Page:Doughty--Mirrikh or A woman from Mars.djvu/203

 Now may God keep the memory of what I beheld at that instant ever green!

But why do I say it? There can be no lapse of time so great, no depth of space so vast, as to prevent me, when the  time comes that this mortal body of mine is laid down to  dust, from seeking out that face!

Beside me floated a female form beautiful beyond all telling, clothed in loose garments of fleecy whiteness; her face close to my face, her eyes looking into my eyes, her thoughts  so intertwined with my thoughts that I knew them and  knew that she knew mine.

“Who are you—some bright spirit sent to guide me?” I asked, with a strange inward speech of which I can give no  proper description, except to say that I gave utterance to  no audible sounds.

Nor were such necessary. Not only did she understand me, but I had as little difficulty with her answer. After a second it was as though we were talking as mortals talk, yet  this I knew was not actually the case.

“I am your soul’s mate to all eternity, George,” she said. “For many years I have been with you in spirit. I laid down the material when you were but a child.”

“You are then a spirit?”

“I am. It was I who spoke with you in the courtyard through the mediumship of the girl Walla.”

“Then it was true?”

“Not only true, but more than that. Since your first meeting with that girl I have been able, in a sense, to make  you feel my presence. It was I who looked at you out of her eyes, George, when you thought you loved her; when I  ceased to look, your love was transformed almost to hatred. These, however, are things which you cannot comprehend.”

“So little do I comprehend that though I accept them as facts now, I shall reject and doubt upon my return to  earth.”

“It is so. Yet they will leave their impressions. George, you are mine, I am yours. No power can keep us apart in eternity; though God alone knows when our souls shall be  united in the realm of spirit. To me, however, this matters little, for to me as a spirit, time has no existence, but to you—for you can now never forget me—the time may seem long.”

“But how—by what power did you speak to me through the lips of the girl?”