The shadow groaned; then it called out wearily, 'Roxana!'
'Yes, Samuel,' replied an answering voice, and a second shadow became dimly visible on the threshold. 'The woman will attend to your earthly concerns,' said Waiting Samuel.—'Roxana, take them hence.' The second shadow came forward, and, without a word, took our hands and led us along the dark passage like two children, warning us now of a step, now of a turn, then of two steps, and finally opening a door and ushering us into a fire-lighted room. Peat was burning upon the wide hearth, and a singing kettle hung above it on a crane; the red glow shone on a rough table, chairs cushioned in bright calico, a loud ticking clock, a few gayly flowered plates and cups on a shelf, shining tins against the plastered wall, and a cat dozing on a bit of carpet in one corner. The cheery domestic scene, coming after the wide, dusky Flats, the silence, the darkness, and the mystical words of the shadowy Samuel, seemed so real and pleasant that my heart grew light within me.
'What a bright fire!' I said. 'This is your domain, I suppose, Mrs.—Mrs.—'
'I am not Mrs.; I am called Roxana,' replied the woman, busying herself at the hearth.
'Ah, you are then the sister of Waiting Samuel, I presume?'
'No, I am his wife, fast enough; we were married by the minister twenty years ago. But that was before Samuel had seen any visions.'
'Does he see visions?'
'Yes, almost every day.'
'Do you see them, also?'
'O no; I'm not like Samuel. He has great gifts, Samuel has! The visions told us to come here; we used to live away down in Maine.'