the apparition with the rose, unless,
indeed, she has come in my sleep, and that of course would
not count. I have died, because surely all that death can
ever mean is the putting away of something no longer needed,
and therefore we die daily--one day most of all. But although
I have never seen the ghost-lady, I have every reason to have
perfect faith in her existence. I was talking with our
landlord's aged mother about it to-day. She carefully closed
the door when the conversation turned in this direction,
begging me never to mention the subject before the servants,
and then in a half-whisper she gave me exactly the same
description that you did in Berlin."

Early in June a third letter came:

"Will you believe me when I say I have not only seen _Her_,
but _Them_; that I have sat with Them, and talked with
Them--the lost ladies of the Hill-side--with the Countess
Maria Regina, the proud daughter, the mysterious sister? No,
certainly you will not believe me.

"I write nothing here of the physical results of my stay.
Enough that I am ready for work; that I love my fellow-men;
that I no longer dread to go to heaven for fear of their
society; that I have formed an intimate friendship with the
village weaver and priest and postmaster; that when we part,
as we shall to-morrow, it will be affectionately and
regretfully.

"All this you know, or have guessed. What I am about to tell,
you do not know, and can never guess.

"It had been raining for a week. You remember what it is like
here when it rains--how damp, sticky, discouraging; how cold
the stone floor; how wet the fountain splashes when one goes
through the court to dinner. I was driven to taking walks in
the hall outside my room by way of exercise, and thus
discovered in a certain dark corner a low door to which I
eventually succeeded in finding a key. This door led me into
an unused tower dimly lighted, hung with cobwebs, and filled
with old red velvet furniture. I sat down on a sofa, and
before long became conscious that I was being gazed upon by
a haughty young woman, with an aristocratic nose, large dark
eyes, hair caught back by tortoise-shell combs under a
peculiar head-dress, having a gleam of gold directly on the
top. Her gown was of dark green, with white puffs let into
the sleeves below the el