dy Amelia never saw him from that morning, but he left word
with me, that if the pamphlet was found in the house, he should be made
acquainted with it through his trustee, Mr. Gordon. But, ah! sir, that
never happened, in God's mysterious providence; and now my poor Lady
Amelia could receive no advantage from this proof of her innocence. I
have heard from her own lips, before her reason gave way, that she was
the grand-daughter of Jane Grierson and Mr. Temple, and that was the
reason why she came to have this little book. The story haunted her, yet
she read it; while, at the same time, she concealed her possession of
it, and her connection with the parties."

Francis now left me, and if I had little inclination to sleep before, I
had less now. All the strange incidents of the story seemed to revolve
round myself; though my part in it seemed merely the result of chance, I
appeared to myself somehow as a directly-appointed agent for working
out some design of Providence. Yet what I was required to do I did not
know. I cogitated and recogitated, and came to no conclusion as to how I
should act; only I saw no great benefit in the meantime in endeavouring
to make any use of the pamphlet for the purpose of recovering the
aberrant reason of the poor lady. At length I fell asleep, and next
morning awoke to the strange recollections of what had occurred so
shortly before. I saw Amelia again; she was depressed and moody; the
fiend within her was dormant, but its weight pressed on the issues of
thought, and her vacant stare told unutterable woe.

I left Redcleugh without much hope, intending to pay another visit
shortly afterwards. About three or four days after reaching home, a
letter came to me from Francis, inclosing one from Mr. Gordon, the
latter of which contained the intelligence that there had been some
mistake as to the report of Mr. Bernard's death. A gentleman of the same
name had died at Aleppo, but the master of Redcleugh was still alive. A
gleam of the sunshine of hope darted through my mind. The dark images of
the story were illumined--even the figure of that poor lady enshrined in
the gloom of sorrow became bright with lustrous, meaning, intelligent
eyes. Within an hour I had a letter posted for Mr. Gordon, informing him
of the finding of the pamphlet, and requesting him to send for Mr.
Bernard by an express messenger.

In the meanwhile I visited Mrs. Bernard regularly, though the distance
was much beyond my usua