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“ The French marshal seems to have stemmed and turned the tide, and the people that pass me in the streets have the light of victory in their faces. The air that blows toward us from the death-laden trenches bears the scent of immortal roses. ”

“ Men lying on the battle-field have seen spiritual armies sweeping by; they have been led by spiritual guidance to do things incredible; some of them have a strange look in their eyes as they lie on their cots, as if they were beholding visions. ”

“ Yes, it may be that the thunders of Armageddon portend that after so many blindfolded ages, the veil of Isis is being lifted at last! Some of us at last may consciously be admitted to intercourse with souls disincarnate, and hear nightingale notes of paradise. ”

“ But though on this plane of existence the body does but clothe a spirit which was before, and will be after, how can mortal sense make us aware of spiritual beings, or these have knowledge of us? To each, its own! ”

“ I asked in return, "of a singer from abroad—from the United States, possibly—a Mrs. Asgard; Aileen or Aline Asgard—who gave a private performance before the regent at Buckingham Palace, and afterward fell into disfavor with him, perhaps from not having been compliant enough with the royal gentleman's wishes? I have some grounds for suspecting that my ancestor may have had some relations with her, and that she was killed, under mysterious circumstances, in her dressing-room at Drury Lane Theater. ”

“ Asgard, Aline Asgard. an American; I'm almost sure there was a cause célèbre—and that the regent was suspected of a connection with it! But the investigation was discontinued, if I'm not mistaken—suppressed, you know, presumably for that very reason; court intrigues are apt to be problematic, and were especially so in the regent's time. ”

“ She speaks of a wonderful pressing through of the spiritual from the material in many of the wounded and sick soldiers she talks with, many of them men who had never before had any notion of anything above their bodies. ”