looked around me for a moment. The room was outwardly comfortless and
uninviting: the walls out of repair; the sloping roof somewhat shattered;
the floor broken and uneven; no furniture but two tottering bedsteads, a
three-legged stool, and an old oak chest; the window broken in many
places, and mended with patches of paper. A little shelf against the
wall, over the bedstead where Jane lay, served for her physic, her food,
and her books.

"Yet _here_," I said to myself, "lies an heir of glory, waiting for a
happy dismissal. Her earthly home is poor, indeed; but she has a house
not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. She has little to attach
her to this world; but what a weight of glory in the world to come! This
mean, despised chamber is a palace in the eye of faith, for it contains
one that is inheritor of a crown."

I approached without waking her, and observed that she had been reading
the twenty-third chapter of St. Luke. The finger of her left hand lay
upon the book, pointing to the words, as if she had been using it to
guide her eye whilst she read.

I looked at the place, and was pleased at the apparently casual
circumstance of her finger pointing at these words:--

"Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."

"Is this casual or designed?" thought I. "Either way it is remarkable."

But in another moment I discovered that her finger was indeed an index to
the thoughts of her heart.

She half awoke from her dozing state, but not sufficiently so to perceive
that any person was present, and said in a kind of whisper:--

"Lord, remember me--remember me--remember--remember a poor child--Lord,
remember me--"

She then suddenly started and perceived me, as she became fully awake. A
faint blush overspread her cheeks for a moment, and then disappeared.

"Dame K---, how long have I been asleep?--Sir, I am very sorry--"

"And I am very glad to find you thus," I replied. "You may say with
David, 'I laid me down and slept: I awaked, for the Lord sustained me.'
What were you reading?"

"The history of the crucifying of Jesus, sir."

"How far had you read when you fell asleep?"

"To the prayer of the thief that was crucified with him; and when I came
to that place I stopped, and thought what a mercy it would be if the Lord
Jesus, should remember me likewise--and so I fell asleep; and I fancied
in my dream that I saw Christ upon the cross; and I thought I said,
'Lord, remember me;' and I a