gination or deceived by hallucinations. Her early
youth had been passed in the country, her father being a wealthy
farmer. She had formed a close intimacy with the daughter of a
gentleman living at some distance from her father's farm, and the two
were seldom apart. An invitation given to my friend (whom I shall call
Mrs. L----) to visit some relatives in a neighboring city caused a
brief separation between the two girls, and they parted with many
protestations of enduring affection. On the day appointed for Mrs.
L----'s return she set out at the prescribed hour. The latter part
of her journey was to be performed on horseback. On a bright sunny
afternoon in June she found herself, about five o'clock, drawing
near her father's house. Suddenly in the broad road before her she
perceived a female form walking rapidly toward her, and, to her
delight, recognized her friend coming, as she thought, to meet her.

"I will make her go back with me and take tea," was Mrs. L----'s
thought as she whipped up her horse in her haste to greet the dear
one, who was all the more beloved on account of their temporary
separation. But as she approached the figure, and before she had had
time to speak, or indeed to do more than notice that her friend looked
very pale and ill, her horse, an unusually quiet, steady animal,
seemed struck with sudden terror, reared, shied, and finally plunged
into a hollow by the roadside, from which she had some difficulty
in extricating him. When she did succeed in bringing him back to the
level road she found, to her astonishment, that the young girl had
disappeared. Around her lay the open fields, before her and behind
her the road--all in the bright lustre of the summer afternoon--but no
trace of the figure could she see. Completely mystified, she hastened
home, there to learn that her friend had died suddenly that very
morning.

The next incident I shall narrate was told me by a German gentleman
whose mother was the heroine of the tale. His father had been
appointed to some public office in a small German town, and among
the emoluments of the place was the privilege of residing in a large,
old-fashioned, but very handsome mansion. The husband and wife set off
in high spirits to inspect their new abode, to which some portion of
their furniture had already been transferred. They went from room
to room, inspecting and planning, till they came to an apartment
the ceiling of which was elaborately decorated with