The fearful suspense of that crucial moment! How can I describe it? It seemed as if the very atmosphere of the room throbbed with so high a magnetic tension that it must burst. A deathly stillness had succeeded the storm of weeping. Pale as marble and with one pleading glance at the foremost row of stern, but wan-faced men, Allegra Alliston opened the paper. For a time, which seemed agonizing ages, her eyes rested on the contents. Then her hand containing the paper slowly dropped to her side. A seraphic smile beamed upon her countenance, as she said, in a voice broken with emotion: “The shadow is removed from woman. The guarantee is granted forev----.” But the reaction of the pent-up emotion of that awful alienation could be stayed no longer. It seemed as though nothing in Heaven above or on the earth beneath could restrain what followed. With a cry which must have been heard at the throne of God, and before Allegra Alliston could finish her sentence, the men and women in that vast hall had rushed into each other’s arms as the uncontrollable sea rushes back to its pristine bed. There were tears, but they were tears of such illimitable joy as earth had never seen before, and might never see again. Homely or handsome, it mattered not. In that souls’ jubilee there was a brother’s and a sister’s joyful caress for every one. It seemed as though my heart must burst at beholding the mighty spectacle of man and woman thus forever reconciled and united as they never had been since they were driven from the Garden of Eden. In the vehemence of my emotions, I essayed to rise, to speak, to cry out I know not what; but, instead, I awoke from what had been but a dream. I was sobbing with convulsive joy. FINIS. * * * * * Transcriber’s note Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained.