Year: 1864

I -'N'~ 'AS NS"'h4y pNiioI VI ~ IL was
SO exquisite. She wore one garment, a
long flannel shroud, very straitly made,
through which scanty d-apery The outline
OF her slender limbs was distinctly visible,
and below which her delicate feet were
seen, bare TO the ankle.


Ashley was troubled as he had never
been before Tho idea Of treating this
beautiful corpse as he had done all Others
brought 70 him, was repulsive to him, and
he reoolled from it as from the thought of
sacrilege. But how could he rid himself
OF The lovely incubus? 1t was possible
that the men who bad brought it might
be bribed to take it back again, and If
they should refuse-b bot he was incapable
OF distinct thought upon the subject. and
could only determine that in any case the
beautiful thing before him should be treat
ed with reverence and respect. lie gent
y covered 1t from head 10 foot with long
white cloth, and locking the door Of com
munication between his bedroom and the
room in which it lay, threw himself upon
his bed without undressing, for the night
was nearly gone.


But his ssleep was broken, and his dreams
were feverish, and in some way all conneo-
ted with what lay in the next room. Now
il seemed to him that it gliacd in through
the locked door, with hands folded on its
breast and eyes still fast closed, and
stood by his bedside and now the dream
was that he lad opened vsin in one of
the delicate arms, and that warm, living
blood poured fast from it and finally, he
woke with cry of horror from CHASTITY
dream that he found that he had entered
the room and found that some unknown
hand had anticipated him in the work Of
dissection.


The horror was upon him after he woke
to know ii was a dream, and opening the
door he looked in upon tho table, No
change there Of any kind. The long
shectcd figure lay in the half light Of
dawn as he had seen it in the lamp-igh.,
very straight and still. ..a 80.


rtwas not until nearly noon that Ast.
icy raised the covering TO look once sgn'u
upon the beautiful dead face, and when
he did so be saw with wonder, not unmix-
ed with terror, that change had come
upon il. He could not tell VIII at il might
be the deathly pail1r was there still, but
IN some way tho face vas not the same
Ee looked in 10 it long and curiously.-
Surely a change had passed over the eyes,
for though they were still fast shut, they
looked now as though closed in sleep ra-
ther than in death He lifted an eye-lid
tenderly with his finger; there was not
doath in Tho eye; unconscousness, trance,
there might be, but not death.


lie was certain nov that she vas not
dead, though he could find 40 life in her
pulses For hours be stroye 10 call back
the spirit, until at length color returned,
and warmth, and life, and she lay before
him sleeping TRANQUILITY like Guild. lie
had placed her on his bed, and now sat BY
her side with tiIro5bug heart to aSait
her awakening,


She slept 40 long and in the waning
light looked so pale that he feared she
wos again about to fall into tho strange
deathly trance from which he had with
80 much difficulty recovered her. In his
terror Of that he cried out for her TO
awake, aud The sound OF bis cry awoko
her with q start.


He had prepared speech that was to
calm and re-as.ure her when she awoke,
lbovilderod 10 find herself so strangely
clothed and lodged but she no more
needed calming and surus than an
infant too young to know its mother from
o,v olher woman. She looked round
with a wondering gaze that was almost
Iinfontine. and her eye resting upon AstT
lev. che sat up in the bed aud asked him
in hi, own Ian guagc for food. 1t was evi'
dent thet she had no Teco! eotlon OF III
= ness. and neither anxiety or curiosity as
to her present position


, She ate the food which vas brought 10
her with appetite, and would have risen


from the bed apparently UNCONSCIOUS tuaV A'
. .be wore no garment but shroud, had
: not Astley persuaded her to lie down and
e sleep again.
; lie left her sleeping, and went to-ano'h'
i. er room, profoundly puzzled. Here was
d this beautiful woman, ignorant, aud al
most helpless as a child,thrown upon MIN
d for protection, as il was clear sho did mol
il remember anything which would lead tf
e the discovery OF her friends II was pos
4. sible that her senses had left her altogeth
|. or, never TO return tho lovely creature


might be harmless idiot all the rest
" her days. Her speaking English was an