Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/281

 "What is that difficulty?"

"Supposing I am really a person formerly known to you, why did it take almost a week for you to recognize me as that person?"

"You have just suggested the explanation yourself," exclaimed I triumphantly. "As the soul progresses and changes in the course of its long probation, so must the body it informs change also. Supposing you had not seen Olav during the past ten years, do you think you would at once recognize him, especially if presenting himself amid unexpected surroundings?"

"I suppose not," replied she, after a pause. "I remember his once returning so altered, after an absence of a single year, that I scarcely recognized him."

"What, then, is your conclusion?" I inquired.

The reply was so long in coming, that I almost thought she had not heard the question. She appeared so absorbed in thought, however, that I forbore to interrupt her revery.

"I feel compelled to believe that it is as you say," was the reply,—"that we have met in some distant past. This I believe, not only for the reasons you have advanced, but also for others personal to myself. Before you ask me, however, what these reasons are, let me know a little about my former self. Before fully acknowledging the connection," continued she, dismissing with a merry smile the gravity produced by our late discourse, I would fain see whether it is one to be proud of, or the reverse."

Edith Alston." exclaimed I, with perhaps unnecessary warmth, was the noblest, as she was the fairest, of her sex! I always thought so, now I know it."