What was it that I felt as I continued to sit silent by this man's side?--an alien, I had called him to the Doctor; fool that I was! I felt a peculiar sense of perfect physical rest I had never before experienced, a consciousness of happy companionship that needed no word to make itself understood. This sense of companionship, this rest of soul and body during the two hours I passed at this man's side--I enjoyed them to the full. The feelings and emotions of the woman who, only a few evenings before, had thrown off the yoke of burdening circumstance, who had broken, to her own physical benefit, with past associations and memories, found scope, in the protecting night and the silence, for perilous nights of imagination. Thoughts undreamed of hitherto, desires I had never supposed permissible in my narrow walk of life, proved their power over me at this hour. Hopes unbounded, if wholly unfounded,--for what had this man ever said to me since his home-coming that he had not said a dozen times to every member of his household?--imagined joys of another, a dual life-- "Yes," I said to myself, giving rein to pleasing fantasy, "a dual life in one--our lives, his and mine, one and inseparable; why not, Marcia Farrell? Why should n't I grasp with both hands outstretched at all life may have to give me? Why not hold it fast even if it have thorns?" Imagination was carrying me out of myself. I called a halt to all this frenzy, as it at once appeared to me by the cold light of the moon, and brought myself down to earth and common sense with a jolt. I moved uneasily. "Are you cold?" Mr. Ewart asked, evidently noticing the movement. "No; but too much aurora, I 'm afraid." "Did you feel that too? I thought I would n't mention it, but something affected me powerfully for the moment, and there has been an aftermath of sensation since. If this display is wholly electrical, it may easily be that some human machines are tuned like the wireless to catch certain vibrations at certain times." I sat down hard, metaphorically, on eight feet of frozen earth upon hearing this explanation. "You little fool," I said to myself, but aloud: "Whatever it was, it was effectual; I have never experienced anything like it." "Never?" "No; have you?" The answer seemed long in coming. "Yes, many years ago; and it was here in this northern country too. Sometime I would like to tell you about it.--Cale," he spoke quickly, abruptly, "I hear the train. Keep the horses in the open roadway behind the station, then if they bolt at the headlight you can have free rein and a clear road. They 've never seen that light. We 'll get out here," he said, throwing off the robes as Cale drew rein at the edge of the platform, "and you can welcome the Doctor for me if I miss him." He whisked me out of the pung, giving me both hands as aid, and replaced the robes. "Keep the horses head on, and don't let the dogs run," were his last words to Cale.