upon, and I can only conclude that some singular psychic affinity, some
force still active in his being out of the same past life, drew him thus
to the personality of Vezin, and enabled him to fear what might happen
to him, and thus to warn him as he did.

"Yes," he presently continued, half talking to himself, "I suspect in
this case that Vezin was swept into the vortex of forces arising out of
the intense activities of a past life, and that he lived over again a
scene in which he had often played a leading part centuries before. For
strong actions set up forces that are so slow to exhaust themselves,
they may be said in a sense never to die. In this case they were not
vital enough to render the illusion complete, so that the little man
found himself caught in a very distressing confusion of the present and
the past; yet he was sufficiently sensitive to recognise that it was
true, and to fight against the degradation of returning, even in
memory, to a former and lower state of development.

"Ah yes!" he continued, crossing the floor to gaze at the darkening sky,
and seemingly quite oblivious of my presence, "subliminal up-rushes of
memory like this can be exceedingly painful, and sometimes exceedingly
dangerous. I only trust that this gentle soul may soon escape from this
obsession of a passionate and tempestuous past. But I doubt it, I doubt
it."

His voice was hushed with sadness as he spoke, and when he turned back
into the room again there was an expression of profound yearning upon
his face, the yearning of a soul whose desire to help is sometimes
greater than his power.