The Mystic Chord.

dence of his aunt glowed with light from within as he entered . She was sitting in her easy chair in front of a blazing fire , and was so buried in deep thought that she did not perceive the entrance of her nephew , and it ivas with a convulsive start that she became aware of his presence . " Oh ! Charlie , you did frighten me ! " said she . " I was thinking of your poor dear motherancl Avhether we should see her to-nightwhen your entrance

, , seemed to destroy all my hopes at the very moment they seemed brightest . " " I am very sorry to haA'e disturbed your reverie so abruptly , " said Charles , taking a seat by his aunt , " but I must say that , taking all things into consideration , I consider the chances extremely feeble , and my hopes almost sink to zero . "

" Don t say so , dear ; yon know we must do our best ; and something tells me you will be partially successful this time , thou gh it causes me great pain to think I am unable to accompany you— -the more so as I feel more and more sure your poor mother had something to reveal before she died . " Having uttered these Ai'ords she relapsed again into deep thought , gazing A'acantly into the fire . Charles , too , was absorbed in thought , and the two remained there a long Avhile without exchanging a syllable .

To explain the aboA'e conversation it will be necessary to give a brief account of Miss Moon , Mrs . Rova ' s eccentric elder sister . From a very early age she had evinced great interest in all superstitious matters , ancl attributed them all to some unknown principle . As she grew older she studied the subject systematically , and devoured all books treating on mysteries , animal magnetism , etc ., etc . and all supernatural treatises . The death of her sister

, , instead of allaying her thirst for these morbid studies , only increased it , and . she gradually became a confirmed Spiritualist . Nothing ivas too preposterous for her credulity , and she founded Utopian ideas of her own from the mass of fiction which she carefully analysed . Strange and conflicting as some of the - theories were she attributed them to different causes and effects , and reconciled them all to her own satisfaction . Since her sister ' s death , of whom she was

very fond , she continually sought for some method of communing with her spirit , which she conceived quite possible with joroper means—indeed , she once stated that her departed father visited her after his decease and gave her some instructions as to the disposal of his property , which she strictly endeavoured to carry out , one supposed injunction being the disposal of a -large sum in charities . Her pitying friends tried in vain to persuade her it was a mental

delusion , caused by over excitement , but she clung tenaciously to her belief . Considering her warm love for her sister , ancl her strong desire to see her again , and her infatuated trust in the power of S piritualism , there is little wonder that her diseased imagination invented many wild plans for her pet object . These she perseveringly tried again ancl again with nothing but failureuntil a mad methodmore weird ancl outrageous than all the rest

, , , suggested itself to her tortured fancy . In this she persistently placed her hope , and anxiously watched the result at ei'ery anniversary . It will be necessary to relate the manner of her sister ' s death , in order to show the ground for her preriosterous idea .

In the village where they resided , at the close of the old year they held a watch-night service at the little Gothic church , and Mrs . Rova and Miss Moon generally attended . It was at one of these services she breathed her last . The new year had just been " rung in , " and a joyous hymn rolled forth from the organ , when a piercing shriek was heard , and Mrs . Rova fell clown dead . Her deeply . lamented death was attributed to that most fatal and delusive of all maladiesheart disease . Such was the sad occasion which had so

, much influence over the sensitive mind of Miss Moon . The extreme singularity of the circumstance only served to add fresh impulse to her ingenious thoughts , and after many schemes of , much deliberation she evoh'ed the following , and placed it at the head of her list of incantations : —