little speck called
earth. But now, no more of this. Go to Zara; keep your mind well
employed; study, read, and pray--pray much and often in few and simple
words, and with as utterly unselfish a heart as you can prepare. Think
that you are going to some high festival, and attire your soul in
readiness. I do not say to you 'Have faith;' I would not compel your
belief in anything against your own will. You wish to be convinced of a
future existence; you seek proofs; you shall have them. In the meantime
avoid all conversation with me on the subject. You can confide your
desires to Zara if you like; her experience may be of use to you. You
had best join her now. Au revoir!" and with a kind parting gesture, he
left me.

I watched his stately figure disappear in the shadow of the passage
leading to his own study, and then I hastened to Zara's room. The
musical episode in the chapel had certainly startled me, and the words
of Heliobas were full of mysterious meaning; but, strange to say, I was
in no way rendered anxious or alarmed by the prospect I had before me
of being "lifted up," as my physician had expressed it. I thought of
Raffaello Cellini and his history, and I determined within myself that
no cowardly hesitation or fear should prevent me from making the
attempt to see what he professed to have seen. I found Zara reading.
She looked up as I entered, and greeted me with her usual bright smile.

"You have had a long practice," she began; "I thought you were never
coming."

I sat down beside her, and related at once all that had happened to me
that afternoon. Zara listened with deep and almost breathless interest.

"You are quite resolved," she said, when I had concluded, "to let
Casimir exert his force upon you?"

"I am quite resolved," I answered.

"And you have no fear?"

"None that I am just now conscious of."

Zara's eyes became darker and deeper in the gravity of her intense
meditation. At last she said:

"I can help you to keep your courage firmly to the point, by letting
you know at once what Casimir will do to you. Beyond that I cannot go.
You understand the nature of an electric shock?"

"Yes," I replied.

"Well, there are different kinds of electric shocks--some that are
remedial, some that are fatal. There are cures performed by a careful
use of the electric battery--again, people are struck dead by
lightning, which is the fatal result of electric force. But all this is
EXTERNAL electricity; no