“Without the subject’s knowledge?”

“That depends.  If the force were strongly exerted, he would know no more about it than Miss Marden did when she came round and frightened you so.  Or, if the influence was less powerful, he might be conscious of what he was doing, but be quite unable to prevent himself from doing it.”

“Would he have lost his own will power, then?”

“It would be over-ridden by another stronger one.”

“Have you ever exercised this power yourself?”

“Several times.”

“Is your own will so strong, then?”

“Well, it does not entirely depend upon that.  Many have strong wills which are not detachable from themselves.  The thing is to have the gift of projecting it into another person and superseding his own.  I find that the power varies with my own strength and health.”

“Practically, you send your soul into another person’s body.”

“Well, you might put it that way.”

“And what does your own body do?”

“It merely feels lethargic.”

“Well, but is there no danger to your own health?” I asked.

“There might be a little.  You have to be careful never to let your own consciousness absolutely go; otherwise, you might experience some difficulty in finding your way back again.  You must always preserve the connection, as it were.  I am afraid I express myself very badly, Professor Gilroy, but of course I don’t know how to put these things in a scientific way.  I am just giving you my own experiences and my own explanations.”

Well, I read this over now at my leisure, and I marvel at myself!  Is this Austin Gilroy, the man who has won his way to the front by his hard reasoning power and by his devotion to fact?  Here I am gravely retailing the gossip of a woman who tells me how her soul may be projected from her body, and how, while she lies in a lethargy, she can control the actions of people at a distance.  Do I accept it?  Certainly not.  She must prove and re-prove before I yield a point.  But if I am still a sceptic, I have at least ceased to be a scoffer.  We are to have a sitting this evening, and she is to try if she can produce any mesmeric effect upon me.  If she can, it will make an excellent starting-point for our investigation.  No one can accuse me, at any rate, of complicity.  If she cannot, we must try and find some subject who will be like Caesar’s wife.  Wilson is perfectly impervious.

10 P. M. I believe that I am on the threshold of an epoch-making investigation.  To have the power of examining these phenomena from inside—­to have an organism which will respond, and at the same time a brain which will appreciate and criticise—­that is surely a unique advantage.  I am quite sure that Wilson would give five years of his life to be as susceptible as I have proved myself to be.