hat I believe absolutely in the
supernatural revelation which I have endeavored to describe. Remember
this--and decide for me what I dare not decide for myself."

There was no serious obstacle in the way of compliance with this
request.

Judged from the point of view of the materialist, Mrs. Zant might no
doubt be the victim of illusions (produced by a diseased state of the
nervous system), which have been known to exist--as in the celebrated
case of the book-seller, Nicolai, of Berlin--without being accompanied
by derangement of the intellectual powers. But Mr. Rayburn was not
asked to solve any such intricate problem as this. He had been merely
instructed to read the manuscript, and to say what impression it had
left on him of the mental condition of the writer; whose doubt of
herself had been, in all probability, first suggested by remembrance of
the illness from which she had suffered--brain-fever.

Under these circumstances, there could be little difficulty in forming
an opinion. The memory which had recalled, and the judgment which had
arranged, the succession of events related in the narrative, revealed a
mind in full possession of its resources.

Having satisfied himself so far, Mr. Rayburn abstained from considering
the more serious question suggested by what he had read.

At any time his habits of life and his ways of thinking would have
rendered him unfit to weigh the arguments, which assert or deny
supernatural revelation among the creatures of earth. But his mind was
now so disturbed by the startling record of experience which he had just
read, that he was only conscious of feeling certain impressions--without
possessing the capacity to reflect on them. That his anxiety on Mrs.
Zant's account had been increased, and that his doubts of Mr. John Zant
had been encouraged, were the only practical results of the confidence
placed in him of which he was thus far aware. In the ordinary exigencies
of life a man of hesitating disposition, his interest in Mrs. Zant's
welfare, and his desire to discover what had passed between her
brother-in-law and herself, after their meeting in the Gardens, urged
him into instant action. In half an hour more, he had arrived at her
lodgings. He was at once admitted.

VIII.

MRS. ZANT was alone, in an imperfectly lighted room.

"I hope you will excuse the bad light," she said; "my head has been
burning as if the fever had come back again. Oh, don't go away! After
what I hav