see things
more clearly, where you are, than I can see them. If you tell me to
break my word to Joyce Arnold, I must--I will do so."

"I tell you this, my dearest," said the voice. "If you do _not_ break
with her, you and I are lost to each other for ever. When I chose to be
earth bound I staked everything on my belief in your love. Without it in
_full_, I shall drift--drift, through the years, through ages, I know
not how long, in expiation. Besides, I am not _dead_, I am more alive
than I was in what you call life. You are my husband, beloved, as much
as you ever were. Think what I suffer seeing another woman in your arms!
My capacity for suffering is increased a thousandfold--as is my capacity
for joy. If you make her your wife----"

"I will not!" Robert choked. "I promise you that. Never shall you suffer
through me if I can help it."

"Darling!" breathed the voice. "My husband! How happy you make me. This
is our true _marriage_--the marriage of spirits. Oh, do not let the
barrier rise between us again. Put Joyce Arnold out of your heart as
well as your life, and talk to me every day in future. Will you do
that?"

"How can I to talk to you every day?" he asked.

"As we are talking now. Through a medium. This one will not always be
near you. But there will be somebody. I've often tried to get word
through to you. I never could, because you wouldn't _believe_. Now you
believe, and we need not be parted again. You know the way to _open the
door_. It is never shut. It stands ajar. Remember!"

"I will remember," Robert echoed. And his voice was sad as the sound of
the sea on a lonely shore at night. There was no warm happiness for him
in the opening of a door between two worlds. The loss of Joyce was more
to him than the gain of this spirit-wife who claimed him from far off as
all her own. It seemed to me that a released soul should have read the
truth in his unveiled heart. But perhaps it did read--and did not care.

The voice was talking on.

"I am repaid for everything now," it said. "My sacrifice is no
sacrifice. For to-day I must say good-bye. Power is leaving me. I have
felt too much. I must rest, and regain vitality--for to-morrow.
_To-morrow_, Robert, my Robert! By that time we can talk with no
restraint, for you will have parted with Joyce Arnold. After to-day you
will never see her again?"

"No. After to-day I will never see her again, voluntarily, as that is
your wish."

"Good! What time to-morrow