CORRESPONDENCE, 1846-55. 207 



1849. 

 ' She will never find her way there. She has never been so 



far away from Camden Town.' 



The girl in a moment got there. * Knock at the door/ said 

 my wife. 'I cannot,' said the girl ; ' we must go in at the gate.' 

 (The house, a most unusual thing in London, stands in a garden ; 

 this my wife knew nothing of.) Having made the girl go in and 

 knock at the door, or simulate it, or whatever the people do, the 

 girl said she heard voices upstairs, and being told to go up, 

 exclaimed, ' What a comical house ! there are three doors,' de- 

 scribing them thus. 1 (This was true, and is not usual in any 

 but large houses.) On being told to go into the room from 

 whence voices came, she said, * Now I see Mr. De Morgan, but 

 he has a nice coat on, and not the long coat he wears here; 

 and he is talking to an old gentleman, and there is another old 

 gentleman, and there are ladies,' This was a true description 

 of the party, except that the other gentleman was not old. * And 

 now,' she said, 'there is a lady come to them, and is beginning 

 to talk to Mr. De Morgan and the old gentleman, and Mr. De 

 Morgan is pointing at you and the old gentleman is looking at 

 me.' About the time indicated I happened to be talking with 

 my host 011 the subject of mesmerism, and having mentioned 

 what my wife was doing, or said she was doing, with the little 

 girl, he said, ' Oh, my wife must hear this,' and called her, 

 and she came up and joined us in the manner described. The 

 girl then proceeded to describe the room ; stated that there 

 were two pianos in it. There was one, and an ornamental side- 

 board not much unlike a pianoforte to the daughter of a poor 

 charwoman. That there were two kinds of curtains, white and 

 red, and curiously looped up (all true to the letter), and that 

 there were wine and water and biscuits on the table. Now my 

 wife, knowing that we had dined at half-past six, and thinking 

 it impossible that anything but coffee could be on the table, said, 

 ' You must mean coffee.' The girl persisted, ' Wine, water, and 

 biscuits.' My wife, still persuaded that it must be coffee, tried 

 in every way to lead her witness, and make her say coffee. But 

 still the girl persisted, ' wine, water, and biscuits,' which was 

 literally true, it not being what people talk of under the name 

 of a glass of wine and a biscuit, which means sandwiches, cake, 

 &c., but strictly wine, water, and biscuits. 



1 A little diagram is given of these doors (she counted three, but 

 indicated more) in the letter. S. E. DE M. 



