e had not as yet
communicated to any one, adding that his mysterious laboratory was a
pretty garden outside the town, and that passers by had often heard
wondrous tones and melodies there, just as if the whole place were
peopled by fays and spirits.

"'The fortnight elapsed, but Ferdinand did not come back. At length,
when two months had gone by, a letter came from him to the following
effect--

"'"Read and marvel; though you will learn only that which, perhaps, you
strongly suspected would be the case, when you got to know more of the
Professor--as I hope you did. As the horses were being changed in the
village of P----, I was standing, gazing into the distance, not
thinking specially of anything in particular. A carriage drove by, and
stopped at the church, which was open. A young lady, simply dressed,
stepped out of the carriage, followed by a young gentleman in a Russian
Jaeger uniform, wearing several decorations; two gentlemen got down
from a second carriage. The innkeeper said, 'Oh, this is the stranger
couple our clergyman is marrying to-day.' Mechanically I went into the
church, just as the clergyman was concluding the service with the
blessing. I looked at the couple--the bride was my sweet singer. She
looked at me, turned pale, and fainted. The gentleman who was behind
her caught her in his arms. It was Professor X----. What happened
further I do not know, nor have I any recollection as to how I got
here; probably Professor X---- can tell you all about it. But a peace
and a happiness, such as I have never known before, have now taken
possession of my soul. The mysterious prophecy of the Turk was a cursed
falsehood, a mere result of blind groping with unskilful antennae. Have
I lost her? Is she not mine for ever in the glowing inner life?

"'"It will be long ere you hear of me, for I am going on to K----, and
perhaps to the extreme north, as far as P----."

"'Lewis gathered the distracted condition of his friend's mind, only
too plainly, from his language, and the whole affair became the greater
a riddle to him when he ascertained that it was matter of certainty
that Professor X---- had not quitted the town.

"'"How," thought he, "if all this be but a result of the conflict of
mysterious psychical relations (existing, perhaps, between several
people) making their way out into everyday life, and involving in their
circle even outward events, independent of them, so that the deluded
inner sense looks upon