them and they know me, and talk to me about all sorts of
things. For instance, if I am puzzling over anything they will explain
it quite clearly, but afterwards I always forget the explanation and am
no wiser than I was before. A hand holding a cloth seems to wipe it out
of my mind, just as one cleans a slate."

"Is that all?"

"Not quite. Occasionally I meet the people afterwards. For instance,
Thomas Sims, the cabman, was one of them, and," he added colouring,
"forgive me for saying so, but you are another. I knew it at once, the
moment I saw you, and that is what made me feel so friendly."

"How very odd!" she exclaimed, "and how delightful. Because, you
see--well never mind----"

He looked at her expectantly, but as she said no more, went on.

"Then now and again I see places before I really do see them. For
example, I think that presently we shall pass along a hillside with
great mountain slopes above and below us covered with dark trees.
Opposite to us also, running up to three peaks with a patch of snow on
the centre peak, but not quite at the top." He closed his eyes, and
added, "Yes, and there is a village at the bottom of the valley by a
swift-running stream, and in it a small white church with a spire and a
gilt weathercock with a bird on it. Then," he continued rapidly, "I can
see the house where I am going to live, with the Pasteur Boiset, an old
white house with woods above and all about it, and the beautiful lake
beneath, and beyond, a great mountain. There is a tree in the garden
opposite the front door, like a big cherry tree, only the fruit looks
larger than cherries," he added with confidence.

"I suppose that no one showed you a photograph of the place?" she asked
doubtfully, "for as it happens I know it. It is only about two miles
from Lucerne by the short way through the woods. What is more, there is
a tree with a delicious fruit, either a big cherry or a small plum, for
I have eaten some of it several years ago."

"No," he answered, "no one. My father only told me that the name of the
little village is Kleindorf. He wrote it on the label for my bag."

Just then the line went round a bend. "Look," he said, "there is the
place I told you we were coming to, with the dark trees, the three
peaks, and the stream, and the white church with the cock on top of the
spire."

She let down the carriage window, and stared at the scene.

"Yes," she exclaimed, "it is just as you described. Oh! at last