suddenly startled to learn that two beautiful young women--one fair
and wealthy, the other dark and poor, but accomplished--had won my
heart and that I was hesitating as to which one I loved the more.

"This was somewhat distressing and wholly unpremeditated on my
part. I caught myself hoping, with a vague sense of guilt, that my
wife wouldn't hear of it, for I knew it would worry her and bring
about complications between us. Perhaps this was the dark cloud,
I ruminated, and felt cheered by the assurance that it would soon
pass away. The spirit that told me these things was evidently in
a communicative mood and had, no doubt, looked up my case very
carefully.

"'You are very sensitive,' she told me--I use the word 'she'
advisedly, for no masculine spirit could possibly have ferreted out
all these facts. 'You touch many natures closely and benefit by
this faculty.' I had just borrowed a little money from a friend and
wondered if anything personal was intended by the word 'touch.' But I
cast this thought aside as unworthy--no spirit would resort to slang.

"'Do you often hear voices, indistinctly?' continued the spirit,
'strange voices which seem to call you and then sink away?' I thought
of the telephone and wondered how she could have known.

"'Yes,' I said, I hear them every day.'

"'Ah!' said the spirit, 'you are mediumistic.'

"I started. 'Is it painful?' I asked, 'or likely to become chronic?'