of
the sky, and the joyous light of the sun.

The Golden City of their dreams! It was the place, where perhaps one day
their father would present to them two young lovers, good and fair as
themselves. "They love you," he was to say; "they are worthy of you.
Let each of you have a brother, and me two sons." Then what chaste,
enchanting confusion for those two orphans, whose hearts, pure as
crystal, had never reflected any image but that of Gabriel, the
celestial messenger sent by their mother to protect them!

We can therefore understand the painful emotion of Blanche, when she
heard her sister repeat, with bitter melancholy, those words which
described their whole situation: "I think of the Golden City of our
dreams!"

"Who knows?" proceeded Blanche, drying her sister's tears; "perhaps,
happiness may yet be in store for us."

"Alas! if we are not happy with our father by us--shall we ever be so?"

"Yes, when we rejoin our mother," said Blanche, lifting her eyes to
heaven.

"Then, sister, this dream may be a warning--it is so like that we had in
Germany."

"The difference being that then the Angel Gabriel came down from heaven
to us, and that this time he takes us from earth, to our mother."

"And this dream will perhaps come true, like the other, my sister. We
dreamt that the Angel Gabriel would protect us, and he came to save us
from the shipwreck."

"And, this time, we dream that he will lead us to heaven. Why should not
that happen also?"

"But to bring that about, sister, our Gabriel, who saved us from the
shipwreck, must die also. No, no; that must not happen. Let us pray that
it may not happen."

"No, it will not happen--for it is only Gabriel's good angel, who is so
like him, that we saw in our dreams."

"Sister, dear, how singular is this dream!--Here, as in Germany, we have
both dreamt the same--three times, the very same!"

"It is true. The Angel Gabriel bent over us, and looked at us with so
mild and sad an air, saying: 'Come, my children! come, my sisters! Your
mother waits for you. Poor children, arrived from so far!' added he in
his tender voice: 'You have passed over the earth, gentle and innocent
as two doves, to repose forever in the maternal nest.'"

"Yes, those were the words of the archangel," said the other orphan,
with a pensive air; "we have done no harm to any one, and we have loved
those who loved us--why should we fear to die?"

"Therefore, dear sister, we rather smiled tha