“The strange tremor of my being. Marion, some one has come to this hotel, who will strangely affect my future life.”
“The woman,—the soul you felt in the air?” she inquired, now excited in turn.
“Yes, the soul has come; my soul. I shall look on her before to-morrow's sun has set. I feel an affiliation, a quality of life which never entered my mental or physical organization before. And Marion, this quality is mine by all the laws of Heaven.” He sank back upon the couch like a weary child, and soon passed into a sweet slumber.
Marion watched the color as it came into his face. It was the flush of health, not the hectic tinge of disease; and his breath, once labored and short, was now easy and calm as an infant's.
Some wondrous change seemed to have been wrought upon him. What was it? By what subtle process had his life blood been warmed, and his being so strongly affiliated with another life? and where was the being whose life had entered into his? Beneath the same roof, reading the beautiful story of “Evangeline.”
The next morning Ralph arose, strong and refreshed, having slept much better than he had for many months.
“Such rest, Marion,” he said, “will soon restore me to health,” and his looks confirmed the truth of his statement.
“I should think you had found life's elixir, or the philosopher's stone, whose fabled virtues were buried with the alchemists of old. But who is the fairy, Ralph, and when shall we behold her face?”
“Before the sun has set to-day,” he answered, confidently.
Marion smiled, looked slightly incredulous, and sat down to her books and work.