o me; I recall, too, rising from my chair, and I am told I
fainted and fell.

"Then I remember nothing more but fierce and wild dreams of pain.
Sometimes I heard my own voice crying out; at last the pain died away,
and left me very weak and sad; but I was still pent up, it seemed to
me, in some dark dungeon of the mind, and the view of the room I lay
in and the sight of those who visited me only came to me in short
glimpses. I am told I babbled strangely; then one morning I came out
suddenly, like a man rising from a dive in a pool, and knew that I was
myself again; that day was a day of quiet joy; I was weak and silent,
but it seemed good to be alive. It was not till the next day that I
noticed the thing that I have tried to tell you, that haunts me
yet--and I can hardly put it into words.

"It seemed to me that I noticed round about those who came to me a
thin veil, as it were of vapour, but it was not dense like smoke or
mist; I could see them as well through it as before; it was more like
a light that played about them, and it was brightest over the heart
and above the brow; at first I thought it was some effect of my weak
state, but as I grew stronger I saw it still more clearly.

"And then comes the strangest part of all; the light changed
according to the thoughts that were passing in the mind of the person
on whom my eyes were set--the thought that it was so came suddenly
into my mind and bewildered me; but in a little I was sure of it. I
need not give long instances--but I saw, or thought I saw, that when
the mind of the man or woman was pure and pitiful, the light was pure
and clear, but that when the thoughts were selfish, or covetous, or
angry, or unclean, there came a darkness into the light, as when you
drop a little ink into clear water. Few came to see me; and I suppose
that they were full of pity and perhaps a little love for me in my
helpless state, so that the light about them was pure and even; but
one day the good dame Ann, who tended me, in stooping to give me
drink, thrust a dish off the table, which broke, and spilled its
contents, and a dark flush came into the light that was round her for
a moment.

"Then too as I got better, and was able to see and speak with my
people, there came to me several in trouble of different kinds, and
the light was sullen and wavering; one, whose name I will not tell
you, came to me with a sin upon his mind, and the vapour was all dark
and stained; and so it ha