presence was
felt. Had a stranger chanced to come there on a visit, at that time, he
would doubtless have been struck with the fact that a young girl was the
central figure of the household, around whom its other members revolved;
but it is probable that this fact, in itself not unparalleled in American
households, would have seemed to such an observer sufficiently explained
by the unusual gentleness and beauty of the girl herself. The necessity
of a supernatural explanation certainly would not have occurred to him.

The servants had been merely informed that Ida was a relative of Miss
Ludington's, and though they were very curious as to what connection she
might be, their speculations did not extend beyond the commonly
recognized modes of relationship. The housekeeper, indeed, who had been
in Miss Ludington's employ many years, and supposed she knew all about
the family, thought it strange that she could recall no young lady
relative answering to Ida's description. But as she found that her most
ingenious efforts entirely failed to extract any information on the
subject from Miss Ludington, Paul, or Ida herself, she was obliged, like
the rest, to accept the bare fact that the new-comer was Miss Ida
Ludington, and that she was somehow related to Miss Ludington; a fact
speedily supplemented by the discovery that to please Miss Ida was the
surest way to the favour of Miss Ludington and Mr. Paul.

On that score, however, there was no need of any special inducement,
Ida's sweet face, and gracious, considerate ways, having already made her
a favourite with all who were attached to the household.

It was ten days or a fortnight after Ida had been in the house that Miss
Ludington received a letter from Dr. Hull, in which that gentleman said
that he should do himself the honour of calling on her the following day.

He said she might be interested to know that he had already received
several communications from Mrs. Legrand, through mediums, in which she
had declared herself well content to have died in demonstrating so great
a truth as that immortality is not individual, but personal. She
considered herself to be most fortunate in that her death had not been a
barren one, as most deaths are; but that in dying, she had been permitted
to become the second mother of another, and far brighter life than hers
had been. She felt that she had made a grand barter for her own earthly
existence, which had been so sick and weary.

The