Can Such Things Be?

f you — only a few, I confess — believe in the immortality of the soul, and in apparitions which you have not the honesty to call ghosts. I go no further than a conviction that

ard, an image of one’s self to the eyes of another. Doubtless the impressing personality has to be the

ying sensations to the wrong kind o

gratified; that is about the reply that I s

good deal to say, don’t you think? Perhaps you wi

n,” Hawver said, “but that does n

y. Not only so, but he had withdrawn himself almost altogether from social life and become a recluse. I was told by the village doctor, about the only person with whom he held any relations, that during his retirement he had devoted himself to a single line of study, the result of which he had expounded in a book that did not commend itself to the approval of his professional brethren, who, indeed, considered him not entirely sane. I have not seen the book and cannot now recall the title of it, but I am told that it expounded a rather startling th

nts that slept in the house, but I have always been, as you know, rather fond of my own society, being much addicted to reading, though little to study. Whatever was the cause, the effect was dejection and a sense of impending evil; this was especially so in Dr. Mannering’s study, although that room was the lightest and most airy in the house. The doctor’s life-size po

ed, but distinctly uncanny. It interested but did not disturb me. I moved the lamp from one side to the other and observed the effects of the altered light. While so engaged I felt an impulse to turn round. As I d

d, somewhat coldly, ‘but if

r, as in warning, and without a word went on out of the room, tho

pparition. That room had only two doors, of which one was locked; the other led into a bedroom, f

nes laid down by the old masters of the art. If that were so I should not have related it, even

men were silent. Dr. Frayley absently

asked —“anything from which you

red and di

finger, as in warning. It’s a trick he had — a habit when saying som

pparition had done. But, goo

pparently gr

of the most striking and important of the century’s contributions to medical sc

ack across the room; then approached his friend, and in a voice not altoget

you to go to your room. You play the violin like an angel. Play it; play

e violin at his neck, the bow upon the strings, hi