“Are ye an angel o’ light,” said she, in a soft tremulous voice, “that ye gar my heart prinkle sae wi’ a joy that it never thought again to taste? It isna then a strae nor a stibble that I hae grippit at for my last hope, but the tap of a good tow–widdy saugh; an’ a young sapling though it be, it is steevely rootit in a good soil, an’ will maybe help the poor drowning wretch to the shore!—An’ _hae_ I thought sae muckle ill o’ you? Could I deem that mild heavenly face, that’s but the reflection o’ the soul within, the image o’ sin and o’ Satan, an’ a veil o’ deceit thrawn ower a mind prone to wickedness? Forgie me, dear, dear saint, forgie me! It surely canna be condemned spirits that ye are connectit wi? Ah, ye’re dumb there!—ye darna answer me to that! Na, na! the spirits o’ the just made perfect wad never leave their abodes o’ felicity to gabble amang derksome fiends at the dead hour o’ the night, in sic a world o’ sin and sorrow as this. But I saw _him_, an’ heard him speak, as sure as I see your face an’ hear the tones o’ my ain voice; an’, if I lookit nae wrang, there were mae risen frae the dead than ane. It is an awfu’ dispensation to think o’! But there was a spirit o’ retaliation in him that often made me quake, though never sae as now. O wad ye but tell me what kind o’ spirits ye are in conjunction wi’?” “None but the blest and the happy—None but they who have come out of great tribulation, and washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb—None that would harbour such a thought, or utter such a doubt, as you have done to–night, for the empire of the universe—More I may not tell you at present; but stay you here with me, and I will cherish you, and introduce you to these spirits, and you shall be happier with them than ever you have been.” “Will I sae?—Say nae mair!—I wad pit hand to my ain life the night, an’ risk the warst or I again met wi’ them face to face in the same guise as I saw them at midnight last week. Ye’re a wonderfu’ creature! But ye’re ayont my depth; therefore I’ll love ye, an’ fear ye, an’ keep my distance.”