I was by this time exceedingly agitated too, but remembering that the door was locked, and that the mysterious visitor had not gone towards it at all, remarked, "He has not gone out by the door!" But without pausing, my husband unlocked the door, hastened out of the room, and was soon searching the whole house. Sitting there in the dark, I thought to myself, "We have surely seen an apparition! Whatever can it indicate? - perhaps my brother Arthur (he was in the navy, and at that time on a voyage to India) is in trouble: such things have been told of as occurring." In some such way I pondered with an anxious heart, holding the child, who just then awakened, in my arms, until my husband came back looking very white and miserable.

Sitting upon the bedside, he put his arm about me and said, "Do you know what we have seen?" And I said, "Yes, it was a spirit. I am afraid it was Arthur, but could not see his face" - and he exclaimed, "Oh! no, it was my father!"

My husband's father had been dead fourteen years: he had been a naval officer in his young life; but, through ill-health, had left the service before my husband was born, and the latter had only once or twice seen him in uniform, I had never seen him at all. My husband and I related the occurrence to my uncle and aunt, and we all noticed that my husband's agitation and anxiety were very great: whereas his usual manner was calm and reserved in the extreme, and he was a thorough and avowed sceptic in all - so-called - supernatural events.

As the weeks passed on my husband became very ill, and then gradually disclosed to me that he had been in great financial difficulties; and that, at the time his father was thus sent to us, he was inclining to take the advice of a man who would certainly - had my husband yielded to him (as he had intended before hearing the warning voice) - have led him to ruin, perhaps worse. It is this fact which makes us most reticent in speaking of the event; in addition to which, my husband had already been led to speculate upon certain chances which resulted in failure and infinite sorrow to us both, as well as to others, and was indeed the cause of our coming to--, after a year of much trouble, in the January of 1871.

None of us were particularly ready to believe in such evidences, notwithstanding my experience at my father's death, because we had regarded that as a special answer to prayer; so that no condition of "over-wrought nerves," or "superstitious fears," could have been the cause of the manifestation, but only, so far as we have been able to judge by subsequent events, a direct warning to my husband in the voice and appearance of the one that he had most reverenced in all his life, and was the most likely to obey.

Dr. and Mrs. C, friends of Mrs. and Mr. P., add the following note:-

June 16th, 1885.

This narrative was told us by Mrs. P., as here recorded, some years ago.

J. C.

Ellen H. C Mr. P. confirms as follows, June 17th, 1885:-

Without wishing to add more to the incidents recorded herein by my wife, I would simply note that the details of No. 2 are quite correct, and that the occurrence took place as stated. ... W. B. P.