(94) "On June 10th, 1883, I had the following dream. Someone told me that Miss Elliott was dead. I instantly, in my dream, rushed to her room, entered it, went to her bedside and pulled the clothes from off her face. She was quite cold; her eyes were wide open and staring at the ceiling. This so frightened me that I dropped at the foot of her bed, and knew no more until I was half out of bed in my own room and wide awake. The time was 5 o'clock a.m. Before leaving my room I told this dream to my sister, as it had been such an unpleasant one.

"Constance S. Bevan." Miss Elliott says: -

" February, 1884.

"I awoke on the morning of June 10th, and was lying on my back with my eyes fixed on the ceiling, when I heard the door open and felt some one come in and bend over me, but not far enough to come between my eyes and the ceiling; knowing it was only C, I did not move, but instead of kissing me she suddenly drew back, and going towards the foot of the bed, crouched down there. Thinking this very strange, I closed and opened my eyes several times, to convince myself that I was really awake, and then turned my head to see if she had left the door open, but found it still shut. Upon this a sort of horror came over me, and I dared not look towards the figure, which was crouching in the same position, gently moving the bedclothes from my feet. I tried to call to the occupant of the next room, but my voice failed. At this moment she touched my bare foot, and a cold chill ran all over me and I knew nothing more till I found myself out of bed looking for C, who must, I felt, be still in the room. I never doubted that she had really been there until I saw both doors fastened on the inside.

On looking at my watch it was a few minutes past 5. "E. Elliott".

The following corroboration is from Miss C S. Bevan's sisters: -

"Before leaving our room, my sister Constance told all about the dream she had had in the early morning. "C Elsie Bevan".

"The first thing in the morning, Miss Elliott told me all about her unpleasant dream, before speaking to anyone else.

"Antonia Bevan".

In answer to inquiries, Miss C. S. Bevan says: -

" This is the first experience I have ever had of the kind, and I have not walked in my sleep more than three times in my life; the last time was about a year ago; on no occasion have I left the room. I do not have startling or vivid dreams as a rule. I did not look at my watch after waking, but the clock struck 5 o'clock".

In answer to inquiries, Miss Elliott says: -

" Although I am accustomed to have very vivid dreams, I have never had one of this kind before. When I found my friend was not in the room, and that the doors were securely fastened on the inside, I looked at my watch; it was a few minutes past 5.

" I have never, I believe, walked in my sleep. There are two doors to my bedroom. One was locked on the inside; the handle was broken off the other on the outside. Thus it was impossible for anyone to open it except from the inside".

[No one, probably, will regard this as an accidental coincidence; but the hypothesis of sleep-walking had to be carefully considered. I have seen the rooms, and examined the door of which the handle is described as having been broken off. Miss Bevan had been (as was often the case) in Miss Elliott's room over-night, and on her shutting the door at her departure, the outside handle fell off. She remembers its doing so; and Miss Elliott heard it fall, and saw it on the floor outside when she left her room in the morning. Miss Elliott says that it remained unscrewed, and so liable to be shaken off every time the door closed, for about two months that summer. I unscrewed it, and tried to move the latch by turning the stump, but found it utterly impossible;' and to fit the handle on again without pushing the stump inwards, and so losing all chance of opening the door, was a work of very considerable care. But even on the violent supposition that Miss Bevan left her room noiselessly in her sleep, picked up the handle, deftly adjusted it, turned it, and entered - there remains an additional difficulty. For, in departing, she must have shut the door after her in such a way as to jerk the handle off again.

This would make a loud sound; yet it was not heard by Miss Elliott, who, on the hypothesis in question, was awake; nor did it wake Miss Bevan herself, nor an aunt of hers who was sleeping in a room with which Miss Elliott's communicated. It seems almost incredible that she should have shut the door carefully after her, taken off the handle, and deposited it on the floor. Both the door of communication between Miss Elliott's and the aunt's rooms, and the free door of the latter room were locked, the former on Miss Elliott's side. Miss Bevan has never left her room, or anything like it, on the three occasions on which she has walked in her sleep. Moreover, she was sleeping in the same room as a sister who is a very light sleeper, and she considers that it is absolutely impossible that she should have left her room without waking this sister. Her room is separated from Miss Elliott's by a passage and a long staircase. Miss Bevan is not a "dreamer," and very rarely has a dream which she thinks it worth while to mention].

Two points in this case deserve special notice. In the first place, whatever we call Miss Elliott's experience, it was wholly unlike an ordinary dream; it was in itself as unusual in character as a" spectral illusion," or distinct waking hallucination of vision. Evidentially, this is very important; for it at once renders irrelevant the theory of accidental coincidence, so far as that theory depends on the scope for accident which the vast number of dreams affords. The second point is the possibility, at any rate, that the two experiences were not only simultaneous but reciprocal; that is to say, that Miss Bevan's dream may not have been simply the independent source of Miss Elliott's impression, but may have itself been modified by that impression.