Your love for me will grow stronger,
for it will never know diminution or decay."
She paused for a few seconds, and folded her poor wasted hands
together, whilst a serene smile passed over her wan features, lighting
them with a holy joy.
"I had a dream last night, Frederic. A beautiful dream. If I have
strength I will try and tell it to you. I thought much of Death last
night, and my soul shrunk within me, for I felt that he was near. I did
not fear Death while my heart was free from earthly love, but now he
seemed to wear a harsh and terrible aspect. I prayed long and fervently
to God to give me strength to enable me to pass tranquilly through the
dark valley; but in my heart I felt no response to my prayer. Soon after
this, the pains, that had racked me all yesterday, left me, and I fell
into a deep sleep. And then me-thought I stood in a narrow pass between
two vast walls of black rock, that enclosed me on either side, and
appeared to reach to the very clouds. The place was lighted by a dim
twilight that flowed through an enormous arch that united in the far
distance these gigantic walls; an arch, high and deep enough to have
sustained the weight of the whole world. I felt like an atom in
immensity, alone in that strange place. Still as I gazed in bewildered
awe upon that great gateway, a figure rose like a dim mist out of the
darkness, and it grew and brightened into a real and living presence;
its dazzling robes of snowy whiteness shedding a sort of glorious
moonshine all around.
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