No body answered. I knocked once more, when, no answer being returned and hearing somebody cough, I opened the door and entered the parlor.
A young female was fitting at the farther end of the room, busied with needlework. Her dress was that of a person rather above the common fort, and the place itself exhibited traces of neatness and elegance. Lifting her eyes from a picture that hung before her to recognize the nightly intruder, she uttered a loud shriek on casting the first glance on me; and—to my unspeakable surprize and happiness—I found it was my adored Elmira!!—I fell at her feet; she rushed into my arms; heaven and earth fled from our entranced senses; it was the grand and sublime moment of meeting again!
"For Heaven's sake!" said I recovering from the first transport occasioned by this inconceivable adventure,—" is it thee, my Elmira? How camest thou to rise again from the eternal darkness of the grave? How camest thou hither?"
