Lehal Library

forty-two pupils, occupied with embroidery, were able to see Mile Sagee picking flowers not far from the house. Another mistress, charged with looking after the girls, presently rose from her arm-chair and left the room; and shortly after the pupils noticed that Mile Sagee was in the arm-chair while her Double was still employed picking flowers, but moving more slowly, like someone in a dream. Two of the more adventurous girls walked up to the seated figure and felt, as they touched it, a faint resistance as of muslin or crepe. One of them even walked across part of the figure. After a brief interval the form disappeared altogether and Mile Sagee resumed her occupation in the garden with her usual vivacity. Questioned by her pupils as to her sensations on this occasion, Mile Sagee explained that, seeing the arm-chair was empty, she thought it her duty to look after the class. These phenomena continued, with intervals of several weeks, during the whole period of eighteen months that Mile Sagee was employed at Neuwelcke, occurring most often when she was especially preoccupied, and, in proportion to the clearness and apparent substantiality of the Double, her own form showed signs of weakness and exhaustion, recovering its normal alertness as the Double faded. She herself was never aware of her Double's presence. Unfortunately, as these happenings began to be noised abroad, the parents of the pupils became anxious for the effect on their children, and many of the girls failed to return from their holiday, the scholars gradually dwindling from forty-two to twelve. Regretfully, so excellent was her work, the directors were at last compelled to give Mile Sagee notice, and in her despair she revealed that, since the beginning of her career as a