“‘He must be very like me.’
“‘He is. But there is a difference between you.’
“‘What is it?’
“‘His hair is cut more closely than yours, and part of it is shaved off.’
“‘He is a priest, then?’
“‘He wears a cowl. He is a monk.’
“‘A monk! But why does he come to me?’
“‘I should say that he cannot help it, that he is your spirit in some former state. Yes’—and he stared at me till his eyes almost mesmerised me—‘you must have been a monk once.’
“‘I—a monk! Impossible! Even if I have lived on earth before, it could never have been as a monk.’
“‘How do you know that?’