Under The Lamp
I had given a glass ball to a young lady, who believed that she could
play the "willing game" successfully without touching the person
"willed," and when the person did not even know that "willing" was
going on. This lady, Miss Baillie, had scarcely any success with the
ball. She lent it to Miss Leslie, who saw a large, square, old-
fashioned red sofa covered with muslin, which she found in the next
country house she visited. Miss Baillie's brother, a young athlete
(at short odds for the amateur golf championship), laughed at these
experiments, took the ball into the study, and came back looking "gey
gash". He admitted that he had seen a vision, somebody he knew "under
a lamp". He would discover during the week whether he saw right or
not. This was at 5.30 on a Sunday afternoon. On Tuesday, Mr. Baillie
was at a dance in a town some forty miles from his home, and met a
Miss Preston. "On Sunday," he said, "about half-past five you were
sitting under a standard lamp in a dress I never saw you wear, a blue
blouse with lace over the shoulders, pouring out tea for a man in blue
serge, whose back was towards me, so that I only saw the tip of his
moustache."
"Why, the blinds must have been up," said Miss Preston.
"I was at Dulby," said Mr. Baillie, as he undeniably was. {60a}
This is not a difficult exercise in belief. Miss Preston was not
unlikely to be at tea at tea-time.
Nor is the following very hard.
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