“‘How so?’ said I.
“‘You must listen to my tale. We have never talked about him since we parted at Mr. Walker’s. I have never repented what I did then.’
“‘Oh, how nobly you acted, dear sister,’ said I, ‘and how little you seem to have felt the shock of such a parting. How I love you for your determination! You have never seen him since?’
“‘I saw him last night!’
“‘Indeed?’
“‘Yes—last night. He stood by my bed-side, looking most pale and ghastly; and reproached me with deserting him, and leaving him to his fate. He said that I might have saved him by converting him from his evil ways, but now on me must rest the consequences of his ruin, both in body and soul.’
“‘It must surely have been a troubled dream!’
“‘No, brother, it was a sad reality. I appeared to myself as wide awake as I am at this moment, and though my reason tells me that he could not be there, I saw him with as sober a mind, and an eye as steady as I see you now!’
“‘And how do you explain this strange delusion?’
“‘Easily—I am DYING! Look at this hand,’ said she, holding up her taper fingers before the candle. I could distinctly see the flame through the transparent skin, and trace the blue fret-work of the veins, as though they had been traced with a lead pencil on a sheet of white paper. I saw that all was over!