and then his!" She said this with a smile, so pure, so radiant, that I instantly divined that there was truth in the theory that every one has a conjugal mate in the universe somewhere, albeit I shrank from, and dreaded to meet mine, if, indeed, I had one, for I had seen somewhat of that which passes for love among men; and, while hailing and delighting in amicive, I felt a shuddering disgust at anything that assumed the form of amatory love. Love was admired, but its passional phases feared and despised. My tutelage was just begun.
The touch of the child's hand was as plain, palpable and physical as any touch ever felt before,—quite as much so as was that of the dear sister who smoothed my dying brow. 'After all, then, spirits are material. I feel their fingers, see their forms, hear their words, and I am in all respects as nervously sensitive as ever in the by-gone years of sickness! Oh, this mystery of the double existence, which, after all, seems to be but two phases of a single state; when, when shall it be solved?' This thought passed through my mind, nor can there be the least doubt but they both read it quite as well as myself, for the old man smiled gently and benignly, the girl with half-concealed merriment and glee.
I now passed off into a strange and peculiar state, but whether what followed resulted from the touch or not, it is impossible to say. At first I was seized with an intense desire to know more of what must be called my physique, and a rapid inspection revealed the fact that I possessed, all and singular, the organs in the new condition, that had been in the old. There were my
