to him compared with his grief?

"She says her daughter, who is dying, wishes to see you," continued
the young woman.

"Tell her I am coming," said Mr. Soher.

A dying woman wishing to see him. How could he refuse that? Perhaps
he would be the means of doing some good to this person. If he could
thus begin to atone for his want of dutifulness towards his son.

He went downstairs.

"My daughter wishes to see you now," said his visitor. "You will
come, Sir; you will not refuse a dying woman's request?"

"Refuse; certainly not," he said, and he immediately accompanied his
visitor.

They walked the whole distance which separated the two houses
without a word being exchanged between them.

Mr. Soher's thoughts were with the dead; his companion was already
grieving for the daughter which she felt sure she was about to lose.

Mr. Soher was ushered near the dying woman's bed. The latter was
raving, but directly she perceived him she fixed her gaze upon him,
her wild, rambling talk ceased, her mind seemed to regain its
lucidity. She exclaimed: "I have not found it, therefore I am lost
for ever."

"What have you not found?" he said kindly.

"Listen," said she. "Some time ago, I entered a small place of
worship in which a man was delivering an address, or, as he called
it, a testimonial.

"He said that when he had been converted, he had felt a heavenly ray
of light flooding his very soul. He said he felt as if an electric
battery had come in contact with his entrails. At the same time, he
heard a voice clearly saying: 'My son, thy sins are forgiven thee.'

"This man, who was no other than you, Sir, said that if his hearers
had not clearly heard this divine voice and experienced this shock,
they were doomed. He exhorted the congregation to seek for these
blessings.

"I went home impressed. I decided to seek for these things of which
you spoke. I prayed, I hoped, I waited, but I have never felt half
of what you promised your audience they would find.

"Now, I am then to understand that I am rejected.

"Rejected! oh Heaven."

The poor woman burst into tears and uttered a wail of despair.

Mr. Soher tried to soothe her.

"No," she said, "you are trying to deceive me, you are not speaking
the truth."

He protested. "It was then, that I did not speak the truth," he
said. "I was exalted, I went too far."

"Is it true?" said the dying woman.

"Oh yes, do believe me."

"I believe you," she said sneeringly.