ination
the day when Eva would look back upon the world she had left as if it
were a mere formless mass of clouds. These were no idle words. The
promise was something derived from her own experience.

On her pilgrimage to Rome she had gazed from an Alpine peak and beheld at
her feet nothing save low hills, forests, valleys, and flashing streams,
with here and there a village; but she could distinguish neither human
beings nor animals; a light mist had veiled everything, converting it
into one monotonous surface. But above her head the sky, like a giant
dome free from cloud and mist, arched in a beautiful vault, blue as
turquoise and sapphire. It seemed so close that the eagle soaring near
her might reach it with a few strokes of his pinions. She was steeped in
radiance, and the sun shone down upon her with overpowering brilliancy
like the eye of God.

Close at her side a gay butterfly hovered about the solitary little white
flower which grew from a bare rock on the topmost summit. In the
brilliant light and amidst the solemn silence that butterfly seemed like
a transfigured soul, and aroused the question, Who that was permitted to
live on this glowing height, so near the Most High, could desire to
return to the grey mist below?

So the human soul which soared to the shining height where it was so near
heaven, would blissfully enjoy the purity of the air and the un shadowed
light which bathed it, and all that was passing in the world below would
blend into a single vanquished whole, whose details could no longer be
distinguished. Thus Heinz Schorlin's image would also mingle with the
remainder of the world, lying far below her, to which he belonged. It
should merely incite her to rise nearer and nearer to heaven, to the
radiant light above, to which her soul would mount as easily as the eagle
that before the pilgrim's eyes had vanished in the divine blue and the
golden sunshine.

"So come and dare the flight!" she concluded with warm enthusiasm. "The
wings you need have grown from your soul, you chosen bride of Heaven. Use
them. That which now most repels you from the goal will fall away as the
snake sheds its skin. Like the phoenix rising from its ashes, the
destruction of the little earthly love which even now causes you more
pain than pleasure, will permit the ascent of the great love for Him Who
is Love incarnate, the love which encompasses the lonely butterfly on the
white blossom in the silent, deserted mountai