e up!' he cried to the old man. I tell you I belong to the
upper world, and its familiar, friendly sky.'

"'Take care, Froebom,' said the old man solemnly; 'be faithful to the
queen, whom you have devoted yourself to.'

"But now, when he looked down again into the immobile face of the
majestic woman, he felt that his personality dissolved away into
glowing molten stone. He screamed aloud, in nameless fear, and awoke
from this dream of wonder, whose rapture and terror echoed deep within
his being.

"'I suppose I could scarcely help dreaming all this extraordinary
stuff,' he said to himself, as he collected his senses with difficulty;
'the old miner told me so much about the glories of the subterranean
world that of course my head's quite full of it. But I never in my life
felt as I do now. Perhaps I'm dreaming still. No, no; I suppose I
must be a little out of sorts. Let's get into the open air. The fresh
sea-breeze'll soon set me all right.'

"He pulled himself together, and ran to the Klippa Haven, where the
uproar of the Hoensning was breaking out again. But he soon found that
all enjoyment passed him by, that he couldn't hold any thought fast in
his mind, that presages and wishes, to which he could give no name,
went crossing each other in his mind. He thought of his dead mother
with the bitterest sorrow; but then, again, it seemed to him that what
he most longed for was to see that girl again--the one whom he gave the
handkerchief to--who had spoken so nicely to him the evening before.
And yet he was afraid that if she were to come meeting him out of some
street she would turn out to be the old miner in the end. And he was
afraid of _him_; though, at the same time, he would have liked to hear
more from him of the wonders of the mine.

"Driven hither and thither by all these fancies, he looked down into
the water, and then he thought he saw the silver ripples hardening into
the sparkling glimmer in which the grand ships melted away, while the
dark clouds, which were beginning to gather and obscure the blue sky,
seemed to sink down and thicken into a vault of rock. He was in his
dream again, gazing into the immobile face of the majestic woman, and
the devouring pain of passionate longing took possession of him as
before.

"His shipmates roused him from his reverie to go and join one of their
processions, but an unknown voice seemed to whisper in his ear:

"'What are you doing here? Away, away! Your home is in