mean to be quite well again."

Amidst all my joy I marvelled over what could be the cause of so
miraculous a change.

"You would smile if I told you--only a dream."

No, I did not smile; for I believed in the Ruler of all our spirits,
sleeping or waking.

"A dream so curious, that I have scarcely lost the impression of it
yet. Do you know, Phineas, she has been sitting by me, just where you
sit now."

"She?"

"Ursula."

If I could express the tone in which he uttered the word, which had
never fallen from his lips before--it was always either "Miss March,"
or the impersonal form used by all lovers to disguise the beloved
name--"URSULA," spoken as no man speaks any woman's name save the one
which is the music of his heart, which he foresees shall be the one
fireside tune of his life, ever familiar, yet ever sweet.

"Yes, she sat there, talking. She told me she knew I loved her--loved
her so much that I was dying for her; that it was very wrong; that I
must rise up and do my work in the world--do it for heaven's sake, not
for hers; that a true man should live, and live nobly for the woman he
loves--it is only a coward who dies for her."

I listened, wonder-struck--for these were the very words that Ursula
March might have uttered; the very spirit that seemed to shine in her
eyes that night--the last night she and John spoke to one another. I
asked him if there was any more of the dream?

"Nothing clear. I thought we were on the Flat at Enderley, and I was
following her; whether I reached her or not I cannot tell. And whether
I ever shall reach her I cannot tell. But this I know, Phineas, I will
do as she bade me; I will arise and walk."

And so he did. He slept quietly as an infant all that night. Next
morning I found him up and dressed. Looking like a spectre, indeed;
but with health, courage, and hope in his eyes. Even my father noticed
it, when at dinner-time, with Jael's help--poor old Jael! how proud she
was--John crawled downstairs.

"Why, thee art picking up, lad! Thee'lt be a man again in no time."

"I hope so. And a better man than ever I was before."

"Thee might be better, and thee might be worse. Anyhow, we couldn't do
without thee, John. Hey, Phineas! who's been meddling with my
spectacles?"

The old man turned his back upon us, and busily read his newspaper
upside down.

We never had a happier meal in our house than that dinner.

In the afternoon my father stayed at home--