She appeared overjoyed at meeting me; so much so that I felt it would be heartless on my part to repel it. Laying her head upon my shoulder, she talked freely with me, saying things that it seemed impossible that any one but my wife could know. I knew what Mesmerism and clairvoyance meant. Was this another phase of them? Was it mind-reading? If so, it was a very clever performance. I could not realize that I had my wife before me, and yet here was a being who had penetrated the inmost secrets of my domestic life; had dragged from the past the well-worn pages of memory and read them anew. She remained out much longer than most of the forms had done, when I noticed that she appeared to be growing weaker, and, in spite of her efforts to sustain herself, was sinking downward. Bidding her Good-night, I let go her hand. As I did so, she went down directly in front of me, within a foot of where I stood, her head and shoulders being the last part visible. On the carpet, where she disappeared, there was a glow of phosphorescent light, which gradually faded away. For the first and only time during my investigations, I was unduly excited. It came so suddenly and unexpectedly upon me that I was confused. I brushed my hand across my forehead and eyes to make sure of my bearings, and slowly returned to my seat, fully conscious of the importance of what had passed before me. If real,--if the form had thus dematerialized,--then the reality of materialization followed as a matter of course. While turning these thoughts over in my mind, the seance closed; and as I stepped out into the full light of the autumnal moon, everything seemed changed. The sound of feet on the brick pavement grated harshly on my ears; before me rose the tall spire of the stone church, throwing its ghostly shadow across the way; behind me was the seance-room, and a dreamy consciousness of the strange phenomena I had witnessed surged through my brain. Was it possible that I had stood face to face and been in communication with one from another life? As I pondered over this, a reaction came, and before I reached my home the probability, or the possibility even, that I had been deceived, vexed and annoyed me, and aroused a determination to know whether or not there was truth in materialization. I was not over-pleased with what I had seen, and, but for this last incident, my investigations might have ended here. Materialization was either a great truth or a stupendous humbug. Thousands of intelligent persons believed in it, on what appeared to me uncertain evidence. Was it not a disgrace to science that this had been allowed to go on so long without any honest attempt to investigate it? If I could only get the inside track, how easy it would be to expose it! The whole thing lay in a nutshell: either the forms appearing were confederates, or personations by the medium; perhaps both. I would if possible adopt a system of investigation so thorough that nothing should escape me.