The doctor and her husband try to prevent her.
"But what is the matter with you?" she asks. "I simply must go
out."
"No, madame, you shall not: I speak in the interest of your
health."
"Well, then, doctor," she replies, with a smile, "if it is in the
interest of my health, that is all the more reason why you should
let me go out."
The excuse is a plausible one and even irresistible; but the
husband, wishing to carry the struggle against destiny to the
last, declares that he will accompany his wife. The doctor
remains alone, feeling somewhat anxious, in spite of the rather
farcical turn which the incident has taken. Suddenly, a piercing
shriek is heard and the noise of a body falling. He runs out and
finds Mme.-- wild with fright and apparently dying in her
husband's arms. At the moment when, leaving him for an instant,
she opened the door of the place where she was going, a rat, the
first seen there for twenty years, rushed at her and gave her so
great a start that she fell flat on her back. And all the rest of
the prediction was fulfilled to the letter, hour by hour and
detail by detail.
3
To make it quite clear in what spirit I am undertaking this study
and to remove at the beginning any suspicion of blind or
systematic credulity, I am anxious, before going any further, to
say that I fully realize that cases of this kind by no means
carry conviction.
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