"Oh, speak to me, beloved shades! Oh, my father! oh, mother, I want you
so desperately! Come out of the past for a few seconds, and give me some
words of comfort! I'm in such woful plight! If you could only
_know_ ..."
But they could neither hear nor see me.
Then suddenly another figure stepped forth from behind the
apple-tree--no old-fashioned, unsubstantial shadow of by-gone days that
one can only see and hear, and that cannot hear and see one back again;
but one in all the splendid fulness of life, a pillar of help and
strength--Mary, Duchess of Towers!