ound the sides, and resembled a dark ring swimming in
nebulous light, midway between the upper and nether hemispheres of the
wondrous hollow globe. Within this horizontal rim, floor there was none;
and they stood upon its brink; and, looking up, they saw the marvellous
vault all sparkling with stars and beaming with pale, pendent, taper,
crystalline flames, noiseless and still; and, looking down, beheld
beneath their feet, and shining with a yet more soft and dreamy lustre,
the perfect counterpart of the vault above.

Penn held Virginia upon the verge. A bewildering ecstasy captivated her
reason as she gazed. They seemed to be really in the grotto of some
nymph who had fled the instant she saw her privacy invaded, or veiled
the immortal mystery and loveliness of her charms in some mesh of the
glimmering nimbus that baffled and entangled the sight. Save one or two
stifled cries of rapture from Virginia and Carl, not a syllable was
uttered: perfect stillness prevailed, until Penn said, in a whisper,--

"Wouldst thou like to see the face of Undine? Bend forward. Do not fear:
I hold thee!"

By gentle compulsion he induced her to comply. She bent over the brink,
and looked down, when, lo! out of the hazy effulgence beneath, emerged a
face looking up at her--a face dimly seen, yet full of vague wonder and
surprise--a face of unrivalled sweetness and beauty, Penn thought. What
did Virginia think?--for it was the reflection of her own.

"O, Penn! how it startled me!"

"But isn't she a Grace? Isn't she loveliness itself?"

"I hope you think so!" she whispered, with arch frankness, a sweet
coquettish confidence ravishing to his soul.

"I do!" And in the privacy of telling her so, his lips just brushed her
ear. Did you ever, in whispering some secret trifle, some all-important,
heavenly nothing, just brush the dearest little ear in the world with
your lips? or, in listening to the syllables of divine nonsense, feel
the warm breath and light touch of the magnetic thrilling mouth? Then
you know something of what Penn and Virginia experienced for a brief
moment in the Grotto of Undine.

Just then a duplicate glow, like a double sunrise, one part above and
the other below the horizon, appeared at the farther end of the grotto.
It increased, until they saw come forth from behind an upright rock an
upright torch; and at the same time, from behind a suspended rock
beneath, an inverted torch. Immediately after two Cudjoes came in