“I should, most certainly; you have anticipated my answer.  We have what we aspire to—­what we feel the need of.”

“We are getting too earnest, it makes me feel almost sad.  Come, Arrow, let me see you speed over that shady road;” and away he flew at the sound of his name, leaving Dawn and Jessie, who seemed in no mood just then for galloping, far behind.

It was almost twilight when they reached home together, Mrs. Austin having checked her horse’s speed, for her friend to come up with her.  They had passed a most delightful day, and cosily seated in their parlor, we will leave them talking as the twilight deepens around, and go to the home of Basil and sister, who are conversing upon the day’s events.

“It seems as though somewhere, in this or another existence, I had seen that face and form,” said Basil to his sister.

“She is certainly very lovely, wherever you may have met her.  She may have been a dove, brother, and rested on your shoulder.  I do not know but that we should hesitate before we condemn the belief in a transmigration of spirits, souls, and forces, when nature seems to somewhat imply its truth in her kingdom?”

“Spirit cannot, in its countless transmigrations, be limited to the little space which we call earth.  The life of the universe is the activity of its ever-living forces and existences, and their eternal striving to separate or to unite.

“The belief in the transmigration of souls is of high antiquity, and is worthy of more than a passing thought.  A writer has said:  ’Being itself does not change, but only its relations.  Mind and soul move in other connections, according to divine ordinances.  The strength or weakness of the will, which the mind is conscious of, in itself, by a natural necessity creates a distinction between the elevation or the degradation of self.  That is its heaven-this is its hell.  There is an infinite progress of spirit towards perfection in the Infinite, as the solar systems with their planets wheel through the realm of the immeasurable.  All eternal activity!  New union to be going on of spirits and souls with new powers, which become their serviceable instruments of contact with the All of things-this is transmigration of souls.  Any other kind of continued duration and continued action is inconceivable to us.  Whether upon earth, or in other worlds, is a matter of indifference.’  But one spirit sees these things more clearly than another.”

Basil stopped, and gazed long into the dim twilight, that light so fitted for communion; and as he gazed he felt his mind going out from his home, towards the being who had so touched his soul-thoughts.  Was it his counterpart, or second-self, that made him feel that evening as though he had never known himself?  What new quality had so blended with his own, in that brief space of time, as to quicken all his spiritual and intellectual perceptions?  Would they meet again? and when and where? were the concluding interrogatories as he came back from his reverie, his thoughts flowing again into audible language.