ds can never tell," he
said to himself when she was gone. "I think we understand one another."

As time passed by Eline came to know more and more of that other life
and she longed to tell these things to the people who struggled and
surged in hot strife to win the things of the world they knew, never
thinking that there was a happier, purer, brighter world. Some thought
they knew of such a one; but all except a few made it seem like the one
in which they lived--only they made it a little more bright by day, a
little more dark by night, and with a little more success in the strife
for the things that change and pass away. These she would tell of the
nobler life she knew, but they listened not at all.

In due time Eline was sent to school to learn. But her teachers found
little that she did not quickly understand. For one thing she remembered
now plainly, how in the garden of delight everything that was done was
well done--were it the telling of a story or the singing of a song or the
watering of the flowers that grew in that fair land. All was done with a
wonderful thoroughness, and Eline now felt that she must do all things
in that way or leave them quite alone. But often they would teach Eline
things about which she seemed to care little and to understand as one in
a dream. Then they would call her attention to the work only to find
that she was learning to understand a great deal more than they
themselves could tell. It was so with numbers. When they asked her what
the numbers were by name, she not only named them all but told them why
they were so named and what each meant. And so with music. With every
chord she seemed to see harmonies of color, like beautiful pictures too
glorious to paint. And when she said that life itself to her was music,
Eline's teachers did not understand.

One said: "She has learned these things before in another life."

Another declared: "She sees the heart of things where we see only the
outer covering. She sees the soul, we the body."

Perhaps they both were right.

But many gave other reasons for these things and all of them were
gravely discussed. But curiously enough, the two who gave the reasons I
have told, were laughed at and told that such things could not be. So
they said little about their thoughts because, like all those who are
sure that they know the truth, they could afford to wait until their
words were proved to be right.

VI