I will show you that you are mistaken," said Miss Ludington, smiling.
"No one ever had so fond or faithful a lover as yours. Sit down and I
will tell you your own love story, for the strangest thing of all is that
you do not know it yet."

Beginning with Paul's baby fondness for her picture, she related to Ida
the whole story of his love for her, which had grown with his growth,
and, from a boyish sentiment, become the ruling passion of the man,
blinding him to the charms of living women, and making him a monk for her
sake.

She described the effect upon him of the first suggestion that it might
be possible to communicate with her spirit, and how her presence on earth
was due to the enthusiasm with which he had insisted upon making the
attempt.

Then she asked Ida to imagine what must be the anguish of such a lover on
finding that she did not know him--that he was nothing more than a
stranger to her. She told her how, in his desperation, he had appealed to
her to plead his case and to relate his story, that his mistress might at
least know his love, though she might not be able to return it.

Ida had listened at first in sheer wonder, but as Miss Ludington went on
describing this great love, which all unseen she had inspired, to find
awaiting her full-grown on her return to earth, her cheek began to flush,
a soft smile played about her lips, and her eyes were fixed in tender
reverie.

"Tell him to come to me," she said, gently, as Miss Ludington finished.

When Paul entered, Ida was alone, standing in the centre of the room.

He threw himself at her feet, and lifted the hem of her dress to his
lips.

"Paul, my lover," she said softly.

At this he seized her hand and covered it with kisses. She gently drew
him to his feet. He heard her say, "Forgive me, Paul; I did not know."

Her warm breath mingled with his, and she kissed him on the lips.

CHAPTER X.

In the days that followed, Ida was the object of a devotion on the part
of Miss Ludington and Paul which it would be inadequate to describe as
anything less than sheer idolatry. Her experience was such as a goddess's
might be who should descend from heaven and take up her abode in bodily
form among her worshippers, accepting in person the devotion previously
lavished on her effigy.

With Miss Ludington this devotion was the more intense as it was but a
sublimed form of selfishness, like that of the mother's to her child,
whom she feels to be a p