“Escape!” I cried. “Can I escape?”
“Do you not see that the most repulsive of these spectres are fashioned of the thoughts which are of yourself, recording your former vanity, pride, uncharity, selfishness and forgetfulness of others? See you that lovely being representing a deed of self-sacrifice?”
“Oh! that they were all like her!” I cried.
“Then listen. You must act in such a manner that the good will eclipse these shadows, when they will disappear.”
Saying this he vanished, and I, reflecting, said that I would at once free myself from the dreadful following. Opportunely there came a spirit moaning past me. Her brother on earth was contemplating a horrible crime. He had determined to take the life of his mother in order to become possessed of her estate. The sister had vainly attempted to give a warning or to influence him, and in despair at her failure she had left them to their fate. I said to her:
“Come. I will go with you, and perhaps together we can prevent this crime.”
She fervently expressed her gratitude as she conducted me to her mother’s house. It was midnight when we arrived, as I saw in the dim lamplight by the tall clock, and the mother was sleeping.
“We can only watch,” said my companion, “and if he should come, we can do nothing to save her.”
“Do you not know that sometimes sleep unlocks the avenues of the spirit, and we can approach much nearer than in waking hours? When we thus come, people say they have dreamed.”
I bent over the mother, her white locks fell from beneath her cap over the pillow, and there was something in the expression of her lips and cheeks reminding me of my own. I tested her sensitiveness and found that her mind responded. Then I willed these words: