ined a morbid strength
and blighted his life. I like to fancy, and I know it is Paul's belief,
that the spirit of my Ida influenced you to come to us just as you came,
that under her form Paul might fall in love with you. In no other way but
just this do I believe he could have been cured of his infatuation."

Owing to the precarious condition of Miss Ludington's health, Paul and
Ida would not consent to leave home for any bridal trip.

It was but a week after the wedding that, on going into Miss Ludington's
room as usual the first thing in the morning, Ida found her dead. She
must have expired very quietly, if not, indeed, in her sleep, for her
room adjoined that of the bridal couple, and she could have summoned Ida
with the touch of a bell. Her features were relaxed in a smile of joyous
recognition.

* * * * * *

Paul took his wife to Europe directly after the funeral. One night,
during their absence, a fire, probably set by tramps, broke out in one of
the empty houses of the village, and, the wind being high and no help
near, all the buildings on the place, including the homestead, were
completely destroyed. The latter being shut up, nothing even of the
furniture could be saved, and the entire contents, including the picture
in the sitting-room, were consumed. The tourists were much shocked by the
receipt of the intelligence, but Paul expressed the inmost conviction of
both when he finally said, "Now that she is gone, perhaps it is as well.
Ashes to ashes! The past has claimed its own."

They never rebuilt the village or the homestead, but on their return to
this country took up their residence in New York. The site of the mimic
Hilton is once more tilled as a farm.

It is scarcely necessary to add that Ida made such provision for her
family as enabled them to retire from the medium business. Paul insisted
that this provision should be at the most generous nature, for was he not
indebted to them for the happiness of his life? He never would admit that
Mrs. Legrand was a fraud, but always maintained that none but a truly
great medium could have materialized the vaguest of love-dreams into the
sweetest of wives.

As for Dr. Hull, or, rather, Mr. Slater, he became in time quite a crony
of Paul's, and the book on which the latter is engaged, setting forth the
argument for the immortality of past selves, will owe not a little to the
suggestions of the old gentleman.

***E