Dian looked as if she would like to introduce some of her own reflections upon the sincerity of Tom's religious professions, but from the serious tone of her friend's voice, she felt constrained to be as charitable as possible. So she contented herself with saying: "Oh, yes, Tom is good enough. I don't believe he would do anything really dishonorable or bad for the world." "Oh, Dian, he is really and truly a dear, good soul. I want you to know him better. For if you do, you will surely love him better." Again Diantha looked her doubt upon this point; but the dim light of the young moon did not betray her opinion, plainly as it was expressed upon her mobile face. "Dian, I am going to tell you something and ask you for your advice. You know I have great confidence in your judgment." "Better ask Aunt Clara," said Diantha, afraid to trust her own opinion, where Tom Allen was concerned. "No, I want to talk to you. Maybe some day I will tell Aunt Clara, too; but, just now, I feel like telling you." The girl sat with her hand resting on her cheek, gazing into the clear starry sky above them. After a pause she said slowly: "Dian, do you believe in dreams and visions?" "Why, yes, of course I do; if they are of the right kind, and not brought on by eating too much." "Well, I believe that we get many revelations through our dreams, if we only knew how to interpret them." Another pause; then the girl said softly: "Dian, Tom Allen has had a dream or vision about me." The idea of Tom Allen having anything so serious as a vision almost upset Diantha, but she controlled herself and asked: "What was the vision?" Diantha was rather curious now to know if she had been really mistaken in her estimate of Tom's character. "Tom dreamed, or was carried away in a vision, and thought he lay upon his bed, very sick and nigh to death. As he lay there, pondering upon the past and future, he said he saw his door open softly, and, surrounded by a white light, I entered the room, with a banner in my hand, on which was inscribed: 'Marriage or death.' Then the dream ended." Diantha looked at the serious face of her friend for one moment, and tried to get up and get away, but it was no use. Her keen sense of the ridiculous rendered her so weak with inward laughter, that, at last, she sank back upon the earth, and broke forth into peal after peal of ringing, hearty, uproarious laughter. She fairly screamed at the last, the absurdity of it all so overcame her that she could not control her mirth. "What is the matter with you girls?" asked Rachel Winthrop, coming out of the house to see the cause of this violent laughter. "Nothing, only one of Tom Allen's jokes," answered Diantha, for Ellen was too offended to say anything at all. "Why, Dian, don't you think he dreamed that?" Ellen asked at last, in a hurt, low voice.