his eyes could plunge into
Seraphita's salon. The mysterious creature seemed to him the radiating
centre of a luminous circle which formed an atmosphere about her wider
than that of other beings; whoever entered it felt the compelling
influence of, as it were, a vortex of dazzling light and all consuming
thoughts. Forced to struggle against this inexplicable power, Wilfrid
only prevailed after strong efforts; but when he reached and passed the
inclosing wall of the courtyard, he regained his freedom of will, walked
rapidly towards the parsonage, and was soon beneath the high wooden
arch which formed a sort of peristyle to Monsieur Becker's dwelling. He
opened the first door, against which the wind had driven the snow, and
knocked on the inner one, saying:--

"Will you let me spend the evening with you, Monsieur Becker?"

"Yes," cried two voices, mingling their intonations.

Entering the parlor, Wilfrid returned by degrees to real life. He bowed
affectionately to Minna, shook hands with Monsieur Becker, and looked
about at the picture of a home which calmed the convulsions of his
physical nature, in which a phenomenon was taking place analogous to
that which sometimes seizes upon men who have given themselves up
to protracted contemplations. If some strong thought bears upward on
phantasmal wing a man of learning or a poet, isolates him from the
external circumstances which environ him here below, and leads him
forward through illimitable regions where vast arrays of facts become
abstractions, where the greatest works of Nature are but images, then
woe betide him if a sudden noise strikes sharply on his senses and calls
his errant soul back to its prison-house of flesh and bones. The
shock of the reunion of these two powers, body and mind,--one of which
partakes of the unseen qualities of a thunderbolt, while the other
shares with sentient nature that soft resistant force which deifies
destruction,--this shock, this struggle, or, rather let us say, this
painful meeting and co-mingling, gives rise to frightful sufferings. The
body receives back the flame that consumes it; the flame has once more
grasped its prey. This fusion, however, does not take place without
convulsions, explosions, tortures; analogous and visible signs of which
may be seen in chemistry, when two antagonistic substances which science
has united separate.

For the last few days whenever Wilfrid entered Seraphita's presence his
body seemed to fall a