the record at all?” I asked.
“Yes, but take that out first.” Fortunately, the record is kept in a loose-leaf, typewritten book, so this was not difficult.
As the day wore on I grew more and more nervous. Suppose he should be more hurt than helped? Suppose we should fail? Rarely in my life have I dreaded anything so much, or felt so little confidence in anything I had deliberately undertaken to do. By nine o’clock I was in a nervous chill. Meanwhile Mr. Kendal telephoned that he had found my letters, which had been returned to his club, and that he would join us presently.
Upon his arrival he told us that he had been one of the early members of the Society for Psychical Research in this country, and had spent several years investigating phenomena of this nature, together with various other young men, under the general supervision of Prof. William James, Dr. Minot Savage, and others of that group. He mentioned some of the frauds and self-deceptions uncovered at that time, but said he believed the ultimate conclusion to have been that there were certain well-authenticated phenomena for which no logical or scientific explanation had been found.