towards him: it seemed nothing but what was in the
mirror could affect her vision; and, therefore, if she saw him at all,
it could only be his back, which, of necessity, was turned towards her
in the glass. The two figures in the mirror could not meet face to face,
except he turned and looked at her, present in his room; and, as she was
not there, he concluded that if he were to turn towards the part in his
room corresponding to that in which she lay, his reflection would either
be invisible to her altogether, or at least it must appear to her to
gaze vacantly towards her, and no meeting of the eyes would produce
the impression of spiritual proximity. By-and-by her eyes fell upon the
skeleton, and he saw her shudder and close them. She did not open them
again, but signs of repugnance continued evident on her countenance.
Cosmo would have removed the obnoxious thing at once, but he feared to
discompose her yet more by the assertion of his presence which the act
would involve. So he stood and watched her. The eyelids yet shrouded
the eyes, as a costly case the jewels within; the troubled expression
gradually faded from the countenance, leaving only a faint sorrow
behind; the features settled into an unchanging expression of rest; and
by these signs, and the slow regular motion of her breathing, Cosmo knew
that she slept. He could now gaze on her without embarrassment. He saw
that her figure, dressed in the simplest robe of white, was worthy of
her face; and so harmonious, that either the delicately moulded foot, or
any finger of the equally delicate hand, was an index to the whole. As
she lay, her whole form manifested the relaxation of perfect repose. He
gazed till he was weary, and at last seated himself near the new-found
shrine, and mechanically took up a book, like one who watches by a
sick-bed. But his eyes gathered no thoughts from the page before him.
His intellect had been stunned by the bold contradiction, to its face,
of all its experience, and now lay passive, without assertion, or
speculation, or even conscious astonishment; while his imagination sent
one wild dream of blessedness after another coursing through his soul.
How long he sat he knew not; but at length he roused himself, rose, and,
trembling in every portion of his frame, looked again into the mirror.
She was gone. The mirror reflected faithfully what his room presented,
and nothing more. It stood there like a golden setting whence the
central jewel