"God has spoken to me through you, and I have rightly comprehended and understood every word you have said; and I will do as you have told me. Yes, I will be a child of God; I will follow Jesus; and you follow him also, Hertha, and thus we shall both go the same way, and in the end we shall be united?"

"Yes, Rudolph, yes, in heaven, as angels of God, if we are worthy of becoming such. But now, dear Rudolph, you must go; before morning you must be on your way to the coast. The steamboat to Götheborg sails early tomorrow from K***. You must make haste to be in time for it. Your whole future wellbeing may depend upon it. Remember what we have talked about!"

"Yes, yes; I will go. Farewell!"

He offered her his hand; she took it and went out with him into the court. It was a cold, bright night, at the close of April; hoar-frost covered the meadow. The stars shone brightly above their heads in the blue expanse of heaven. When they had reached the little lane which led from the house to the high road, Rudolph said:

"Hertha, let me have a parting kiss."

She could not refuse him at that moment; she raised her face to his; but he clasped her in burning love and pain, and covered her face with hot kisses.

With an involuntary feeling of horror and disgust Hertha tore herself from his arms, as she exclaimed, "Away, away!" Rudolph turned and went on his way sobbing aloud. But just as he reached the end of the lane, he felt a hand touch his arm, and Hertha again stood before him with the light of hope and compassion again beaming in her countenance; she pointed to heaven and said:

"There, Rudolph, there!"

With these words, she hastened back; gathered up the hoar-frost from the grass, and washed her face with it, which seemed to her polluted by Rudolph's kisses. So doing, she listened to the sound of his footsteps,

L

which became more and more distant on the desolate high road in the silent night. When she could no longer perceive them, she breathed more freely. And as she stood there, alone, beneath the brilliant, starry heavens, in the silence of night, a joyful peace stole over her mind; an indescribably wonderful and pleasant feeling of approaching morning and spring came consolingly with the breeze of night, which refreshingly caressed her forehead, and touched her eyebrows as with a spirit's kisses. The strengthening and edifying words which she had spoken, the consolation which she had given to another, came now like good angels back to her own bosom, with the presentiment, that an everlasting love ruled the world, and that she might become its messenger. The feeling of a living, inward communion with a higher, holy, life-giving power, arose in her soul as a morning watch, and opened it to one of those unspeakable, almost wordless, but not the less powerful, prayers by which earth's poor children, yet enveloped in night, endeavour to reach the Lord of life and light, and which may be thus interpreted:

"Oh Thou, of whom I have a presentiment, Thou whom I yet do not know, whom I yearn to know and to love— God! enlighten me with thy countenance, turn thy countenance towards me, and give me thy light and thy blessing!"

The thought of Alma; the longing to experience something about her, something from her, mingled itself with inexpressible melancholy in her sigh after divine light, which she breathed forth into the silence of night. And who is there, who, having lost by death a very dear friend, does not, in every hour of deepest life and longing, speak, with inexpressible sighs in the depths of his soul, the beloved name; pray for a sign, a token, ah! merely an inward intimation that the departed is present, that he hears, that he loves us, that he enjoys the light, the

blessedness of which we stand in need, and that he obtains good for us, and for them who sit in darkness, from the Father, whose ear he is nearer to than we!

So it was with Hertha, as she stretched forth her arms into empty space, and called in a low voice, "Alma! Alma!"

But no sound, no sign, no token replied to her from the desolate infinitude. She let her hands fall; dried her tears, and again entered her chamber in order to lay to rest in the arms of sleep all uneasy questionings, all the pangs of thought and of feeling. Tears soothe. It is a great relief to be able to weep. calmed the agitated billows of her soul.

Hertha's tears

She slept and had a dream, which afforded her great consolation.

She dreamed that it was night, and that she went into her silent chamber to go to rest. Alma was dead, and she was alone with heavy thoughts. She then saw the glimpse of a white figure by the window, which seemed as if wishful to withdraw itself behind the white window-curtain. A thought passed like lightning through Hertha's soul, "It is a sign from Alma!" And she sprung up hastily, as if to retain the fleeting token; she reached behind the curtain, she wished to take hold of the white floating spirit-veil, but when she withdrew her hand, behold! she held in it a bouquet of the most beautiful flowers, such as she had never before seen; little bells, like lilies of the valley, Alma's favourite flowers, of the loveliest pale pink colour, which hung in little fragrant clusters on their graceful stems. Delighted and happy, she pressed the beautiful bouquet to her lips, to her heart, and returned with them to her bed. this there opened above her a large window, and she saw the brightest deep-blue heaven above her, and there, in the highest profound, shone-was it a fixed star, or a beaming eye? she knew not which, but only that from the brilliant heavens it beamed down upon her, and the

flowers which she held in her hand, floods of a light, as effulgent, as gentle, and as pleasant as we might imagine would be the glance of the blessed.

In many a dark hour which succeeded, Hertha's soul was comforted by the remembrance of that dream.

NEW SCHEMES AND UNDERTAKINGS.
SOMETHING NEW UNDER THE SUN.

MRS. TUPPLANDER is in all her splendour, the Honourable Miss Krusbjörn is all activity, and every maid-servant in the house as busy as a bee. There is going to be a great breakfast of chocolate and bouillon, with the necessary cakes and pastry for a great number of guests, how many is not exactly known; this only is sure, that there will be a great many. That is to say, the Ladies'-Society which had been proposed, but not organised, before the fancyball and the great fire, and which, since the latter occurrence, had hastily come into operation, both from external and internal necessity. The same necessity had, with equal haste, led to the formation of a society of gentlemen under the name of the Poor's-Relief Committee, to assist and provide for the poor rendered destitute by the fire; and both these societies were this day to meet at Mrs. Tupplander's to arrange their plans of procedure, and consult together as to some general means of relieving the most extreme cases of distress caused by the late calamity. Pastor Dahl was to take the chair on this. occasion, and Mimmi Svanberg to act as Secretary. Protocol-Secretary N. B. was also to be there on pretence of collecting material for the work which he intends to write on Ladies'-Societies.

Both ladies and gentlemen arrived-a great number of them. People took off their things; they shook hands; they asked one another how they did. They collected in little groups, the ladies to themselves, the gentlemen to themselves, as is so generally the custom here in the north. Each talked with his neighbour in a low voice. Chocolate and biscuits were handed round; they sipped and they dipped; they set down their cups; they seated themselves on chairs and sofas, and then there was a silence, because our little pastor stood up upon a little elevation at the end of the large drawing-room, and was about to make a speech, and, as usual, people were very glad to hear what he had to say.

But now it happened to him, as it had not unfrequently happened before, that his heart became warm, that his thoughts took an unexpected turn; in short, that he was inspired to say something quite different to that which he had prepared at his writing-table. Everybody could see that he was affected; that his mind was full of matter, and that his eyes beamed as though they would light up the whole company. All at once he exclaimed :

"Ladies and gentlemen! It will not be of any use our coming together like strangers to each otherthe men here, the women there! What! Are we not brothers and sisters, children of the same Father, and united here for the same purpose in his service? No: we must not break ourselves up into a Ladies'-Society and a Gentlemen's-Society; we must have one Brethren-Society, or a Brethren-Covenant of men and women both, divided into families of brothers and sisters, who will help one another in love to labour for the good of the general household.

"When God created the human race, He created them man and woman, and gave them to each other as helpers in life, just as people set one half to another, to make a perfect whole. And, look! He has done it for