exed. But the
pleasing prospect was soon overcast: clouds appeared to gather round
them; anon she was separated from her companion by rocks and
unfathomable gulfs, the nature and extent of which she could not
distinctly see. At times she fancied he was lost, and felt inclined to
weep at the thought that she should never see him more; then she
obtained a glimpse of him, as if he still waited for her, and then her
heart panted to come up with him; then he disappeared, and she knew
not which way to turn. At last she thought Betsy Braikens came up to
her, and offered to conduct her to where he was; but at that moment
the sky grew dark, and the storm raged so terribly, that she could not
stir a step to follow her. It soon ceased, however; the day again
cleared; she seemed to see him advancing to meet her, with a smile of
welcome upon his countenance; and, just as he was about to throw his
arms around her waist, she started aside to avoid his embrace, struck
her arm upon the post of the bed, and the pain which the circumstance
occasioned, aided by an importunate knocking at the door, awakened
her. On being thus made aware that some one wanted admittance, she
started up, threw on a part of her clothes, snatched up the poker,
broke the _gathering-coal_, and stirred the fire, which instantly
burst forth in a blaze; and then she hastened to open the door.

The present visiter was Sandy Crawford, in most respects the very same
as she had seen him in her dream; but the _smile_ with which that
illusion had presented her was wanting, and in its stead she thought
she could discover, by the light of the fire, marks of anxiety,
perturbation, and fear, upon his countenance. The contrast was so
striking, that she almost forgot one part of it was only a dream. At
the very first glance, she felt certain that something was wrong; and
she would have inquired what it was, but, before she could speak, he
told her, in terms which betrayed his own agitation, that his mother,
without having previously complained of being worse than her ordinary,
had been struck with what appeared to be _palsy_ in the course of the
night, that she was now wholly deprived of speech, and nearly
deprived of motion in one side, and that he had hastened thither as
soon as she could be left, to beg either her or her mother to come
over and watch her till he could procure further assistance. He would
have said something more--he would have hinted the probability of the
f