had we to wait long. He roused himself from his reverie; the dreamy
light passed out of his eyes; his spirit seemed to come back to earth as
he turned to us with a penetrating, kindly gaze.

CHAPTER IX.

DELORMAIS.

Magnetism--Past life--Impulsive nature--First impressions--Perfumed
airs--A gentle spirit--Haunted groves--Blue waters of the
Levant--Great devotion--A rose-blossom--Back to the angels--Special
providence--Fair Provence--Charmed days--Excursions--Isles of
Greece--Ossa and Pelion--City of the violet crown--Spinning-jennies
have something to answer for--Olympus--AEgina--Groves of the Sacred
Plain--Narrow escapes--Pleasures of home-coming--Rainbow
atmosphere--Orange and lemon groves--The
nightingales--Impressionable childhood--Fresh plans--The Abbe
Riviere--Rare faculty--Domestic chaplain--Debt of
gratitude--Treasure-house of strength--Given to hospitality--First
great sorrow--Passing away--Resolve to travel--"I can no more"--The
old Adam dies hard--Chance decides.

Delormais roused himself to the present as one who awakes from a dream.
Those large dark eyes seemed capable of every expression; could flash
with intellect, melt with fervent love or grow earnest with
condemnation; sparkle with wit, or suffuse with sympathy and pathos. In
Delormais susceptibilities and intellect seemed equally balanced.

"I have been reviewing my life," he began. "And I am asking myself why
we are here seated together as old familiar friends. How it is that to
you, a comparative stranger, I have promised to speak of the past, open
my heart, disclose secrets unknown to the world? It must be that you
deal in magnetism. Or that we were born in the same mystic sphere, or
under the same conjunction of stars; and that for the third time in my
life I discover one who is altogether sympathetic to me; to whom I feel
I can speak as to my other self. Nor is it necessary that this feeling
should be shared by you in an equal degree. Enough that you are not
antagonistic; even approach me with a friendly liking. I, many years
your senior, am the dominant power. You follow where I lead. But a truce
to metaphysics; searchings into spiritual conditions we cannot
altogether fathom; wandering into realms withholden from mortal vision.
Let us leave the unseen and uncertain, and turn altogether to the
present world."

We made no reply. Our sympathy was strongly awakened in