"I can comfort you as to that, at least. Your husband died of entirely natural causes-from a blood clot in
the brain. My examination satisfied me thoroughly as to that. You had nothing to do with it. As for the
doll-you had an unusually vivid dream, that is all."
She looked at me as one who would give her soul to believe. She said:
"But I heard him die!"
"It is quite possible-" I plunged into a somewhat technical explanation which I knew she would not quite
understand, but would, perhaps, be therefore convincing-"You may have been half-awake-on what we
term the borderline of waking consciousness. In all probability the entire dream was suggested by what
you heard. Your subconsciousness tried to explain the sounds, and conceived the whole fantastic drama
you have recited to me. What seemed, in your dream, to take up many minutes actually passed through