husband as he was when living, but it is strange that you so seldom
think of seeing him again.'

'Oh, sir, that looks like a dream to me, I can't more than half believe
it, but I know the other to be reality.'

'Yet one is as true as the other.' The woman sighed, and her countenance
looked troubled, but she made no answer.

'You believe the Bible?'

'Ye-es, sir--my James believed it, and so it must be true.'

'Then you will allow me to read you a chapter, I suppose.'

'If you please, sir, but it always seemed to me a very gloomy book, and
I am afraid it will make me low-spirited.'

'No, I think not, it may raise your spirits.' Mr Maurice took down the
Bible, and opened it at the fifteenth chapter of First Corinthians. A
piece of torn paper lay between the opened leaves, and a few of the
verses were marked with a pencil. As Mr Maurice proceeded to read, the
face of the poor woman was gradually lowered till it almost rested on
her bosom, and at last, yielding to the intensity of her feelings, she
buried her face in the bed-clothes, and did not raise it again till the
chapter was finished.

'Oh, many and many is the time he has read it to me!' she exclaimed,
'and he put in the mark only the day before he died, so that I might
find it; but I could not, oh I couldn't bear to read it!'