ening her eyes. "I recognised him well enough, with his
black doublet and pale face...."--"And his mournful glance...."
she adds, still with closed eyes. Erik points at the picture: "The
sea-man there."--"And I?..." she asks. "You came out of the house.
You ran to meet your father. But hardly had you reached the pair,
when you cast yourself at the feet of the stranger. I saw you clasp
his knees...." "He lifted me...."--"To his breast. Passionately
you clung to him, and kissed him ardently...."--"And then?" He
gazes at her with a sort of terror, as at something unnatural, in
her appearance of sleep. "I saw you fly together over the sea."
She seems to wake with a start. "He is looking for me!" she cries
in tones of extraordinary conviction, "I shall see him! My destiny
it is to perish with him!" Erik recoils: "Horrible! Ha, I see it
full plainly at last, she is gone from me! My dream boded true!" In
uncontrollable despair he flees from the house. Senta, her excitement
gradually dying, remains gazing at the picture. She is murmuring
softly to herself the burden of the ballad: "Ah, may you, pale
sea-farer, find her! Pray to Heaven that a woman soon may keep her
troth to him!"--when the door opens and Daland and the Hollander
appear at the threshold. Serita's eyes turn from the picture to
the stranger entering. A cry escapes her lips and her eyes fasten
on his face. His eyes, too, as he slowly steps into the room, bend
steadfastly upon hers. They gaze as if the same spell had fallen
upon both.

The father, after a moment watching from the doorway, waiting for
his daughter to run as usual to greet him, speaks, not altogether
displeased: "My child, you see me standing at the door, and, what is
this? No embrace? No kiss? You stand in your place as if bewitched?
Do I deserve, Senta, such a welcome?"--"God be with you!" she murmurs
faintly, and, as he comes nearer, asks underbreath, without removing
her eyes from the figure--the counterpart of the picture on the
wall, "Father, speak, who is the stranger?" The father smiles: "You
are eager to know? My child, give kind welcome to the stranger. A
sea-man he is, like myself, and solicits our hospitality. Homeless
for long years, incessantly bound on long voyages, in far-off lands
he has gathered vast treasures. An exile from home, he offers rich
compensation for a place at the fireside. Speak, Senta, should you
be sorry that the stranger should dwell with us?" To the Hollander,
whi