d she pressed her hands upon her heart.

"'Let the dead man lie between us,' I proceeded; 'it is not seemly for
you to be my friend; and to me you are an ever-present accusation. We
must not see each other!'

"'Oh, Luke!' she cried, falling upon her knees imploringly; 'I am a
bruised thing, a-weary of the world. This silence and darkness are
endeared to me. Do not send me away!'

"'You agitate me,' I said; 'let us do our penance, each in loneliness.
There was a time when our sorrows were mutual; it is past; we have
only to say farewell.'

"I covered my face with my hands; she touched my brow with her lips,
and when the door had closed upon her sobbing I heard her footfalls
making mournful music on the stairs. They rang upon the lawn, then
pattered down the drive; they passed desolately out of the gate, they
were lost on the highway, and then the world became blank again.

* * * * *

"'Luke,' said my mother timidly, 'Mrs.
Clendenning--Heraine--is--dead.'

"'I know it,' said I quietly.

"She seemed surprised, and interrogated me with her eyes.

"'She died at twilight yesterday,' I stated; 'as the first candles
were lit in the lodge and the earliest star appeared--I heard her
footsteps.'

"'At that time she passed away,' sobbed my mother. 'Oh, Luke! you were
cruel to the poor girl. Her parting prayer was made for you. To the
last you stood between Heraine and heaven.'

"'At that time, mother, I was sitting at my window. Tears and thrills
haunted me during the afternoon, and I was frightened in the silence
and darkness. And I heard Heraine's footsteps come up the road, pass
the lodge, ascend the stairs, and cross my threshold. They were like
echoes rather than sounds--hollow and ghostly; and mingled with them
were the deeper footfalls of my other spectre, her husband.'

"I could not inhabit my chamber now. These awful sounds drove me into
the open world, where I hoped to lose them in the tread of multitudes.
I wandered to the old church on the day of the funeral, and looked
upon the bier with dry and burning eyes. The pastor read of the holy
Jerusalem, and said that her pure feet were walking the golden
streets. But in the hushes of the sobbing I heard them close beside
me, and while children were strewing her grave with flowers they
followed me over the stile and through the village till I gained the
fields and took to my heels in fright.

"I sought the resort of crowds, and