SHALTS FROVN AN FASTERN QUITIR 143

saw I was cagerly looking, and which was towards the jasper gateway:,

A thin ilm of mist scemed to me (o have arisen, and in the midst of it the face of a woman apparently arose. Clearer and more distinet it seemed {o become, and then the form of the OQucen appeared clad in

a flowing robe, and adorned with strings of

pearls about her neck and arms, while upon her head there glittered a diamond tiara,

As the star above her seemed to shine still brighter, a man, tall and majestic, was to be seen at her side, and the Tovers were bathed in o silvery lioht that strewmed down upon them.

“Irank 17 1 whispered, in an awestruck tone, *“arc they living heings upon whom we gaze, or are they spirits risen from the dead 7"

• Iush, Harold ! " he answered, quictly,

Y your sicht must be keener than mine, for at present I see nothing there,”

The woman by the embers rose, the calm expression vanished from her countenance, and she stageered forward with outstretched arms. We watched the scene intently When she reached the jasper gate, she flung herself wildly on her knees, as she exclaimed—

Y Kasmir, my beloved one, once again art thou come from the sleeping shades that my cyes may rest upon thee, and that I may lament the love which all un- knowingly de- stroved thee.”

The man scemed to turn g e coldly from her, | sl e 1 o then bent for- Gy e ward, and elanced passion- ately ito the cyes of the form at his side.

The star above scemed fora moment to cleave the sky,

then, bursting into myriads,

fell 1n a shower like a silver seq.

forms which

"SHE FLUNG HERSELEF ON HIR KNERS.

and enveloped what appeared to me to be the forms of the lovers and the woman knecling vainly at their feet |

Almost immediately the vale assumed 1ts former appearance, and we rushed forward, but found only the woman, (o whose story we had listened, knecling with clasped hands and that look of infinite sorTow upon her face which we had seen before.

Our presence roused her, for she instan- lancously started up, and, darting through the portal of the jasper gate, disappeared. We followed her at a headlong pace, and, alter traversing the ruins of 1 stately palace, saw her flving in the distance before us at an almost incredible pace. At last we stopped, exhausted with our vain offorts to overtake her, and saw her mounting a fantastic ridge that stood out rugged and desolate against the starlit sky. Then she disappeared, and nothing remained to us but the recollection of her drcamy yet troubled face !

As we rested, before procceding to attempt to find a way which might lcad to where Hassan had cncamped, T asked Denviers again whether he thought the [ had seen were real. To my surprise he declared that nothing had passed before his cyes save the woman to whom he had spoken,

" But,” I persisted, “ 1 saw them djs. tinctly."

He smiled as he answered—

“No doubt you did, in Imagination, Harold. The fact 15 the woman's story was so 1mpressed

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= upon your mind = that 1 , j 1at, when you

looked towards the

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