"My one excuse for troubling you, when I might have consulted my
brother-in-law, will be found in the pages which I inclose. To
speak plainly, you have been led to fear that I am not in my
right senses. For this very reason, I now appeal to you. Your
dreadful doubt of me, sir, is my doubt too. Read what I have
written about myself--and then tell me, I entreat you, which I
am: A person who has been the object of a supernatural
revelation? or an unfortunate creature who is only fit for
imprisonment in a mad-house?"



Mr. Rayburn opened the manuscript. With steady attention, which
soon quickened to breathless interest, he read what follows:

VI.

THE LADY'S MANUSCRIPT.

YESTERDAY morning the sun shone in a clear blue sky--after a
succession of cloudy days, counting from the first of the month.

The radiant light had its animating effect on my poor spirits. I
had passed the night more peacefully than usual; undisturbed by
the dream, so cruelly familiar to me, that my lost husband is
still living--the dream from which I always wake in tears. Never,
since the dark days of my sorrow, have I been so little troubled