"This is the last time I'll act as Mercury between two lovers," thought
I.

I had a momentary thought of watching for an opportunity to get the
letter into my hands, unobserved by my patient after she had finished
reading it, and then of crumpling it up abstractedly, and throwing it
into the fire, as it was winter and a large fire was made up in the
patient's room, thinking that the impression might wear off her mind
after having read the letter only once; but how might not her lover's
words influence her if she were allowed to read and re-read his letter
when left alone? No opportunity, however, presented itself, for after
she had finished reading it she kissed it fervently and placed it in her
bosom and held it there, glancing at me rather suspiciously, as I
thought, as if she read my intentions in my face; but this might have
been fancy. However, I tried what I could do in the way of argument, to show the
advantage of keeping a sound mind in a sound body, besides pointing out
the probability of her some day--perhaps before long--meeting her lover
in the flesh, and that there was no reason why they need not eventually
be happy. I talked to her much of Charles, and hoped to see her again
soon, though I should not call so very often now, as my visits would not
be necessary. I left her, giving instructions to her parents to
administer to her all sorts of nutritious food, as I had done to the
parents of Charles concerning their son. I let some little time pass over before I called upon either of my
lover-patients again. I at length called upon Charles, and found him all
but recovered. Though still weak, his face had filled out considerably,
and his nerves were no longer so morbidly acute, and his countenance had
lost to a great extent that supernatural look that characterised it on
my first visit; still, it was far from being the face of a man in robust
health. I thought him silent and reserved towards me, but when I told
him I had delivered his letter, and talked to him of his lady-love, he
brightened up a little. I told him I should take the stage on the morrow
to visit Edith. He wanted me to take another letter, but I pleaded great hurry and
escaped from the house. When I saw Edith again, she also had improved in
health immensely, thanks to the careful watching of my friend's wife,
who was like a real mother to her, and would _not_ allow her to starve
herself. Seeing her so nearly recovered, I recommended a little change
of air as soon as convenient. Upon my departure Edith managed to slip a _billet-doux_ into my hand,
directed to Charles; that is to say, without address, for I had not told
her where he lived. We were not left alone on this interview, the wife
of my friend being present all the while, so the note had to be passed
into my hand clandestinely. There was no getting out of it, and I had to
deliver it to Charles as soon as I arrived in town. His eyes sparkled
when he saw her writing. "Look here, what Edith says about you!" said he, somewhat bitterly. He
read as follows:

"DEAREST CHARLES,--Your own true Edith writes to you in the flesh by our
common but well-meaning enemy, Dr. Bleedem." "There!" he said, "that's what she thinks of you." "Enemy!" I cried, in astonishment. "Yes, enemy; but well-meaning, you see, she says," he continued, in a
softened tone. He then continued to read:

"The poor man thinks, no doubt, that he has achieved a great thing in
bringing us privileged seers into the world of spirits back into this
mundane sphere, fit only for beings of his order. Of course, what else
could be expected of him? The nature of his profession, the grossness of
his being, compel him to think and act in the way of grovelling mortals;
but let us not be too hard upon him; he is a good man, and means well." "There!" he observed, "you see, she is charitably disposed towards you. I don't know that I feel disposed to be so lenient." At this odd beginning of a love-letter, and still odder allusion to
myself, I fairly burst out laughing. "Oh! laugh away," he said; "it is a fine triumph to rob two beings of
the very essence of their happiness." I had not done laughing, and he was nearly catching the infection. He
observed in the words of his favourite poet, that, my lungs did crow
like chanticleer, and I did laugh _sans_ intermission. He took up the letter again, and read a great portion to himself, or
half aloud. I caught the following passage:

"Do you remember, Charles, when, in the early days of our courtship, you
used nightly to serenade me under my window in the enchanted castle, and
how long it was before you knew that I, like yourself, had an earthly
body that had an existence of its own? And when I told you that my
parents--or rather, my adopted parents--were not in the land of spirits,
but that they inhabited the same world in which, in the daytime, we
ourselves were forced to vegetate; and when you thereupon asked me with
whom I shared the castle, do you remember the horror, the rage, and
indignation you felt when you heard that I was held captive within that
enchanted castle by a horrible wizard, who tortured me and tried all his
base arts to make me yield to his love? Oh! Charles, I often look back
to that time. I can see the bold outline of that rude, massive building
on a rock frowning on the lake below. I feel myself yet at my casement,
gazing out in search of your bark, which passed nightly close to my
window, and I fancy I hear your touch upon the lute reverberating
through the night air. "With what horror I remember being torn from my window on that night by
my captor, as I was waving my handkerchief to you on the lake. Oh! the
torture I underwent within those unhallowed walls after you left me; the
scenes I was compelled to witness, the oaths I was forced to hear; and
then the infernal hideousness of the countenance of my demon captor! "Oh! Charles, shall I ever forget the night on which you rode up to the
wizard's castle on a spirit charger, habited as a cavalier, and bearing
a ladder of ropes under your mantle which you reached up to me on the
point of your lance; how I descended, and you placed me behind you on
your steed and galloped away; how, ere we were far from the castle, my
flight was discovered, and the wizard and all his demon host mounted
their demon chargers and started in pursuit of us; how they gained on
us; how we avoided them for miles by hardly half-a-horse's length, until
we arrived at a bridge across a river of fire, over which none but the
pure in love can pass? Dost remember, Charles, how bravely thy spirit
charger bore us over in safety, and how, when the fell magician
endeavoured to follow us with his evil crew, how the bridge tumbled to
atoms, and the demon host was swallowed up in the fiery waves? Then how,
when our charger was spent, we turned him out to graze, the sun having
risen; and how, having arrived at the sea shore, we found a boat, which
we entered, and steered onward in search of further adventure.