man's ears. The change, once begun, went
on; he hung upon her voice as if it had been music. Every laugh shook
him out of his long misery--it appeared to be to him like new life
running along the nerves of the old dead tabernacle. So might one think
of a man in the desert, as he looks down into the well, with the
reflection of the sun in it; the water is drunk in living light; he
shakes off all the horrors of his long-borne thirst, and rises renewed
and glad. It was pitiful--yea, it was pleasant too--to see how he
followed her, gazed at her, listened to her, just as if he were always
praying her, for mercy's sake, to give him some more of that medicine
of his spirit. But, perhaps, he never would have thought of marrying
Amelia, but for the parting words of Lillah. Christy, in her curious
way, said that it was Lillah's moon that lighted him on to the rising of
the new sun of Amelia; and as Christy wanted this new match, for the
sake of saving, as she thought, the life of our master--it was strange
enough that she saw no omens now save good ones; for was it not a good
one, that every living thing about Redcleugh looked as joyful as Amelia
herself? A wonderful work this world, sir! No magician could have worked
a greater wonder than the scene of that marriage after the scene of that
deathbed; yet it delighted me to see old Redcleugh all in a blaze again,
and to go down into the old catacombs for the old-crusted vintages.
Bless your heart!--it was just like the beginning of a new term of
life to me. Then the memory of Lillah threw no shade over the scene of
enjoyment, for we all knew that if her spirit were not hovering over her
beloved Circassia, it would be here looking down on the fulfilment of
her dying wish."

Here Francis drew breath, as if to prepare himself for something much
more wonderful. It may easily be conceived that he had enlisted my
sympathy, as well by the facts of his story, as his manner of telling
it; and as one turns to the woodcut of a tale to get his impressions
enlivened or verified, I felt a desire to see again, by the light of a
candle, the face of the second wife. Francis gratified me by getting
another candle, lighting it, and holding it up full in the face of
Amelia.

"'Twas all well for Redcleugh for a time," he resumed, "save for me, who
lost my dear Christy shortly after Mira was born. That's she there, sir,
as I have told you, alongside of my lady Amelia. When the grief was
still heavy up