“We may have many experiences before another meeting, yet I hope we shall come together again soon.”

“How shall we spend our evening?” said Miss Bernard to her brother, yet looking at Dawn.

“Naturally.  Let it take its own course.”  Their eyes at that instant rested on Dawn, whose features glowed with a heavenly light and sweetness.

“It is a trance symptom,” said Basil.  “Let us keep ourselves passive.”

The light of the room seemed to vibrate with life, and their bodies to be so charged with an electric current so etherial that it seemed that their spirits must be freed from all earthly hold.  And then there came a calm over all.  The features of Dawn seemed to change to those of one so familiar to them in their early days, that they started with surprise.

“I was on earth known as Sybil Warner,” said a voice which seemed not that of Dawn, and yet her vocal organs were employed to speak the name.

“Sybil Warner!” exclaimed Basil, white with emotion, and turning to his sister, whose palor equaled his own, “Have you ever spoken that name to her?” he asked, pointing to the upturned face of Dawn.

“Never!  I am equally astonished and interested with yourself.”

“Shall we question her,—­the spirit?” But before Basil could reply the spirit spoke: 

“You were not aware, I know, that I passed to the spirit-land a few years ago; and for that reason, and many others, I come to give you a test.  The mention of my name must have been a surprise to you, for never in the earth-life, did I meet this lady whose organism I now employ to speak to you.  You would know of my life, after I withdrew from the world of fashion.  At some other time it shall be given you; enough for the present, that I became world-weary, and, possessing what is called second-sight, drifted through life, caring naught for the heartlessness around me.  The life which makes up three-fourths of the so called happiness of humanity I could not adopt as my own; therefore I was alone, and a wanderer.  I was, of course, called strange and weird.  What cared I, when every-day glimpses of the larger life were given me,—­that life which I was so soon to enter upon.  One humble spirit stands by me here, whose name is Margaret, and sends love and gratitude to the beautiful being through whom I now address you.

“Friends of my youth, always so good and true to me, I come to mingle my life with yours, and to grow strong with you in good and holy purposes.  We of the upper air, do not live alone; we need your life, as well as you do ours.  This communion is as ancient as time, and will endure throughout eternity.  Volumes could not tell of the broken households united through this light.  Search for its hidden treasures; they are worthy of untiring study.  Its glory will not fall into your life; it must be worked out by your own efforts and found within your own experience.  Thus it will become a part of your immortal self, and help you on your heavenly way.  The skeptic cannot sit and call us who have thrown off the mortal, by words alone, for only in answer to deep and heartfelt desire do we come and hold communion with our earthly friends.  They who seek shall find.