The appearance of a nun was entirely unexpected, as the name "Ishbel"
had been associated rather with the portrait of the beautiful woman in
an eighteenth-century dress in the library, and it was she whom the
witnesses, had they expected anything at all, would have expected to
see. Miss Freer, moreover, the first witness, had regarded the
statements of "Ouija" with her habitual scepticism as to induced
phenomena, more particularly those of automatic writing, in which, as
in dreams, it is almost always difficult to disentangle the operations
of the normal from those of the subconscious personality.

If the name "Ishbel" were really intended to apply to the nun, it
becomes a very curious question who is the person meant. A Robert
S---- of B---- married, as has been already mentioned, Isabella H----,
who died in 1784, but we know of no reason for supposing that she
ever became a nun.

The portrait may possibly have represented her, but it shows a much
older woman than the phantom so often seen; on the other hand, the
dates are not inconsistent, and a considerable distance of time is
suggested by certain phrases which occurred in the automatic writing.

The person to whom the mind more naturally reverts is Miss Isabella
S----, the sister, and apparently the favourite sister, of Major
S----. As already mentioned, she professed as a nun under the name of
Frances Helen in 1850, and died in 1880, aged sixty-six. She did not,
therefore, enter her convent till the age of thirty-five, an age much
greater than that shown by the phantom.

It is, moreover, interesting to note that this lady's name was
Isabella _Margaret_, so that both names, as given automatically, may