an
apartment with which he seemed acquainted, though he could not recall
the time when he had seen it. It was large and gloomy, panelled with
dark and lustrous oak, and filled with rich but decayed furniture. At
the further end stood a large antique bed, hung round with tarnished
brocade curtains. The grocer shuddered at the sight, for he remembered
to have heard Doctor Hodges assert, that in such a bed, and in such a
room as this, his daughter had breathed her last. Some one appeared to
be within the bed, and rushing forward with a throbbing heart, and a
foreboding of what was to follow, he beheld the form of Amabel. Yes,
there she was, with features like those she wore on earth, but clothed
with such celestial beauty, and bearing the impress of such serene
happiness, that the grocer felt awe-struck as he gazed at her!

"Approach, my father," said the visionary form, in a voice so musical
that it thrilled through his frame--"approach, and let what you now hear
be for ever graven upon your heart. Do not lament me more, but rather
rejoice that I am removed from trouble, and in the enjoyment of supreme
felicity. Such a state you will yourself attain. You have run the good
race, and will assuredly reap your reward. Comfort my dear mother, my
brothers, my little sister, with the assurance of what I tell you, and
bid them dry their tears. I can now read the secrets of all hearts, and
know how true was Leonard Holt's love for me, and how deep and sincere
is his present sorrow. But I am not permitted to appear to him as I now
appear to you. Often have I heard him invoke me in accents of the
wildest despair, and have floated past him on the midnight breeze, but
could neither impart consolation to him nor make him sensible of my
presence, because his grief was sinful. Bid him be comforted. Bid him
put a due control upon his feelings. Bid him open his heart anew, and he
shall yet be happy, yet love again, and have his love requited.
Farewell, dear father!"

And with these words the curtains of the bed closed. The grocer
stretched out his arm to draw them aside, and in the effort awoke. He
slept no more that night, but dwelt with unutterable delight on the
words he had heard. On rising, his first object was to seek out Leonard,
and to relate his vision to him. The apprentice listened in speechless
wonder, and remained for some time lost in reflection.

"From any other person than yourself, sir," he said, at length, "I might
hav