smoothed back, and rolled in a heavy coil high on the
back of her head.

"Now I will go down. Father will be alone at this hour, and--" She
paused, raised her sweet eyes upward, and clasping her hands she
murmured, "Mother in heaven, plead for me."

Noiselessly she opened the door and glanced into the room. Her father
sat with his back toward her, leaning on a table over which were
scattered books and papers. In his hand he held the picture of her
mother. She drew back a little, still, however, standing within the
door. She dared not interrupt the sacred privacy of the hour. The
rustle of her garments, light as it was, must have caught his ear, for
his bowed head was raised.

"Mary! my wife! my own!" he cried, starting forward, with extended
arms. "Thank God for granting me one glimpse of you again!"

Susie, awed and trembling, raised her eyes to see clothed as in life,
the same sweet, gentle face, the rippling hair, caught back from the
smooth, clear brow.

"Mother!" she breathed forth.

The room was lighted only by the moonbeams; but the vision was plainly
seen. Another eager glance, and Susie stole away to her own room, and
sank almost fainting into her mother's chair. A little while, and
grown calmer, she opened her eyes, to see again, directly in front of
her, the same vision.

She started forward, stretching out her arms, and calling softly,
"Mother."

Nearer--nearer she drew, until, face to face, she stood beside the
large mirror in front of which she had seated herself.

Unwittingly in one of her mother's dresses she had robed herself, and
gathered her curls in the manner her mother was accustomed to.

"How very, very like her I am! Yes, now I know: father saw me in the
mirror opposite which I stood. Well, I will not break his sweet
delusion. I meant it not, Heaven knows. Oh, if mother could only come
to him--in dreams, perhaps--to plead for me! I cannot desert him, I
cannot; I _dare_ not! But Frank--oh, how can I give him up! I will
give up neither, but clinging to both loved ones, will trust to Heaven
for a happy decision."

With this determination she sank to sleep, sweet and undisturbed.

Early next morning, as usual, she was in the breakfast-room,
ministering to the little ones clustering around her. The father's
frown had lost its accustomed sternness, as he stood regarding his
eldest child. A gentle, sympathetic light was in his eyes as they
rested on the sweet face grown older, much, in t