When I think back upon the mysterious occurrences of the night which followed my introduction into the household of Lady Marmaduke, I hardly know how to tell them. It was not till long afterward that I knew exactly what I had done that night. I was like a man gone half asleep. Surely I ought to bear no blame for my lack of reason. For the last ten years, with the exception of those short weeks in Captain Donaldson’s ship, I had been searching endlessly for my sister. During that long period there had been moments of despondency; at times my search was quite neglected; yet never for an instant had I given up all hope. Now everything was at an end. My life seemed snapped in two. Had such a blow come ten years before I might have cursed God in my folly. I might have plunged recklessly into the first danger that awaited me. But years of restrained impulse had greatly changed my character. I had passed the rash age of youth, and now I almost sank beneath the burden that seemed greater than I could bear.

“SOON I CAME UPON A WOMAN KNEELING
IN THE GRASS.”—p. 103

In this state of mind my little room in the gable of Marmaduke Hall was too confining. It seemed 103as if I could not get my breath, and it made my head reel to look down from the high window. I could see the swaying trees upon the hills beyond the city, and they seemed to beckon me to come to their solitary shade for comfort, and I went. I can recollect very little of what followed. I remember that I paused once by the city gate to look back at the house which I had left. A picture came into my eye of the relentless woman who had told me news that was bitter as wormwood; yet she was kind and considerate withal. I turned away and set my face towards the sighing woodland.

I threw myself down on my back beneath an oak tree. There was a small patch of blue sky visible, and now and then a bird swam lazily across it. Did I fall asleep and dream, or did I rise and walk about unconsciously? I do not know much of what I did; but soon I was walking. I was not aware of the exact moment when I began to move, nor how long I had been winding my way in and out among the trees when the sound of sobbing grew upon my ears. It startled me and I began to look around and to follow the sound without knowing just where I went, in that vague way one is so used to in dreams. Soon I came upon a woman kneeling in the grass. She was very beautiful and my heart went out to her for she was weeping bitterly and seemed in great distress. My appearance must have scared her for she hastily covered something upon the ground and then sprang up in great alarm. 104She was dressed in a white robe that floated about her like an angel. For just a moment she let me see her sweet tear-stained face; then she was gone. Her dark hair and sorrowful expression made such a lifelike impression upon me that I almost thought it could not be a dream. Yet in a moment she had vanished like a breeze. Near the spot where she had stood the grass curved upward over a small mound. I drew near to examine what from its appearance I thought should be a grave.

When I first came upon the woman she made a hasty move to cover something upon the ground. At the head of the grave I spied a loose sod which I lifted. Beneath it was a flat stone inscribed with the one word “Ruth.” I fell on my knees and wept. Surely God had sent me a vision! I lay full length on the grave, kissing the cold stone and plucking blades of grass to strew upon it in place of flowers. How I thanked God for this dream! He had led me into green pastures. Thy rod and Thy staff, O God, they comfort me!

Suddenly the visitant reappeared.

“Sir,” she said. “You are in sore trouble.”

I pointed to the grave. “She was my sister.”

She was startled by this and eyed me with a doubtful anxious look. I cannot recall what she said to me, but after a while she opened the bosom of her robe, whence she drew forth a small ivory miniature enclosed in a gold rim.

“See; your sister wore it before she died.”

105I looked. It contained the counterfeit of my own face, like one I had given Ruth upon the ocean. God is merciful, but His mercies are quick to come and go. The vision disappeared; yet its blessed presence had made me feel that I had stood close in Ruth’s heart to the very end of her life even as she had stood in mine.

There follows a blank space in my memory during which I can remember nothing. The trees at last seemed to force themselves into my consciousness again. They tramped by me in an endless procession. I grew cold and began to shiver. A sharp pricking attacked my legs. I looked down to discover the cause of this sensation and saw that I was standing in water up to my knees. Like a flash it all came over me; I had been walking in my sleep.

I waded back to the shore and sat down to think. The place was all new to me, I had not the least idea where I was. A narrow rim of gravely beach encircled the little lake into which I had stumbled; but this told me nothing, nor could I see the least sign of a path. So, after a few moments, I got up to walk around in the hope of discovering some beaten path that would lead me out of the woods.

As I walked I kept dwelling upon what I had seen in my dream. It never occurred to me that perhaps I had seen a real person. To be sure, my memory was so vivid that I was tempted to say: “How could it be a dream?” For all that, I never 106doubted that it was a supernatural appearance. My only thought was that our Heavenly Father had sent me this in my distress to comfort me, and to assure me that Ruth’s last thoughts were of me, and that she still watched over me in heaven as on earth.

As I said, when I came to myself in the water I was............