Clarissa had arrived; but her coming did not bring comfort to the sorrowing mother; on the contrary, it seemed only to renew her grief.  Clarissa would have been glad to hear all about her darling’s last days, and how the end came, but the mother could not bear any allusion to the subject, and Clarissa kept silence.  She consoled herself by looking at Nora’s peaceful face, that seemed to have a message of comfort for her.  When she heard that Elsli had been alone with Nora when she died, she was very anxious to see the girl, and sent for her to come and speak with her.  When Elsli came into the pleasant room where she had passed so many happy days, and glanced towards the empty window-seat, she was overcome with fresh grief.  Clarissa took her by the hand, and, drawing her to a seat by her side, immediately began to ask about Nora; and soon Elsli was pouring out her whole heart; and she told Clarissa all that she and Nora had said to each other about the heavenly land, and she repeated the hymn that Nora had taught her.  Then she told how quietly Nora had left her at last, and said that she hoped to follow her soon into her beautiful home.

Clarissa hung upon every word that fell from Elsi’s lips with gratitude and satisfaction.  It was she who had taught Nora that hymn as she sat upon her knees when she was a very little child, and as she heard it repeated now it was with the same tones, the same motions of hand and head that the child had used who learned it from her own lips; it seemed to Clarissa as if Nora lived again in Elsli.  Weeping with mingled joy and sorrow, she went in search of Mrs. Stanhope.

“Surely,” she exclaimed, “this child is the image of our darling; it is her sister, with her voice, her words, her very thought.  This, too, is our child.”

Mrs. Stanhope roused herself for a moment to listen to Clarissa’s words, but she was not moved by them; she threw herself again on her bed and would not be comforted.  Clarissa was not disheartened by this indifference; she was so completely impressed herself by the wonderful resemblance between the children that she led Elsli into the room where the hopeless mother lay in full indulgence of her grief, and said:—­

“I bring you this little girl, Mrs. Stanhope; for I look upon her as a legacy that our Nora has left us.”

Mrs. Stanhope looked for a moment into the girl’s face; then she suddenly kissed her and said:—­

“Elsli, Nora loved you, and you loved her.  You shall stay with me always”; and they all three wept together, but there was healing in the tears.

Like one in a dream Elsli went home that day.  She understood, but not wholly, what had happened.  She had believed that Nora would ask her heavenly Father to call her to heaven, and would come herself to meet her; and now it seemed as if she had already come to meet her to lead her elsewhere than to heaven.