Modern spiritism; its science and religion - SpiritArchive.org

128 MODERN SPIRITISM
her to be, which was that of a girl from twelve to
fourteen. When, however, after a time I heard
more details about her, how she loved dolls and toys
and the rocking-horse, and how she was often put in
the corner, I lowered the age to eight or ten, feeling,
at the same time, how impossible it was to think she
could have written these clever letters. Suddenly,
after I had received a good many, the news came
from herself like a bombshell to say (she would have
told me before, but she always felt so ashamed of her
condition) that she was the daughter of a clergyman
and was now forty years of age. I went down to see
her for the first time after corresponding for
years.
Practically
Two People
I found a quiet woman dressed as a child in a pinafore,
but with an old face and set figure. With great
simplicity and modesty she put to me one or two
questions which absolutely posed me. After a time
I realised I had here a most interesting case of
double personality. Fanny knew perfectly well she
was practically two people, unlike the Baptist
ministers. At night she used to have rather terrifying
times with dazzling lights and other phenomena,
and she would get up in the morning a rather
naughty child, whom nothing would satisfy but toys
and a rocking-horse. On other occasions she would
be a clever, middle-aged woman selling tea in the
village for the benefit of the funds of the home.
She did not seem to pass abruptly from one state
to the other, but more or less gradually, and the
grown person always knew of the child state and was