you not see her face?" whispered Dr. May.

"I may not touch her," was the answer, in the hollow voice, and with the
wild eye that had before alarmed him; but trusting to the soothing power
of the mute face of the innocent, he drew back the covering.

The sight was such as he anticipated, sadly lovely, smiling and
tranquil--all oppression and suffering fled away for ever.

It stilled the sounds of pain, and the restless motion; the compression
of the hands became less tight, and he began to hope that the look was
passing into her heart. He let her kneel on without interruption, only
once he said, "Of such is the kingdom of Heaven!"

She made no immediate answer, and he had had time to doubt whether he
ought to let her continue in that exhausting attitude any longer, when
she looked up and said, "You will all be with her there."

"She has flown on to point your aim more steadfastly," said Dr. May.

Flora shuddered, but spoke calmly--"No, I shall not meet her."

"My child!" he exclaimed, "do you know what you are saying?"

"I know, I am not in the way," said Flora, still in the same fearfully
quiet, matter-of-fact tone. "I never have been"--and she bent over her
child, as if taking her leave for eternity.

His tongue almost clave to the roof of his mouth, as he heard the
words--words elicited by one of those hours of true reality that,
like death, rend aside every wilful cloak of self-deceit, and
self-approbation. He had no power to speak at first; when he recovered
it, his reply was not what his heart had, at first, prompted.

"Flora! How has this dear child been saved?" he said. "What has released
her from the guilt she inherited through you, through me, through all?
Is not the Fountain open?"

"She never wasted grace," said Flora.

"My child! my Flora!" he exclaimed, losing the calmness he had gained
by such an effort; "you must not talk thus--it is wrong! Only your own
morbid feeling can treat this--this--as a charge against you, and if
it were, indeed"--he sank his voice--"that such consequences destroyed
hope, oh, Flora! where should I be?"

"No," said Flora, "this is not what I meant. It is that I have never
set my heart right. I am not like you nor my sisters. I have seemed to
myself, and to you, to be trying to do right, but it was all hollow, for
the sake of praise and credit. I know it, now it is too late; and He
has let me destroy my child here, lest I should have destroyed her
everlasting life, l