“I don’t know,” said I.

“But supposing my theory is right; then, if we can recover the record of her past, we shall be able to find the cause of her present condition, and having found the cause we may be able to remedy it. At any rate, let us try.”

“Would you like to see how I recover the records? I use various methods, sometimes I get them by hypnotizing the patients or by crystal-gazing, and sometimes I read them from the sub-conscious mind of Nature. You know, we believe that every thought and impulse in the world is recorded in the Akashic records. It is like consulting a reference library. I am going to use the latter method in the present case.”

In a few moments, by methods known to himself, Dr. Taverner had shut out all outward impressions from his mind, and was concentrated upon the inner vision.

Confused mental pictures evidently danced before his eyes; then he got the focus and began to describe what he saw while I took notes.

Egyptian and Grecian lives were dismissed with a few words; these were not what he sought; he was merely working his way down through the ages, but I gathered that we were dealing with a soul of ancient lineage and great opportunities. Life after life we heard the tale of royal birth or initiation into the priesthood, and yet, in its present life, the girl’s soul was cut off from all communication with its physical vehicle. I wondered what abuse of opportunity had led to such a sentence of solitary confinement in the cell of its body.

Then we came to the level we sought, Italy in the fifteenth century, as it turned out. “Daughter of the reigning duke—” I could not catch the name of his principality. “Her younger sister was beloved by Giovanni Sigmundi; she contrived to win the affections of her sister’s lover, and then, a richer suitor offering for her own hand, she betrayed Sigmundi to his enemies in order to be free of his importunities.”

“A true daughter of the Renaissance,” said Dr. Taverner, when he had returned to normal consciousness and read my notes; for he seldom retained any memory of what transpired during his subconscious states. “Now I think we can guess the cause of the