ade on purpose.
To-morrow we shall be at Rotterdam, which is a city in Holland, at the
mouth of the Meuse."

"Father," said the voice, "look here; when two beings have always been
together from infancy, their state should not be disturbed, or death
must come, and it cannot be otherwise. I love you all the same, but I
feel that I am no longer altogether with you, although I am as yet not
altogether with him."

"Come! try to sleep," repeated Ursus.

The voice answered,--

"I shall have sleep enough soon."

Ursus replied, in trembling tones,--

"I tell you that we are going to Holland, to Rotterdam, which is a
city."

"Father," continued the voice, "I am not ill; if you are anxious about
that, you may rest easy. I have no fever. I am rather hot; it is nothing
more."

Ursus stammered out,--

"At the mouth of the Meuse--"

"I am quite well, father; but look here! I feel that I am going to die!"

"Do nothing so foolish," said Ursus. And he added, "Above all, God
forbid she should have a shock!"

There was a silence. Suddenly Ursus cried out,--

"What are you doing? Why are you getting up? Lie down again, I implore
of you."

Gwynplaine shivered, and stretched out his head.

CHAPTER III.

PARADISE REGAINED BELOW.

He saw Dea. She had just raised herself up on the mattress. She had on a
long white dress, carefully closed, and showing only the delicate form
of her neck. The sleeves covered her arms; the folds, her feet. The
branch-like tracery of blue veins, hot and swollen with fever, were
visible on her hands. She was shivering and rocking, rather than
reeling, to and fro, like a reed. The lantern threw up its glancing
light on her beautiful face. Her loosened hair floated over her
shoulders. No tears fell on her cheeks. In her eyes there was fire, and
darkness. She was pale, with that paleness which is like the
transparency of a divine life in an earthly face. Her fragile and
exquisite form was, as it were, blended and interfused with the folds of
her robe. She wavered like the flicker of a flame, while, at the same
time, she was dwindling into shadow. Her eyes, opened wide, were
resplendent. She was as one just freed from the sepulchre; a soul
standing in the dawn.

Ursus, whose back only was visible to Gwynplaine, raised his arms in
terror. "O my child! O heavens! she is delirious. Delirium is what I
feared worst of all. She must have no shock, for that might kill her;
yet nothing but a sho