heir usual gentle melancholy.

Then he gave a little sigh, as if he were catching his breath:

"Don't be angry," he said, putting his arm through Herman's.

His voice had resumed its usual tone.

"Perhaps it's as well that I have told you; now perhaps it will leave
me. So don't be angry, Herman.... I promise you I shan't talk like that
again and I shall do my best also not to think like that any more. But,
when I have anything on my mind, I must tell it to somebody. And surely
that's much better than for ever keeping silent about it! And then, you
see, soon I shall have no more time to think of such things: to-morrow
we shall be at Copenhagen and then life will resume its normal course.
How can I have talked so queerly? How did I take it into my head? Even I
can't remember. It seems very silly now, even to myself."

He gave a little laugh and then, earnestly:

"After all, I'm glad that we have had a talk by ourselves, that I have
been able to thank you. We're friends now, aren't we?"

"Yes, of course we're friends," replied Herman, laughing in the midst of
his annoyance. "But all the same I shall never know you thoroughly!"

"Don't say that just because of a single presentiment, which I think
foolish myself. What else is there in me that's puzzling?..."

"No, there's nothing else!" Herman assented. "You're a good chap. I
don't know how it has come about, but I like you very much...."

They left the woods; the sea lay before them. Like life itself, it lay
before them, with all the mystery of its depths, wherein a multiple soul
seemed to move, rounding wave upon wave. Nameless and innumerable were
its changes of colour, its moods of incessant movement; and it spewed a
foam of passion on its fiercely towering crests. But this passion was
merely its superficial manifestation, the exuberance of its endless
vitality: from its depths there murmured, in the inimitable melodies of
its millions of voices, the mystery of its soul, as it were a glory
which the sky above alone knew.

7

"TO HIS IMPERIAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF XARA,
"OSBORNE HOUSE, ISLE OF WIGHT.

"IMPERIAL,
"LIPARA,
"--_September_, 18--.

"DEAR SON,

"It was a great pleasure to receive your letter, telling us of the
cordial welcome which you met with first at Copenhagen and now in
England. We must however express our surprise at what Aunt Olga wrote to
us