Now, Julian, do you still believe that a hand held yours just now ?" Julian answered quietly, showing no irritation at the question: "I simply know it as surely as I know that I am sitting with you at this moment.

And,--look here, you may laugh at me as much as you.
like,--although I supposed the hand to be yours, until you denied it I had previously felt the most curious sensation." "Of what ?" "Well, that something was coming, even had actually come, into the room." Valentine answered nothing to this, so Julian went on.
"I thought it was a trick of the nerves, and determined to drive it away, and I succeeded.

And then, just as I was internally laughing at myself, this hand, as if groping about in the dark, was first laid on mine, full on it, Val, and then slid off onto the table and linked its little finger tightly in mine.

I, of course, supposed the hand was yours, and this finger was crooked round mine for fully five minutes, I should say.

After you spoke, thinking that you were trying to deceive me for a joke, I caught the hand in mine, and pinched it with all my strength until it was forcibly dragged away." "Strange," Valentine murmured.
"Deucedly strange! and, what's more, diabolically unpleasant." "I wonder what that fellow, Marr, would say to this." "Marr! By Jove, is this one of the manifestations which he spoke about so vaguely ?" "It seems like it." "But describe your sensations.