The old lady (?) was furious. She had never heard of such wicked nonsense! "_Her dear husband was quite the gentleman, both in clothes and appearance, and he was not old--not a day over sixty-eight--when he died_," etc. etc.
It would have been amusing if it had not been rather pitiful to think of the poor "young" man of sixty-eight trying so hard to reach such a termagant!
Later, I heard that the military man, through whom the old lady's address had been given to my Wimbledon hostess, had asked the husband of the latter if I were a lunatic, by any chance!
And this is how some of us welcome our friends from the other side of the veil! The marvel to me is that Love can still be stronger than Death, in face of such ingratitude and stupidity!
I have already mentioned my extreme sensitiveness to the atmosphere (psychic) of rooms, especially rooms where one sleeps. I find another instance of this in my notes.
I was paying a first visit to a friend in the south of England, and a very bright, cheerful room had been allotted to me there.
From the first night I felt a strong influence of a man in the room. Kindly note that I do not say the influence of a _strong_ man; on the contrary, the character appeared to me that of an essentially weak man--weak rather than wicked--sensual as well as sensuous--self-indulgent, and greatly wanting in grit and will power.
My hostess had two sons, one whom I knew, and the other, living abroad, whom I had never met. The influence I felt was certainly not that of the son I knew, who was both manly and strong-willed, a fine soldier, and "hard as nails," as men would say.
I feared it might be the other son, however, and took an early opportunity of asking to see a photograph of the latter. My mind was quite set at rest. It was certainly not this man's influence that I had felt so strongly in my room.
Asking my hostess, _who_ had chiefly occupied the room, she said at once: "Both my sons have slept there at different times," adding, "I am sure you have some of your queer ideas about the room--what is the matter with it?"
I told her; "Now that I am quite convinced that neither of your sons is implicated, I will describe to you the character of a man whom I feel sure must have slept in that room and has left a strong psychic influence behind him."