Had I ever heard that sweet , low tone ? If not , why did it rouse up so many old recollections , or mockeries of such , the shadows of things familiar yet unknown , and fill my mind with confused images of her features who had spoken , though buried in the gloom of the parlor ? Whom had my heart recognized , that it throbbed so ? I listened to catch her gentle breathing , and strove by the intensity of my gaze to picture forth a shape where none was visible . Suddenly the dry pine caught ; the fire blazed up with a ruddy glow , and where the darkness had been , there was she -- the vision of the fountain . A spirit of radiance only , she had vanished with the rainbow and appeared again in the firelight , perhaps to flicker with the blaze and be gone . Vet her cheek was rosy and lifelike , and her features , in the bright warmth of the room , were even sweeter and tenderer than my recollection of them . She knew me . The mirthful expression that had laughed in her eyes and dimpled over her countenance when I beheld her faint beauty in the fountain was laughing and dimpling there now . One moment our glance mingled ; the next , down rolled the heap of tan upon the kindled wood , and darkness snatched away that daughter of the light , and gave her back to me no more ! Fair ladies , there is nothing more to tell . Must the simple mystery be revealed , then , that Rachel was the daughter of the village squire and had left home for a boarding-school the morning after I arrived and returned the day before my departure ? If I transformed her to an angel , it is what every youthful lover does for his mistress . Therein consists the essence of my story . But slight the change , sweet maids , to make angels of yourselves . FANCY 'S SHOW-BOX . A MORALITY . What is guilt ? A stain upon the soul . And it is a point of vast interest whether the soul may contract such stains in all their depth and flagrancy from deeds which may have been plotted and resolved upon , but which physically have never had existence .
Must the fleshly hand and visible frame of man set its seal to the evil designs XXXXX the soul , in order to give them their entire validity against the sinner ?
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