the enraptured children. This
surprise had been prepared for them by Elise and the Candidate, who had
obtained permission from the Dowager Countess S * * * to take the
children on their way to the nut-wood through her park.

Here the children found endless subject for admiration and inquiry, nor
could either the Candidate or their mother answer all their questions.
Before long the hearts of the children were moved at sight of a little
leaden Cupid, who stood weeping near a dry fountain.

"Why does he cry?" asked they.

"Probably because the water is all gone," answered the Candidate,
smiling.

Presently again they were enchanted by sight of a Chinese temple, which
to their fancy contained all the magnificence in the world--instead of,
as was the case, a quantity of fowls; then they were filled with
astonishment at trees in the form of pyramids--they never had seen
anything so wonderful, so beautiful! But the most wonderful thing was
yet to come.

They reached a gloomy part of the grounds. Melancholy sounds,
incoherent, yet pleasurable, became audible, accompanied by an
uninterrupted splashing of water. The children walked slower and closer
together, in a state of excited expectation, and a kind of shuddering
curiosity. The melancholy tones and the falling water became more and
more distinct, as they found themselves inclosed in a thick fir-wood;
presently, however, an opening to the right showed itself, and then
thickly wreathed with a wild growth of plants and heavily-leaved trees,
the vault of a grotto revealed itself, within which, and in the
distance, stood a large white figure, with aged head, long beard,
crooked back, and goat's legs. To his lips he held a pandean pipe, from
which the extraordinary sounds appeared to proceed. Little waterfalls
leapt here and there from the rocks around, and then collected
themselves at the foot of the statue in a large basin, in which the
figure seemed, with a dreamy countenance, to contemplate himself and the
leaf-garlanded entrance of the grotto.

The Candidate informed them that this was the Wood-god Pan; but what
further information he gave respecting the faith of the ancients in this
deity of nature was listened to by nobody but the Queen-bee, who,
however, shook her wise head over the want of wisdom in the Grecians who
could believe on such a god; and by Elise, who loved to discover in the
belief of antiquity a God of nature, which makes itself felt also in our
days