Fifty Years a Medium – Chapter 9, 7/10 by Estelle Roberts

“That’s all right, Sir Henry. I am only sorry she was unable to come. Have you a message for her?”
Sir Henry had. It was a brief personal greeting of no particular significance to anybody present but full of inner meaning, Lady Segrave volunteered, when it was telephoned to her. Before the séance ended, Barbanell asked Red Cloud’s permission to bring Lady Segrave to the next sitting. It was readily granted.

A fortnight later Barbanell arrived with his guest. She was introduced to nobody present, though the handful of sitters who had attended the previous séance no doubt guessed the identity. It was not long before the trumpet moved in her direction and Red Cloud spoke to her.
“You do not know me,” he said.

“No,” she answered. “I am a stranger here.”
“Oh no, you are not. Soon I will bring your little man to you.”
This snatch of dialogue was interrupted for fifteen minutes by conversations between other sitters and their spirit communicators before the trumpet returned to Lady Segrave.

“D!” it said.
Lady Segrave was so overcome at being addressed by the pet name which only her husband used and was unknown to anyone else present that she was incapable of answering.
“D!” the voice repeated, but still she could not answer.

“Speak to him,” Barbanell urged her, but she was still overwhelmed. The trumpet moved away from her and poised itself in front of Barbanell. The same voice greeted him. “You are there, Barbanell?” it said.
“Yes, Sir Henry,” he answered, but please speak to your wife.”

The spirit voice again called her name. This time she tried to reply, but her tenseness made it impossible.
“This is very difficult,” said Segrave, and the trumpet dropped. This was always an indication that the communicator could not hold the power to speak.

Red Cloud’s kindly voice was again heard, offering sympathy and encouragement and promising to help in the future. It was a promise that was amply fulfilled. At the next séance and the many that followed, Lady Segrave was completely at ease.

Sir Henry made such great strides in the mechanics of manipulating the trumpet that he was able to bring it to her ear and whisper to her, so that no one else heard what he said.
On an early occasion he mentioned: “I was with you on the 14th , D.”