ike in
appearance as an old woman ever can be. She stared at the travellers for
a moment, and then vanished among the trunks of the trees.

The Assessor shuddered involuntarily at the sight of her, and remarked,
"What a difference is there between woman and woman--the loveliest upon
earth and the most horrible is yet--woman!"

After he had seen the old witch he became almost gloomy. In the meantime
the owl vanished with her; perhaps, because "birds of a feather flock
together."

Yet it may be that I am calumniating all this time the little old mother
in the most sinful manner; she may be the most good-tempered woman in
the world. It is well that our Lord understands us better than we do
ourselves.

All this time Petrea sate silent, for however enlightened and
unprejudiced people may be, they never can perfectly free themselves
from the impression of certain circumstances, such as presentiments,
omens, apparitions, and forebodings, which, like owls on noiseless
wings, have flown through the world ever since the time of Adam, when
they first shouted their ominous "Too-who! too-whit!" People know that
Hobbes, who denied the resurrection in the warmest manner, never could
sleep in the neighbourhood of a room in which there had been a corpse.
Petrea, who had not the least resemblance in the world to Hobbes, was
not inclined to gainsay anything within the range of probability. Her
temperament naturally inclined her to superstition; and like most people
who sit still a great deal, she felt always at the commencement of a
journey a degree of disquiet as to how it would go on. But on this day,
under the leaden heaven, and the influence of discomforting forebodings,
this unquiet amounted to actual presentiment of evil; whether this had
reference to Sara or to herself she knew not; but she was disposed to
imagine the latter, and asked herself, as she often had done, whether
she were prepared for any occasion which might separate her for ever
from all those whom she loved on earth. By this means Petrea most
livingly discovered--discovered almost with horror, how strongly she
was fettered to her earthly existence, how dear life had become to her.

All human souls have their heights, but then they have also their
morasses, their thickets, their pits (I will not speak of abysses,
because many souls are too shallow to have these). A frequent mounting
upwards, or a more constant abode upon these heights, is the stipulated
conditio