Miss Ludington's Sister

hich was connected with the sitting-room by low windows opening like doors, when he heard a scream, and Ell

matter?" h

always does mornings, an' I looked up, an' there in the door stood the very same

and precipitately sheltering herself behind

lly greeted the ghost, the girl's face showed such comic

ss Ida Ludington, a relative of Miss Ludi

t sure ye are the livin' image of the picture, and me not knowin' anybody was in th

t before. There was, indeed, no indication of excite

might have had stran

it down a long time to collect my thoughts and remember what had happened. I could remember it well enough, but to realize it was very hard. And then, when I went to the window and looked out and saw the meeting-house and the school-

esult of an effort at self-control, that it impressed Paul

piazza with a white, excited face, which, howe

had come, and be gone at morning. From sheer weariness, however, she had at last fallen into a doze. On a

k Ida upstairs, and made her exchange her white dress of the fashion of half a century before for one of her own, in order

hich made the change of costume n

rumble away in a very curious manner. The texture seemed strangely brittle and strengthless. It fell apart at a touch

sufficiently for the full figure of the girl. Like all but the latest of Miss Ludington's dresses, it was of deepest black, and, strikingly beautiful as Ida had

pent by the ladies in an upstairs chamber, which Miss Ludington had devoted t

t of the family. I want to make you acquainted with the other Mi

nd sisters, and eventually to destruction. It had been an easy matter to preserve them, and, consequently, the collection was large and curio

collection of photographs, one or two for each year, arranged in order. They numbered not less than fifty in all and covered thirty-seven years, from a daguerreotype of Miss Ludington at the ag

or Miss Ludington. For each of these faces, with their so various expressions, represented a person possessing a peculiar identity and certain incom

picture after another, Miss Ludington related all she could re

ons. All wore black dresses, and had sad faces, and all found in their thoughts of you the source at once of their only consolation and their keenest sorrow. For they fully

her. Next to you I think more of her than I do of any of the rest. It was she who cut loose from the old life at Hilton which had become so sour and sad, and built this new H

of the Miss Ludington

her," she said. "What k

ture it was that Ida had taken up, betrayed a m

softly, "Don't tell me if it is anything you do

existence, empty of all that human hearts desire, which came in after-years, she could not yet command. Oh, if you could imagine, as I remember, the bitterness of that period, you would not be too hard upon her for anything she might have done! But, really, it was nothing very bad. People would not call it so, even if it had ever become known." And then, with blushing cheeks and shamed eyes, Miss Ludington poured into Ida's ears a story that would have disappointed any one

se I don't like are some whom I remember to have lacked softness of heart, to have been sour and ungenerous; these, for instance," indicating certain pictures. "But it is hardly fair," she added, laughing, "for us two to get together and

old women. In the spirit land, when we all meet together, there will be no black sheep among us, nor even anybody that we shall need to send to Coventry: But I do not see why special affinities should not assert themselves there as

baby Ida and the child Ida, you remember them even better than I do, no doubt. I would give anything if I had their pictures, but the blessed art of photography was not then invented. These keepsakes

than a man's mittens. Lying near were the shoes, and gowns, and hoods, now grown a little larger, of the child, with the coral

l," said Miss Ludington, "but I fancy they will be

of us other Ida Ludingtons, who have followed you, present company not excepted? Confess that you think the acquaintances I have introduced to yo

not say that; but your lives have all been so different f

e, indeed, not turned out as you expected-as you had a right to expect."

I thought, of course, I should be married, and have children, and that all would be so different fr

upon her. "I think that to have to confess to their youthful selves their failures to fulfil their expectations must be the

re full of

multitude of inquiries about the members of the families which had occupied the houses, forty and fifty ye

ated in Miss Ludington's old seat. Nothing, perhaps, could have brought home to the latter more

e, Miss Ludington began gently to banter Ida about this and that

d arrangement that you should remember all my secrets while I kn

udington in the early part of the day, had noticeably given way under the influence of the latter's blithe affectio

call you Ida, as you call me, would be and, besides, yo

gton laugh

in spite of my white hair. You are forty years older than I. It is I who owe you the respect due to years. You are right, however; it would

at of sisters than any other," sug

ed a moment, and then

ur common individuality, as if we were fruit borne by the same tree in different seasons. To be sure," she added regarding her blooming companion with a smile of tender admirat

that they should ca

rawn towards Miss Ludington, and so spontaneous had been the outflow of the latter's long-stored tendernes

ntimacy, Miss Ludington exultingly recognized the heart'

dy come to seem, that she found herself half-forgetting, at tim

stantly with Ida she had not, indeed, seen him, save at table, and had failed to take note of his wobegone appearance. At any other time it w

day of strangely ming

d him by some fairy, but only on condition that all memory of him should be blotted from her mind, and that she should see in him merely a stran

; that he should hear the sound of her voice, and breathe the same air with her, was, on the one hand, a felicity s

smile of civil recognition; when he spoke to her, and she answered him

lf with the belief that, as a spirit, she had known of his love, and accepted it. Now, by h

Her friendly, formal accent was unendurable to him. Their blank, unrecognizing expression

found Miss Ludington alo

t you help me? I shal

I have lost her instead of finding her. I, who have loved her ever since I was a baby, am no more than a st

Paul? She did not know me t

annot stand it. Can't you help me with her? Can't you tell her

must be for you. I will help you. I will tell her all the story. Oh, Paul! is she not beautiful? She will love you, I k

encouraged by her confid

ng-room, intently pondering th

u a love story, my

e story?"

ur

or a lover. Nobody can possibl

ever had so fond or faithful a lover as yours. Sit down and I will tell you you

ove for her, which had grown with his growth, and, from a boyish sentiment, become the ruling pa

possible to communicate with her spirit, and how her presence on earth wa

as nothing more than a stranger to her. She told her how, in his desperation, he had appealed to her to plead his cas

e, which all unseen she had inspired, to find awaiting her full-grown on her return to earth, her

," she said, gently, as

was alone, standing in

feet, and lifted the hem

over," she

kisses. She gently drew him to his feet. He hea

ed with his, and she