Voices

April, 1883. (308) A and B^ are two villages in Norfolk, distant about five miles from each other. At the time of the occurrence about to be related, the clergymen of these parishes both bore the same name, though there was no relationship between them ; at the same time there was a great friendship between the two families. On the 20th February, 1870, a daughter, Constance, about 14 years old, of the clergyman of A, was staying with the other family — a daughter, Margaret, in that family, being her great friend. Edward W., the eldest son of the Rector of A, was at that time lying dangerously ill at home with inflammation of the lungs, and was frequently delirious. On the day mentioned, at about noon, Margaret and Constance were in the garden of B Rectory, running down a path which was separated by a hedge from an orchard adjoining ; they distinctly heard themselves called twice, apparently from the orchard, thus : ' Connie, Margaret — Connie, Margaret.' They stopped, but could see no one, and so went to the house, a distance of about 40 yards, concluding that one of Margaret's brothers had called them from there. But to their surprise they 1 I should further conjecture one of the conditions of Mrs. Parker's percipience to have been the fact that she was actually contemplating the scene in which Mr. S. seemed to find himself (see pp. 267-9). 2 These letters are substituted for those actually given for the sake of clearness. The names of the villages were not suppressed in the accounts that follow ; but as they were suppressed in this first one, it has been thought right to suppress them throughout. found that this was not the case; and Mrs. W., Margaret's mother, assured the girls no one had called them from the house, and they therefore concluded they must have been mistaken in supposing they had heard their names repeated. This appeared to be the only explanation of the matter, and nothing more was thought of it. That evening Constance returned to her home at A. On the following day, Mrs. W. drove over to inquire for the sick boy Edward. In the course of conversation, his mother said that the day before he had been delirious, and had spoken of Constance and Margaret, that he had called to them in his delirium, and had then said, ' Now I see them running along the hedge, but directly I call them they run towards the house.' Mrs. W., of B, at once called to mind the mystery of the previous day, and asked, ' Do you know at what time that happened ? ' Edward's mother replied that it was at a few minutes past 12, for she had just given the invalid his medicine, 12 being his hour for taking it. So these words were spoken by Edward at the same time at which the two girls had heard themselves called, and thus only could the voice from the orchard be accounted for.