ragrant about her when she moves. Minna, to be sure, has often on
returning from their walks together expressed to me the delight of a
young girl in the beauties of our spring-time, in the spicy odors of
budding larches and pines and the earliest flowers; but after our long
winters what can be more natural than such pleasure? The companionship
of this so-called spirit has nothing so very extraordinary in it, has
it, my child?"

"The secrets of that spirit are not mine," said Minna. "Near it I know
all, away from it I know nothing; near that exquisite life I am no
longer myself, far from it I forget all. The time we pass together is
a dream which my memory scarcely retains. I may have heard yet not
remember the music which the women tell of; in that presence, I may have
breathed celestial perfumes, seen the glory of the heavens, and yet be
unable to recollect them here."

"What astonishes me most," resumed the pastor, addressing Wilfrid, "is
to notice that you suffer from being near her."

"Near her!" exclaimed the stranger, "she has never so much as let
me touch her hand. When she saw me for the first time her glance
intimidated me; she said: 'You are welcome here, for you were to come.'
I fancied that she knew me. I trembled. It is fear that forces me to
believe in her."

"With me it is love," said Minna, without a blush.

"Are you making fun of me?" said Monsieur Becker, laughing
good-humoredly; "you my daughter, in calling yourself a Spirit of Love,
and you, Monsieur Wilfrid, in pretending to be a Spirit of Wisdom?"

He drank a glass of beer and so did not see the singular look which
Wilfrid cast upon Minna.

"Jesting apart," resumed the old gentleman, "I have been much astonished
to hear that these two mad-caps ascended to the summit of the Falberg;
it must be a girlish exaggeration; they probably went to the crest of a
ledge. It is impossible to reach the peaks of the Falberg."

"If so, father," said Minna, in an agitated voice, "I must have been
under the power of a spirit; for indeed we reached the summit of the
Ice-Cap."

"This is really serious," said Monsieur Becker. "Minna is always
truthful."

"Monsieur Becker," said Wilfrid, "I swear to you that Seraphita
exercises such extraordinary power over me that I know no language in
which I can give you the least idea of it. She has revealed to me things
known to myself alone."

"Somnambulism!" said the old man. "A great many such effects are related