The daily morning oasis., 1920-11-18

hOW uO you i6SI uOWI lie dShc'
her.
II don't know" she said In low
puzzled tone. All right, guess, bu
-. You-you hypnotized me, Philip
"Yes, ella"
"Was 1t difficulty"
"On the contrary, you proved one o1
the most willing subjects I've ever haf
went off like a shot, practically al
the first suggestion"
He filed a glass of water from the
silver pitcher on his desk; but wheI
he took 1t to her she was on her feet
her eyes desperate.
"Philipl" she cried gustily-"she is
dead-LeonOra-I"
81 know; that is, l know you think
so; you told me-"
She did not answer. she was heed
less of the meaning of his words; but
as if instinctively feeling it intolerable
that another's eyes should pry into her
grief, brushed aside the glass Of wa
ter, and with stricken face stumbled
past him into wide and deeply re-
cessed window.
For several minutes she stood there,
her back to Fosdick, looking out blind
ly, slender shoulders shaken with ST.
lent sobs, q hand with a handkerchief
dabbing at her eyes.
wise physician, Fosdick offered no
phrases of false comfort.
That the storm of her emotions
spent itself swiftly, that it was not
long before she was able to talk calm
ly, was no revelation of heartlessness,
but largely the work of the suggestion
implanted in her while she was in hyp-
nosis.
"The pity of it," she said after a
little time: "oh, Philip! the pity Of It'll
She was so happyAand now she is
dead"
Perhaps"
Priscilla swung sharply round.
why do you say that? know saw
her-I saw her lying drowned in a
pool"
81 know, you told me-"
Put how could II" She was star
tied out Of her sorrow. II haven't had
time, I've only just remembered"
'You told me while in the hypnotic
trance. I questioned you and you told
me all you knew, everything you ex-
perienced. You were talking almost
continuously until l threw you into
normal sleep. So | heard about your
vision"
stranger" she said in a stare of
wOnder-"strange | should recall moth
ing of that"
"Not so strange; your speech was
something purely automatic; once
started, it went on, just as your heart
went on beating and your lungs inhal-
ing and exhaling air, while your atten-
ton was absorbed in other matters.
It's like the automatic writing that
people produce, believing themselves.
under the influence of disembOdied
spirits. Not necessarily even under
the hypnotic influence; their attention
is elsewhere, they may be talking or
reading on utterly immateriaI subjects.
while their hand. without their knOwl-
edge, writes and go on writing-just
so you went OH talking"
81 don't understand. It's-it's in
comprehensive. Not that | doubt
what you say. must have told you
what saw. there in the forest. :"
Her eyes filled again. tears ran down
her cheeks. She averted her face.
"Oh, the pity of it" she repeated.
Just when life seemed about to COM
pensate her for all she had never
had :"
Don't LET go like this, ella. Re
nothing is certain"
''No-you are wrong. l saw her, l
know"
"You think So"
"Why do you persist in saying that?
Have my dreams ever proved ground
Iess?"
"We don't know. yet; perhaps some
of them were. But this wasn't one of
what you call your dreams; 1t was a
vision, possibly hallucination, in hyp-
motto trance. 1t may have been true
Of telesthetic communi-
cation; assuming that Leonora was
really dead, your spirit may have
found some means. by some extraor-
dinary effort, to surmount the obsta.
cles, whose very nature is unknown
to us, that stand between the living
and the dead prohibiting communica-
ton But we don't know"
He argued earnestly, with intention,
seeing he had already engaged her
interest to such extent that she was
forgetting to grieve.
"On the other hand, we do know
it's easy to fool ourselves. Remember,
YOU have gone about all day fretted
by feeling that something was wrong
with Leonora. some danger threatened
her happiness. You passed into the
hypnotic trance already prepared to
see the worst. You saw 1t. But the
question remains unanswered, and for
the time being unanswerable: Did you
see truly, or did you see fantasy
conjured up by your own imagination
Influenced by fear?"
''If could only think that. Phillip