For example: To a lady sitting in the third row of the stalls, he
said: "There is the phantasm of an elderly gentleman standing behind
you. He has a vivid scar on his right cheek that looks as if it might
have been caused by a sabre cut. He has a grey military moustache, a
very marked chin; wears his hair parted in the middle, and has
light-blue eyes that are fixed ferociously on the gentleman seated on
your left. Do you recognize the person I am describing?"
"I think so," the lady answered in a faint voice.
"I will spare you a description of his person," Hamar went on, "but I
should like to remind you that he met with a rather peculiar accident.
He was looking over some engineering works in Leeds, when some one
pushed him, and he was instantly whipped off the ground by a piece of
revolving mechanism and dashed to pieces against the ceiling. Am I
right?"
There was no reply--but the sigh, we think, was more significant than
words.
Mr. Hamar then turned to a lady in the next row. "I can see behind
you," he said, "an old dowager with yellow hair. She wears large
emerald drop earrings, black satin skirt, and a heliotrope bodice of
which she appears to be somewhat vain. She is coughing terribly. She
died of pneumonia, brought about by the excessive zeal of--Ahem!--of
her relatives--for the open-air treatment. Contrary to expectations,
however, all her money went to a Society in Hanover Square--a Society
for the Anti-propagation of Children.
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