Waiting For Her—A Mesmerist's Story.

WAITING FOR HER—A MESMERIST'S STORY .

BY BRO . EMRA HOLMES . IN THREE CHAPTERS . CHAPTER III . Tea had been brought in ancl taken out

again before Uncle Archdale resumed his story . He had left the room first before tea , aud had returned from the surgery Avith a packet of papers or letters , evidently taken from the escritoire . Uncle did not practise noAv ; he had

acquired a little property , ancl some great aunts of ours had left him money , and he was very comfortably off ; only he Avould persist in calling his library the surgery , though there Avas not a bottle or potion in it .

" Well , my dears , " uncle said as he sat down again , "I suppose I must finish my story . " " Oh , yes , if you please , Ave should like to hear the end , and we are not at all tired , " Lizzie replied . " Well , then , I will tell you the rest , " he continued .

" The usual time for walking the hospitals had passed aAvay , it AA'as three , years then—now , I think , it is five— " my uncle resumed . " I had just got my certificates from the Apothecaries' Company and College of

Surgeons , testifying to my efficiency in compounding nasty medicines , and in setting compound fractures , ancl so forth . " Medicine Avas nasty in those days , IIOAV they make it pleasant to the taste , do they notyoung man ? " he saidturning to me

, , . " Well , sir , Ave have improved a little in that way , I bebeve . " " Yes , " uncle continued , " I had come out a full-blown surgeon and general practitioner . I had left the Wingroves , very much to Kate ' s grief and her mother ' s

dismay . The latter had quite made up her mind I should marry her daughter , though Kate , poor girl , kneAv Avell enough who it was I Avas Availing for . _ " The extraordinary power I had exercised over her had increased with time , and by means of her clairvoyant dreams , if I may call them dreams , I had kept myself informed of Milicent ' s Avhereabouts .

From my sister , too , I learned occasionally Avhat Avas going on , though she seldom saAV the Bertrams now , as my father had left that neighbourhood , and gone to live at Salisbury . This much I knew , however that Milicent Avas still unmarried , and Mr . Thornton Avas still constant to her . I

should tell yon that the nig ht before I left Bloomsbury—it was the 12 th August , 1827—I had a long seance with Kate , it might be the last I should ever have , and I felt that I must act IIOAV or never . As scarcely credit the storyPhili

you may , p shall read you this letter about it , " said uncle , as he handed to him an old franked letter , yelloAV with age and dusty , Avritten in a Aveak feeble hand , the hand of a sick

man . There was an endorsement on the back , Avhich ran thus : —• "This letter from Edmund Thornton , given to me by Milicent Bertram , on Christmas morning , 1830 .

" Thretford Parsonage , " My dearest , " 13 th Augst ., 1827 . " I don ' t knoAV how to write this letter . I am afraid you will think me mad . I am afraid I am mad . Forgive me if I am incoherent , but so much has troubled me of late that I think sometimes I am tried more than other men . I have

a fearful presentiment that Ave shall never —that Ave can never—be married . Sometimes these Avarnings come to me more palpable than at other times . " Sometimes Avhen I am sitting in my study reading of an evening , I feel a pressure on my armand I turn and see by my

, side a figure—that of a lady—Avith a pale face and long black elf locks , and a voice seems to come from afar off saying , ' Milicent shall be mine , never thine . ' Not once or tAvice only have I seen this , but many times . It is killing me . No man can be

braver than I can be where any earthly material danger exists , but this perpetual haunting of a spiritual presence threatens to turn my brain . The horrors of last night , if they should return , will deprive me of my reason .

" I feel it going even UOAV ; I have prayed asainst it , but God has not seen fit to hear my prayer . Perhaps it is sent to try me . I knoAV not , but this I know , that in life and death I strive to serve him . Ancl [ love you , oh , my darling , as I shall ever love you , purely , devotedly , ancl constantly ,