emarked, which happened
to very few; and he, Nuflo, was no saint, and had first become a dweller
in the desert, as a very young man, in order to escape the penalty of
his misdeeds.

I could not resist the temptation of remarking here that to an
unregenerate man the celestial country might turn out a somewhat
uncongenial place for a residence. He replied airily that he had
considered the point and had no fear about the future; that he was old,
and from all he had observed of the methods of government followed by
those who ruled over earthly affairs from the sky, he had formed a
clear idea of that place, and believed that even among so many glorified
beings he would be able to meet with those who would prove companionable
enough and would think no worse of him on account of his little
blemishes.

How he had first got this idea into his brain about Rima's ability to
make things smooth for him after death I cannot say; probably it was the
effect of the girl's powerful personality and vivid faith acting on an
ignorant and extremely superstitious mind. While she was making
that petition to her mother in heaven, it did not seem in the least
ridiculous to me: I had felt no inclination to smile, even when hearing
all that about the old man's wings being singed to prevent his escape
by flying. Her rapt look; the intense conviction that vibrated in her
ringing, passionate tones; the brilliant scorn with which she, a hater
of bloodshed, one so tender towards all living things, even the meanest,
bade him kill himself, and only hear first how her vengeance would
pursue his deceitful soul into other worlds; the clearness with which
she had related the facts of the case, disclosing the inmost secrets
of her heart--all this had had a strange, convincing effect on me.
Listening to her I was no longer the enlightened, the creedless man. She
herself was so near to the supernatural that it seemed brought near me;
indefinable feelings, which had been latent in me, stirred into life,
and following the direction of her divine, lustrous eyes, fixed on the
blue sky above, I seemed to see there another being like herself, a Rima
glorified, leaning her pale, spiritual face to catch the winged words
uttered by her child on earth. And even now, while hearing the old man's
talk, showing as it did a mind darkened with such gross delusions, I
was not yet altogether free from the strange effect of that prayer.
Doubtless it was a delusion; her mother w