Part 28 (1/2)

After a long sleep Edith waked again She said nothing I did not wish her to speak She lay awake, yet with closed eyes, thinking such thoughts as belong to one, and to one alone, who had knohat she had known

I did not speak to her, for she was to htly Yet she did not refuse nourisher, until at last I was able to have her moved to Quebec There I obtained proper accoood nurses

I have told you what she was before this Subsequently there cae The nurses and the doctors called it a stupor

There was so all who saw her If it is the soul of ives expression to the features, then her soul s unknown to us How often have I seen her in walking across the roo and sad! She coh she walked in a drea inaudible words The nurses half loved and half feared her Yet there were some little children in the house who felt all love and no fear, for I have seen her s on them with a smile so sweet that it seeuardian angel Strange, sad spirit, what thoughts, whatreverie, and have taken from her all power to enjoy the beautiful that dwells on earth! She fills all hts with her loneliness, her tears, and her spiritual face, bearing the otten She lives and moves amidst her recollections What is it that so overwhelh it had bathed itself in the atmosphere of some diviner world than this: and her eyes seeazed upon the Infinite Mystery

Now froather this to be her own belief That when she fell into the state of trance her soul was parted froh still by an inexplicable sy around her lifeless forone forth into that spiritual world tohich we look froled there with the souls of others It had put forth neers, and learned the use of new faculties Then that soul was called back to its body

Thismortals--is not a mortal, she is an exiled soul I have seen her sit with tears strea down her face, tears such as men shed in exile For she is like a banishedhomesickness She has been once in that radiant world for a time which we call three days in our human calculations, but which to her seenant thought, full of --there is no time there, all is infinite duration The soul has illimitable powers; in an instant it can live years, and she in those three days had the life of ages Her former life on earth has now but a faint hold upon herthe stars The sorrow that her loved ones endured has becoe of the blessedness in which she found the to die, and it is only a curse to rise fro heart, with s unutterable, and yearnings that cannot be expressed for that starry world and that bright companionshi+p from which she has been recalled So she sometimes speaks And little else can she say amidst her tears Oh, sublime and mysterious exile, could I but knohat you know, and have but a small part of that secret which you can not explain!

For she can not tell what she witnessed _there_ She sometimes wishes to do so, but can not When asked directly, she sinks into herself and is lost in thought She finds no words It is as e try to explain to a man who has been always blind the scenes before our eyes We can not explain them to such a s which no hues were made for the earth, not for heaven In order to tell e of that world, and then she could not explain it, for I could not understand it

Only once I saw her smile, and that hen one of the nurses casually mentioned, with horror, the death of sohted up with a kind of ecstasy ”Oh, that Ion earth except that which we consider a curse, and to her the object of all her wishes is this one thing--Death I shall not soon forget that s to death

Do I believe this, so wild a theory, the very mention of which has carried me beyond myself? I do not know All my reason rebels It scouts the monstrous idea But here she stands before hts, and her wonderful words, few, but full of deepest nize so of hers? Why when she thinks of death does her face grow thus radiant, and her eyes kindle with hope? Why does she so pine and grow sick with desire? Why does her heart thus ache as day succeeds to day, and she finds herself still under the sunlight, with the landscapes and the music of this fair earth still around her?

Once, in some speculations of ht that if a man could reach that spiritual world he would look with conte to this

Here is one who believes that she has gone through this experience, and all this earth, with all its beauty, is now an object of indifference to her Perhaps you may ask, Is she sane? Yes, dear, as sane as I ae

After I had been in Quebec about a iments stationed here was commanded by Colonel Henry Despard I called on hiht He made me tell him all about myself, and I ie and quarantine as was advisable I did not go into particulars to any extent, of course I rave_ That, dearest sister, is a secret between you, and me, and her For if it should be possible that she should ever be restored to ordinary hu, it will not be well that all the world should knohat has happened to her

His regiment was ordered to Halifax, and I concluded to coent solicitations and accompany him It is better for _her_ at any rate that there should be more friends than one to protect her Despard, like the doctors, supposes that she is in a stupor

The journey here exercised a favorable influence over her Her strength increased to a ree, and she has once or twice spoken about the past She told me that her father wrote to his son Louis in Australia soed hiland The Colonel and I at once thought that he ought to be sought after without delay, and he promised to write to his nephew, your old playhbor of yours

If he is still the one whom I remember--intellectual yet spiritual, with sound reason, yet a strong heart, if he is still the Courtenay Despard hen a boy, seemed to me to look out upon the world before him with such lofty poetic enthusiasm--then, Teresella, you should show his which he ought to know I suppose it would be unintelligible to Mr Thornton, who is a most estimable man, but who, from the nature of his mind, if he read this, would only conclude that the writer was insane

At any rate, Mr Thornton should be infor can be done to alleviate the distress, or to avenge the wrongs of one whose father was the earliest benefactor of his family

CHAPTER XVI

HUSBAND AND WIFE

”It is now thepause, in which he had given hie reflections which the diary was calculated to excite ”If Louis Brandon left Australia when he was called he land now”

”You are cal more to say than that?”

Despard looked at her earnestly ”Do you ask uish that the heart ht break out of pure sy to say I am speechless My God! what horror thou dost per must be done,” said Mrs Thornton, impetuously

”Yes,” said Despard, slowly, ”but what? If we could reach our hands over the grave and bring back those who have passed away, then the soul of Edith ive her no peace She only wishes to die Yet so is to find Louis Brandon I will start for London to-night I will go and seek him, not for Edith's sake but for his own, that I may save one at least of this family For her there is no coive her the greatest earthly happiness it would be poor and h after that starry companionshi+p from which her soul has been withdrawn”

”Then you believe it”