The Morning herald., 1876-12-29
CORD AND CREESE.
CHAPTER XIV.
TWO LETTERS.

After long sleep Edith walked again.
She said nothing ! did not wish her to
speak. She lay awake, yet with closed
eyes, thinking such thoughts as belong to
one, and to one alone, who had known
what she had known.
I did not speak to her, for she was to me
holy being, not to be addressed lightly.
Yet she did not refuse punishment, and
grew stronger, until at last | was able to
have her moved to Quebec. There l OBJ.
tanned proper accommodations for her and
good nurses.
have told you what she was before
this. Subsequently, there came change.
The nurses and the doctors called it a stu.
p0r,
There was something in her face which
inspired awe among all who saw her.
If it is the soul of man that gives express
sion to the features, then her soul must
have been familiar with things unknown to
us. How often have seen her in walking
across the room stop suddenly and stand
fixed on the spot, musing and sad ! She
commonly moved about as though she saw
nothing, as though she walked ia a dream,
with eyes half closed, and sometimes muir
muring inrudible words. The nurses half
loved and half feared her. Yet there were
some little children in the house who felt
all love and no fear, for l have seen her
smiling on them with smile SO sweet that
1t seemed to me as if they stood in the pres
ence Of their guardian angel. Strange, sad
spirit, what thoughts, what memories are
these which make her life one long reverie,
aud have taken from her all power to enjoy
the beautiful that dwells on earth
She fills all my thoughts with her lone
llness her tears, and her spiritual face,
bearing the marks of scenes that never be
forgotten. She lives and moves amidst her
recolections What is it that 80 over
whelms all her thoughts? That face of
hers appears as though it had bathed itself
IN the atmosphere of some diviner world
than this; and her eyes seem as if they may
have gazed upon the Infinite Mystery.
Now from the few words which she has
casually dropped gather this to he her
own belief. That when she fell into the
sl"ie OF trance her soul was parted from
Aer body, though still by an inexplicable
sympathy she was aware Of what was pass
ing around her lifeless form. Yet her soul
had gone forth into that spiritual world to-
ward which we look from this earth with
such eager wonder. 1t had mingled there
with the souls of others. 1t had put forth
new powers, and learned the use of new
faculties. Then that soul was called back
to its body.
This maiden-this wonder among NOR
ais-ls not mortal, she is an exiled soul.
have seen her sit with tears streaming
down her face, tears such as men shed in
exile. For she is like "a banished man who
mas only one feeling, longing, yearning
homeslckness. She has been once in that
radiant world for time which we call
'nree days in our human calculations, but
which to her seems indefinite; for as she
once said and it is a pregnant thought, full
ol meanlng-there is no time there, all is
lhnnlte duration. The soul has illmitable
powers; in an instant it can live years, and
s4e III IN those three days had the life ofages.
f1er 'ormer life on earth has now but a
ialnt hold upon her memory in comparison
"ilh mat life among the stars. The sor-
row that her loved ones endured has be-
ione p eclipsed by the knowledge of the
''essedness in which she found them.
a.. Alas! it is a blessing to die, and it is
oniy a curse to rise from the dead. And
how hw she endures this exile with an aching
":"r', with memories that are irrepressible,
t, H.'h ionglngs unutterable, and warnings
uaN,G VIA. can not be expressed for that starry
wb;l "Hila ana that bright companionship from
wien "nlcn she has been recalled. So she
so.nenmes speaks. And little else can she
ray my. amidst her tears. Oh, sublime and
mss'er'ous Wy" exile, could ! but know what
;hst ;Uu Know, and have but small part of