At the time, the novelist Annie Thomas, an intimate friend, was staing with Mrs. Marryat. Florence and Annie took the adress Mr. Dunphy gave them of the American medium Mrs. Holmes, who was then visiting London and lodging in Old Quebec Street. They refused any introduction, and went to see her incognito.

The next evening, when Mrs. Holmes held a public seance, the two women presented themselves at Mrs. Holmes' as Miss Taylor and Miss Turner. They had first removed their wedding-rings, because they wanted to look "as virginal as possible".

Mrs. Holmes did not receive them very graciously. They were strangers to her – probably sceptics - and the medium eyed them rather coldly. It was a bitter night; the snow lay so thick upon the ground that Mrs. Taylor & Mrs. Turner had some difficulty in procuring a hansom to take them to Old Quebec Street.

No other visitors arrived, and after a little while Mrs. Holmes offered to return their money (ten shillings). She said there would probably be no manifestations on account of the inclemency of the weather. (Any extreme heat or cold is indeed liable to make a seance a dead failure.) But Annie Thomas had to return home the following day, and so they begged the medium to try at least and show them something.

Florence was not quite sure what she expected or hoped for on this occasion. She was full of curiosity, but she didn't think to see a face which she would recognize as having been on earth. Florence waited till nine o'clock in hopes that a circle would be formed; but as no one else came, Mrs. Holmes consented to sit with them alone, warning them however to prepare for a disappointment.

The lights were extinguished, and they sat for the usual preliminary dark seance. When it concluded, the gas was re-lit and now they were waiting to see the “Spirit Faces”...

There were two small rooms connected by folding doors. Annie Thomas and Florence Marryat were asked to go into the back room and to lock the door communicating with the landings,. They had to secure it with their own seal, stamped upon a piece of tape stretched across the opening. Mrs. Holmes asked them to examine the window and bar the shutter inside, and to search the room thoroughly. There was no one concealed in it.

When they were satisfied that no one could enter from the back, Mr. and Mrs. Holmes, Annie Thomas and Florence Marryat were seated on four chairs in the front room, arranged in a row before the folding doors. The doors were opened, and a square of black calico was fastened across the aperture from one wall to the other. The calico had a square hole of about the size of an ordinary window, at which the spirit faces would appear.

"There was no singing, nor noise of any sort made to drown the sounds of preparation, Florence Marryat related, "and we could have heard even a rustle in the next room."

Mr. and Mrs. Holmes talked of their various experiences, and then, suddenly, something white and indistinct like a cloud of tobacco smoke appeared and disappeared again. “They are coming! Oh, I am so glad they are coming!” exlaimed Mrs. Holmes. “I didn’t think we should get anything tonight!"

The white mass advanced and retreated several times, and finally settled before the aperture and opened in the middle. A female face was distinctly to be seen now, above the black calico... and to her amazement, Florence recognize the features of Annie Thomas’ mother!

Annie was very much affected, and talked to her mother in the most incoherent manner. The spirit did not answer in words, but she bowed her head or shook it, according as she wished to say “yes” or “no”. Florence could not help feeling awed at the appearance of the dear old lady, but what puzzled her the most was the cap she wore, which was made of white net, quilled closely round the face, and unlike any she had ever seen the old lady wear in life.

Florence whispered this to Annie, and her friend replied at once: “It is the cap she was buried in…”

Mrs. Thomas had possessed a very pleasant but very uncommon looking face, with bright black eyes, and a complexion of pink and white like that of a child. It was some time before Annie could be persuaded to let her mother go, but the next face that presented itself astonished her quite as much, for she recognized it as that of Captain Gordon, a gentleman whom she had known intimately and for a length of time.

Florence had never seen Captain Gordon in the flesh, but she had heard of him, and she knew he had died from a sudden accident. All she saw was the head of a goodlooking young man. While her friend conversed with him about olden days, Florence minutely examined the working of the muscles of his throat, which undeniably stretched when his head moved.

As she was doing so, he leaned forward, and she saw a dark stain, which looked like a clot of blood on his fair hair, on the left side of the forehead.

“Annie! What did Captain Gordon die of?” she asked.

“He fell from a railway carriage,” Annie replied, “and struck his head upon the line.”

Florence then pointed out to her the blood upon his hair…



