ction and I could read it there, I could not more believe this
than I now do. Then what is due from me to you? This new evidence of
confidence adds nothing to the obligation--it was full without it. But
it is an inspiration I had not before. We are here, Miss Alice, within
a few steps of the threshold of the house in which you were born. I am
far from the land of my nativity--our meeting was strange, and this
second meeting not the less so."

"Ah! you have almost confessed that you are superstitious. You need not
have acknowledged that you are romantic; your young life has proven
this."

"Stay, Miss Alice: you asked me but now if there had never been the
realization of previous predictions. You said you knew I would not
offend you. I would not, but may. Now listen to me, here under the
shade of this old oak. When I was a child, my nurse was an aged African
woman; like all her race, she was full of superstition, and she would
converse with me of mysteries, and spells, and wonderful revelations,
until my mind was filled as her own with strange superstitions and
presentiments. On one occasion, on the Sabbath day, I found her in the
orchard, seated beneath a great pear-tree, and went to her--for though
I was no longer her ward to nurse, I liked to be with her and hear her
talk. It was a beautiful day, the fruit-trees were in bloom, and the
spring-feeling in the sunshine was kindling life into activity through
all nature. She asked me to let her see my hand and she would tell me
my fortune. She pretended sagely to view every line, and here and there
to press her index finger sharply down. At length she began to speak.

"'You will not stay with your people,' she said, 'but will be a great
traveller; and when in some far-away country, you will be sick--mighty
sick; and a beautiful woman will find you, and she will nurse you, and
you will love that beautiful woman, and she will love you, and she will
marry you, and you will not come to reside with your people any more.'
Now, Miss Alice, I have wandered far away from my home, have been sick,
very sick, and a beautiful woman has nursed me until I am well, and oh!
from my heart I do love that beautiful woman. So far all of this wild
prediction has been verified; and it remains with you, my dear Alice,
to say if the latter portion shall be. You are too candid to delay
reply, and too sincere to speak equivocally."

She trembled as she looked up into his face and read it for a mom