Date: Saturday, March 14, 1896
Location: Ealing, West London

It was without warning that I received notice of Mrs. Marshmoor’s illness less than two weeks before she passed from this life.

Mrs. Marshmoor’s bearing of a child had developed a number of complications (I shall not impart the details for it is irrelevant to this account). It was late into her term and it was without question that both she and the unborn would most likely perish during the labour. I should point out that at this time I had very little in the way of communication with Mrs. Marshmoor, being a long time acquaintance of her husband, Abelard Marshmoor (a man whom I have found to possess utmost integrity despite a position in local government).

The notice of Mrs. Marshmoor’s imminent departure was accompanied by an intriguing post script:

P.S. It is beyond all belief and understanding and all that is known within the world, but for the past ten days Florence has on occasion been visited by Reginald, a trusted Irish Wolfhound whom we lost not six weeks past. I have seen the dear animal myself sitting at my wife’s side and offering her comfort through his presence. I do not know what to make of it.

And so it is revealed as to why Mr. Marshmoor saw fit to contact me, for our relationship was not of a nature to inform me of his wife’s illness in this manner.

On Saturday, March 14, I made my way to the Willesden Infirmary, Coronation Road, where Mrs. Marshmoor was under the care of one Dr. Ashden. Ashden, you may be aware, is renowned for less than scrupulous practices and unconventional treatments of the terminally ill. His methods range from herbs and concoctions, to the laying on of hands, to the intervention of channelers and mediums. His techniques are as broad as they are ineffective in halting or slowing the passage of those destined to death, and I have little time for the man’s obsessions. However, Ashden had been assigned to Mrs. Marshmoor’s treatment under her explicit request, and it was at once that she was admitted to the infirmary that the canine apparition began making its visitations.

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