Miss Ludington's Sister

l's, she had, notwithstanding, longed for it very ardently, and when at nine o'clock the next ni

show her as much observance as I would pay to a living woman?" And who can say-for very odd, sometimes, are the inarticulate processes of th

k noticeably worse than before her sickness, it was merely because she had looked as badly as possible then. In response to inquiries about her health she admitted that she did not rea

health," said Miss Ludington, though not without being sensible of a pang of

Ida. He was striving to repress this feeling, so far at least as to say that he would not insist upon going on with the séance, when Mrs. Legrand, with a glance through her half-shut eyelids, intimating that she perfectly understood his thoughts, said, in a tone which put an end t

ll you allow our friends

te needless,

o ourselves, as well as for their own more absolute assurance, we always insist upon it. Otherwise, suspicions of fraud not entertaine

ing. They found everything precisely as it had been on that occasion. There was no possibility of concealing any person in the cabinet or

ugh the back parlour into the cabinet. Dr. Hull then locked and braced a chair against the door opening into the hall, giving the key to Paul. Then, having arrange

ruck the opening chords of the same soft, low m

re, and she began to think that either there was to be some failu

o that in another moment she must have screamed out, when, as before, she felt a faint, cool air fan

white, with her shoulders bare, and the wealth

e cabinet Paul's eyes were glued to her face with an in

cond séance, and the doubt that involved the obtaining of another, had deeply impressed him. He might never again see Ida on earth, and upon the fidelity with which his memory retain

is gaze burned upon her face and played around her form like lightning. He grudged the

d upon him, time and circumstance were instantly forgotten, and he f

her. She started and shivered slightly in every limb. The recogni

expression of an awakened sleep-walker. She half turned toward the cabinet and made an undecided movement in that direction, and then, as

here was a gasp

at the same time, by a turn of the stopcock by his

shed after him, and Miss Lud

e apparition in the nearly complete darkness, and the first effect of the sudden blaze of gasl

apartment of the mediu

r to which it had fallen. Her eyes were half open, and the black rings around them showed with ghastly plainness against the awful pallor which the rest of

mother's body, sobbing, "O

d Miss Ludington, i

her dress with the other. He set Paul at work chafing the hands of the unconscious woman, while Miss Ludington sprinkled her face and chest with ice-water from a small pitcher that stood in a corn

a, throwing herself upon her mother's form, burst in

science-stricken with the thought that she had indire

o will look after A

ington and Paul turned from the sad scene and ste

it had broken off so abruptly. The impression left on their minds was that the spirit-form of Ida had vanished in the bl

ing, there stood a young girl. She was bending forward, shielding her eyes with her right hand from the f

of darkness, the semblance of mortal flesh, but an unmistakable daughter of earth. Her bosom was palpitating with agitation, an

ning eyes. There was not a particle of recognition in their expression. Presently she spoke. He

m I?" sh

the evidence of their senses-doubted even their own existence and identities, there had simult

rcely thought of since, had come to pass. Dr. Hull had proved wrong, and Paul had proved right. A medium had died

fore them, but the girl Ida Ludington, whose curious, unrecognizing glance testified t

he moment when the hope of ever beholding Ida again had seemed taken from them, had restored her not only to their eyes, but to life. But how should they

address her, Dr. Hull, hearing the sound of her voice, stepped out from the cabinet. At the sight of

an agitated whisper, "You were right. It has happ

oks bent upon her. "Perhaps, sir," she said, addressing Dr. Hull, wi

er analogies, plainer terms, Paul the doctor, and Miss Ludington sought to make clear to this waif from eternity, so str

adually dissipated by the tenderness of their demeanour, her bewilderment seemed to increase. For a long time she continued to turn her face

, pressing her hand to her forehead. "

Meanwhile, look in at the door of this room and you will see the body of the woman to w

ndicated the doo

ous, and in a moment Miss Ludington was at her side, supporting and soothing her. Sobbing and trembling

ainst the shrunken breast of age; the wrinkled, scarred, and sal

sive persons who constitute an individuality, he grew dizzy with the sheer wonder of the spectacle a

you say. My mind is all confused. I cannot think now

udington, "before you sleep I will convince you

et us leave this awful place;" and she glanc

n left behind, and Miss Ludington's carriage,

ould be a relief to her to be allowed to do anything she could. Dr. Hull thanked her and said that, as Mrs. Legrand had friends in the city, it would probably be unnecessary to trouble her. If for no other purpose, however,

sing the formal condolence she proffered. With Ida before her eyes it was impossible that she should honestly profe

so strangely assorted. As the light of the street lamps from time to time flashed in at the windows Paul saw that Ida's face continued to wear the look of helpless daze which it

tion of joyful surprise, she put her head out at the window, and then looking back at them, cried, delightedly, "Why it's Hilton! You have brought me home! There's our house!" No soone

Ida hurried on ahead from room to room with the confident step of one whose feet

the sitting-room, she was standing before her o

ure of me?" she demanded. "I

portrait with its original. The resemblance was striking enough, but it was no wonder th

at this picture was painted. It was enlarged from this portrait of you. Do you remember it?" and taking the locket cont

mean about my leaving the world? Something strange has happened to me, I know, but d

nition of the village and the homestead had come back, and her las

that she must comprehend it, for it was evident that the confused explanations at Mrs. Legrand's had availed little, if anything, to that end. Unless this cou

w that some strange thing has happened to you, and you must expect to find the

im with the expression of

little girl of nine or

ered. "I remember t

on. "Where is that little girl whom y

plied Ida. "I suppose s

e girl, or think or act or feel

ould she be?"

t as she was, still alive somewhere in the land of spirits, not transformed into the young lady that you are at all, you understand, for that would only be another way of saying that sh

d Ida; "I can

e spirits of the departed, and suppose that she called up the spirit of this child-self of yours, and that you recognized it, and suppose that just at that moment the woman died, and her earthly life was transferred to the spirit of the child, s

nterrupted Ida, with

been bound to you. She remembers and loves you as you would remember and love that child; but you do not know her any more than that child would know you. You both share the name

pulsion, which she fixed upon Miss Ludington, left no doubt of that. It implied alarm, m

claiming to be her mother, except that not only was Miss Ludington a stranger to Ida, but the relation which she claimed to

derstand?"

lied, in lingering tones, her gaze continuing

on, an impassioned tenderness held in che

emember me, nor is there any instinct answering to memory by which you can recognize me. You have a right to require that I should prove that I am

ary, that stood in a corner of the room, and unlocked a d

y seeing her open this drawer on Sunday afternoo

f ribbon, a locket, a bunch of faded flowers, a

ene where a third person, one might almost

air where Ida had been sitting, smiling and crying, and the girl, with eye

summer, peering through the windows, and already dimming

mulous voice betrayed an exhilaration like that of intoxication. "You will excuse me for having cluttered it up with my th

trying to grasp their full meaning as she uttered them. Then a sudden terr

t doubt it still?" exclaimed Mi

o not," and she threw her aims about Miss Ludington's neck in an embrace in which, neverthe

e way through a complexity of roundabout passages, and past many other doors, to that of the chamber which had

his house," she said, with a little hysterical lau

ink not. It would be strange, indeed, if I were not familiar here. The only stra

aw the dazed look coming again into the girl's eyes. "You shall be mi

ies; but it is safe to assume that the three persons who fell asleep beneath Miss Ludington's roof that morning, just as the birds began to