ught; so who's to pay for it?"

"When the light was gone," said the dame, as though scarcely heeding
the interpolation of her domestic, "I stayed a brief space; but what
passed"----Here she raised her dim and hollow eyes for a moment; "no
matter now, Mause; suffice it that my nephew, who was drown'd seven
long years ago, stood before me!"

"But young master, Heaven rest his soul, what can he want from yonder
bright mansion of glory, where you always said he was gone," replied
Mause, "that he should come again to this pitiful world? Eh me! that
Peggy should ha' claw'd so fair a victim."

"Peace, Mause; never would I believe it. Nor even now will I, for one
moment, apprehend that Heaven would put any of its creatures, for whom
its care is continually going forth, into the power of a base and
vindictive harlot--that the All-merciful and All-good would render up
an innocent victim to her malice. Better worship Moloch and the
devils, unto whom our forefathers did offer a vain and cruel
sacrifice. No, Mause! believe me, our faith forbids. The light of
revealed truth shows no such misrule in the government of the Deity.
The powers of evil are as much the instruments of good in His hand as
the very attributes of His own perfections. And yet, strange enough
that my devoted William should appear at the very time, and in the
very place, when the destruction of the ugly image was accomplished,
as though the charm were then broken, and he were set free! I am
distressed, bewildered, Mause; the links are too strong to be undone
by my feeble and unassisted reason. That he was reckoned by common
report as a doomed one to that vindictive ghost, I know; and that the
mutilation of yonder image should apparently have called forth his
very substance from the dark womb where he had lain, transcends my
imperfect knowledge. Beshrew me, but I could readily become tinctured
with the prevailing belief, did not my firm hold on the goodness and
the omnipotence of the great Ruler of all sustain my faith and forbid
my distrust."

"I know not what wiser heads may think; but if I'd seen his wraith
rising fro' the image, I should ha' thought--what I do yet--and
so"----

"Tarry with me through the night, Mause. This vision haunts me
strangely, and I do feel more heavy and debilitate than I have been
wont."

Whether the shock was too great or too sudden for a frame so stubborn
and unyielding, we know not; but that the firmest often feel more
inten