Debating the notion in her mind, she sought her usual retreat, and turned
listlessly over the books which she had so lately loved to study. At
length, in moving one she had not looked into before, a paper fell to the
ground; she picked it up; it was the paper containing that figure, which
it will be remembered, the astrologer had shown to his daughter, as a
charm to produce dreams prophetic of any circumstance or person concerning
whom the believer might be anxious to learn aught. As she saw the image,
which, the reader will recollect, was of a remarkable design, the whole of
her conversation with Volktman on the subject rushed into her mind, and
she resolved that very night to prove the efficacy of the charm on which
he had so confidently insisted. Fraught with the chimerical delusion, she
now longed for the hours to pass, and the night to come. She looked again
and again at the singular image and the portentous figures wrought upon
the charm; the very strangeness of the characters inspired her, as was
natural, with a belief of their efficacy; and she felt a thrill, an awe,
creep over her blood, as the shadows of eve, deepening over the far
mountains, brought on the time of trial. At length it was night, and
Lucilla sought her chamber.

The hour was exceedingly serene, and the stars shone through the casement
with a lustre that to her seemed ominous. With bare feet, and only in her
night-robe, she stole tremblingly across the threshold. She paused for a
moment at the window, and looked out on the deep and quiet night; and as
she so stood, it was a picture that, had I been a painter, I would have
devoted a youth to accomplish. Half in light--half in shadow--her undress
gave the outline, and somewhat more, of a throat and breast, whose
roundness, shape, and hue, never were surpassed. Her arms were lightly
crossed above her bosom; and her long rich hair seeming darker by that
light, fell profusely, yet not dishevelled, around her neck; parting from