let of water on a table near by. Seizing it, she bathed
the face and hands of the woman before her, moaning aloud in her grief
and dismay, "Have I killed her! O what is this mystery that brings such
a doom of anguish to this poor heart?"

But from those pallid lips came no response, and feeling greatly
alarmed, Paula was about to rush from the house for assistance, when she
felt a tremulous pull upon her skirt, and turning, saw that the glassy
eyes had opened at last and were now gazing upon her with mute but
eloquent appeal.

She instantly returned. "O I am so sorry," she murmured, sinking again
upon her knees beside the suffering woman. "I did not know, could not
realize that my presence here would affect you so deeply. Forgive me and
tell me what I can do to make you forget my presumption."

The woman shook her head, her lips moved and she struggled vainly to
rise. Paula immediately lent her the aid of her strong young hand and in
a few minutes, Mrs. Hamlin was on her feet. "O God!" were her first
words as she sank into the chair which Paula hastily drew forward, "that
I should taste the joy and she be still unsaved!"

Seeing her so absorbed, Paula ventured to glance around her. She found
herself in a large square room sparsely but comfortably furnished in a
style that bespake it as the former sitting-room of the dead and buried
Japhas. From the walls above hung a few ancient pictures. A large
hair-cloth sofa of a heavy antique shape, confronted the eye from one
side of the room, an equally ancient book-case from the other. The
carpet was faded and so were the curtains, but they had once been of an
attractive hue and pattern. Conspicuous in the midst stood a large table
with a well-trimmed lamp upon it, and close against it an easy chair
with an upright back. This last as well as everything else in the room,
was in a condition of neatness that would have surprised Paula if she
had not been acquainted with the love and devotion of this woman, who in
her daily visits to this house, probably took every pains to keep things
freshened and in order.

Satisfied with her survey, she again directed her attention to Mrs.
Hamlin, and started to find that person's eyes fixed upon her own with
an expression of deep, demanding interest.

"You are looking at the shadows of things that were," exclaimed the old
lady in thrilling tones. "It is a fearful thought to be shut up with the
ghost of a vanished past, is it not? That cha