"Ah, my sister, what will life be to me, when you are gone? You are the
last kindred tie that binds me to earth."

"There will be another strong tie to draw you towards heaven, my
brother. Our spirits will not be divided. I shall still live in your
memory--still visit you in dreams. Your love for me will grow stronger,
for it will never know diminution or decay."

She paused for a few seconds, and folded her poor wasted hands
together, whilst a serene smile passed over her wan features, lighting
them with a holy joy.

"I had a dream last night, Frederic. A beautiful dream. If I have
strength I will try and tell it to you. I thought much of Death last
night, and my soul shrunk within me, for I felt that he was near. I did
not fear Death while my heart was free from earthly love, but now he
seemed to wear a harsh and terrible aspect. I prayed long and fervently
to God to give me strength to enable me to pass tranquilly through the
dark valley; but in my heart I felt no response to my prayer. Soon after
this, the pains, that had racked me all yesterday, left me, and I fell
into a deep sleep. And then me-thought I stood in a narrow pass between
two vast walls of black rock, that enclosed me on either side, and
appeared to reach to the very clouds. The place was lighted by a dim
twilight that flowed through an enormous arch that united in the far
distance these gigantic walls; an arch, high and deep enough to have
sustained the weight of the whole world. I felt like an atom in
immensity, alone in that strange place. Still as I gazed in bewildered
awe upon that great gateway, a figure rose like a dim mist out of the
darkness, and it grew and brightened into a real and living presence;
its dazzling robes of snowy whiteness shedding a sort of glorious
moonshine all around. Oh, the beauty, the surpassing beauty of the
heavenly vision! it filled my whole soul with light.

"Whilst I continued to gaze upon it with increasing awe and admiration,
it addressed me in a voice so rich and melodious that it awoke echoes of
soft music from those eternal rocks.

"'Child of earth,' he said, 'is my aspect so terrible that men should
shrink from me in horror?'

"'Not so,' I exclaimed, in an extasy of joy. 'Your face is like the
face of the angel of the Lord, when he welcomes the beloved with a smile
of peace into the presence of God.'

"'Yet I am he whom men regard as their worst enemy, and shrink from with
cowardly fear. Yes, maiden,