heaven raised me above the earth; I did
not perceive the truth that earth is a part of the same universe as
heaven! Now, perhaps, in the awful affliction that darkened my reason,
my soul has been made more clear. As if to chastise but to teach me, my
soul has been permitted to indulge its own presumptuous desire; it has
wandered forth from the trammels of mortal duties and destinies; it
comes back, alarmed by the dangers of its own rash and presumptuous
escape from the tasks which it should desire upon earth to perform.
Allen, Allen, I am less unworthy of you now! Perhaps in my darkness one
rapid glimpse of the true world of spirit has been vouchsafed to me.
If so, how unlike to the visions my childhood indulged as divine! Now,
while I know still more deeply that there is a world for the angels, I
know, also, that the mortal must pass through probation in the world of
mortals. Oh, may I pass through it with you, grieving in your griefs,
rejoicing in your joy!"

Here language failed her. Again the dear arms embraced me, and the dear
face, eloquent with love, hid itself on my human breast.

CHAPTER LXXIX.

That interview is over! Again I am banished from Lilian's room; the
agitation, the joy of that meeting has overstrained her enfeebled
nerves. Convulsive tremblings of the whole frame, accompanied with
vehement sobs, succeeded our brief interchange of sweet and bitter
thoughts. Faber, in tearing me from her side, imperiously and sternly
warned me that the sole chance yet left of preserving her life was in
the merciful suspense of the emotions that my presence excited. He
and Amy resumed their place in her chamber. Even her mother shared my
sentence of banishment. So Mrs. Ashleigh and I sat facing each other in
the room below; over me a leaden stupor had fallen, and I heard, as a
voice from afar or in a dream, the mother's murmured wailings,

"She will die! she will die! Her eyes have the same heavenly look as my
Gilbert's on the day on which his closed forever. Her very words are his
last words,--'Forgive me all my faults to you.' She will die! she will
die!"

Hours thus passed away. At length Faber entered the room; he spoke first
to Mrs. Ashleigh,--meaningless soothings, familiar to the lips of all
who pass from the chamber of the dying to the presence of mourners, and
know that it is a falsehood to say "hope," and a mockery as yet, to say,
"endure."

But he led her away to her own room, docile as a weari