To the consternation of the by-standers, Humphrey went off into fits of weak laughter. The association of ideas recalled another circumstance; his mind has wandered away from the point on which it was fixed, and he is watching again the encounter between his uncle and the wasp. "He'll be stung!" he cries, shaking with laughter, and he puts his wasted hand to his mouth, as if he knew he was in church, and ought to check himself. The figure by the bedside turns to Sir Everard, and whispers, but the only answer is-- "Nothing but a dream. For God's sake do not awake him." Thoroughly exhausted, Humphrey is lying still again, but now his mind is once more perturbed, for his uncle's figure has disappeared from his vision, and he tries to conjure it before him in vain. "He is gone!" he exclaims, with a sob, "just as I was going to ask him. Oh, come back, come back, Uncle Charlie!" Some one kneels by his side, some one lays a hand on his brow and he opens his eyes with a start. The church, the pew, the prayer-book--all are gone--but in their place--his uncle! "Oh, Uncle Charlie!" sobbed the child, trying to throw his feeble arms round his neck, "is it really you? Where do you come from? _You'll_ tell me all about it; _you'll_ help me to remember!" "Tell you what, my dear, dear little fellow?" "I don't know what! I can't tell what! It's something I want to remember, and I don't know what it is!" "What was it like?" asked Uncle Charlie. "It was like a church," answered Humphrey, excitedly, "and it was like a summer's morning, and you and me and Father sitting still, while somebody was telling us what the sound in my head means. I _can't_ remember what he said, but if I _only_ could I shouldn't mind the rushing and singing a bit; for when I heard it that time, everything about it was happy, and bright, and beautiful. But you were there, Uncle Charlie, and you must know, for you wrote something down about it." "I told you so, Everard," said the young man to his brother-in-law; "I knew he was trying to remember the sermon on the Revelations we heard the Sunday I was down here." "But you're not telling me, Uncle Charlie," sobbed Humphrey. "I will, my boy, I will; but you must let me go and fetch my Bible, for I don't remember the words exactly." "Must you go?" faintly uttered Humphrey. "Oh, don't go, Uncle Charlie; you'll disappear like you did just now, and perhaps never come back again." Uncle Charlie reassured him, and gently disengaged himself from his grasp. "Be quick! be quick!" panted the child, and his voice failed him with his excitement. Sir Everard tried to soothe him, and hoped he would be quiet. But a few minutes after his uncle was gone, it became evident that Humphrey was struggling to say something before his uncle should return. His excitement and exhaustion made him more incoherent than usual, and after once or twice repeating his uncle's name, his voice failed altogether, and though his white lips moved, no sound came.