ming--it can never be! Still he gazed intently into my
eyes, seeming to penetrate my very soul; then I saw his expression
change into one of ineffable tenderness, and a beautiful smile rippled
over his face.

All doubt was now at an end; this was indeed no dream, no hallucination.
I had seen that face before--seen those features in a less glowing and
glorified form than that in which they now shone upon me, and _I knew
where I had seen them_!

Something, which I had vaguely imagined might just be within the bounds
of possibility, was now proved to be not only possible, but an
accomplished fact.

Memories of the past rushed over me like swelling waves, and I seemed
swept away by their surging billows. I gazed and gazed, in almost
incredulous wonder, at that glorious being who stood there regarding me
with an expression of ineffable affection; and my heart seemed to melt
within me as the re-awakened love for a long-lost form stirred every
fibre of my body and thrilled me through and through. Then, overwhelmed
by the intensity of my emotions, I threw myself into his arms, crying
aloud, "Oh, Mark! my boy! my boy!"

CHAPTER XV

WHAT IS IN A NAME!--THE STORY OF MERNA

Yes, this glorious being was indeed the son whom I had lost on the
earth! It would be utterly impossible for me to describe the pathos and
affection of that meeting with one whom I thought had passed for ever
out of my present life, or the intensity of my emotions and the
overflowing gratitude with which I gazed once more upon the face of my
lost loved one, now so unexpectedly and wonderfully restored to me. Such
emotions as I then experienced are beyond description by any pen or any
tongue.

Whilst I was thus overwhelmed with emotion, my son exhibited the most
dignified calm; yet his words and sympathy were as tender as those of a
mother soothing a suffering child. Having at last brought me into a
calmer state of mind, he said: "Yes, I, who am now called Merna, am
indeed he who was once your son upon the earth; and I am indeed he who
in heart and soul is at this moment as truly and affectionately your
son, though living in another world, possessing another body, and called
by another name!

"Oh, how I have yearned for this meeting, and through what long years
have I studied and striven to bring it about!"

"You have brought it about, my boy!" I cried in amazement. "Why, how was
that?"

"It is too long a story to narrate now," he replied, "