But it turns out that there is another reason in the background for her not re-entering the marriage state, which she discloses to the ardent youth.

It appears that the widow had once had a beloved brother who had died early.

Those two had been brought up by an infidel father, who had impressed on his children the absurdity of all such ideas as immortality.

The children had often discussed and pondered over this subject together, and had made a compact that whichever of them died first should, if possible, appear to the survivor, and thus solve the awful problem of a future life.

The brother not long after died in foreign parts.