y the warm and
merry human town, the best house of which--not unlike the Villa
Ogilvy--could be reached in no other way, and that with such a home
waiting to receive her, it was worth while to take a little risk.
Thereon Juliette shrugged her white shoulders, and in the intervals of
one of the French _chansonettes_ which she was very fond of warbling in
her gay voice, remarked that she preferred to make journeys, safe or
perilous, in the company of a singing-bird in the sunlight, rather than
in that of an owl in the dusk, who always reminded her of the advancing
darkness.

At least, that was the substance of what she said, although she did not
put it quite so neatly. Then, as though by an afterthought, she asked
when her cousin Jules, a young notary of Berne, was coming to stay with
them.

The winter wore away, the spring came, and after spring, summer, with
its greenery and flowers. Godfrey was happy enough during this time. To
begin with, the place suited him. He was very well now, and grew
enormously in that pure and trenchant air, broadening as well as
lengthening, till, notwithstanding his slimness, he gave promise of
becoming a large, athletic man.

Madame Riennes too and her unholy terrors had faded into the
background. He no longer thought of spirits, although, it is true that
a sense of the immanence and reality of the Unseen was always with him;
indeed, as time went on, it increased rather than lessened. Partly,
this was owing to the character and natural tendencies of his mind,
partly also, without doubt, to the fact that his recent experiences
had, as it were, opened a door to him between the Seen and the Hidden,
or rather burst a breach in the dividing wall that never was built up
again. Also his astronomical studies certainly gave an impetus to
thoughts and speculations such as were always present with him. Only
now these were of a wholesome and reverent nature, tending towards
those ends which are advanced by religion in its truest sense.

He worked hard, too, under the gentle guidance of the learned Pasteur,
at the classics, literature, and other subjects, while in French he
could not fail to become proficient in the company of the talkative
Madame and the sprightly Juliette. Nor did he want for relaxation.
There were great woods on the hills behind the Maison Blanche, and in
these he obtained leave to shoot rabbits, and, horrible to say, foxes.
Juliette and he would set out together towards evening