I received a telegram yesterday announcing the arrival in England of my brace of Ethels, and to-morrow I expect the arrival here of Charlotte and Mytsie.[105]...
I forgot about the mesmerism article. You will have seen that the writer rather caved in at the end, so that one cannot well understand how much he himself supposes was genuine and how much imposture.
But quite apart from (this), there is no question in my mind that the facts, even as far as hitherto established, are very perplexing. But on this account there is all the more need for caution. I myself went over the Paris Salpétrière two years ago, and saw the doctors' experiments on a number of girls, who were trotted out for my benefit.
But there was such a lot of hocus pocus with magnets that I was much disappointed. Even if none of the girls were humbugging, I saw nothing that could not be explained by suggestion.
For the doctors made suggestions while performing the very experiments which were designed to exclude suggestion.
To Mrs. Vernon Boys.
New Hotel, Madeira: February 1, 1893.
My dear Marion,—If I have your husband's permission still to call you so—your kind letter has been a great solace to me, after my ineffectual efforts to supply a sonnet for the great occasion. For it shows me that your Laureate is forgiven, and my friend, what that friend has always been. Besides, I am now lonely—as my brace of Ethels has flown away—and therefore your affectionate words are all the more welcome.
This, however, is the last day of my solitude, as Charlotte and Mytsie ought to arrive in a few hours.
And now, having given you all my little news, let me pile up my congratulations as high as words can pile them. I heard all about the wedding from many different sources, and there was but one opinion as to the bride. I will not say what it was, but oh, had I been there to see. It is so so good of you to miss us in the middle of it all. But it may have been telepathy, because I was hard at work on my abortive sonnet all that day.