"I dream, doubtless," said the chaplain, "or else the supernatural element dwelling in my Welsh blood doth take advantage of these lonely surroundings, to gain the mastery over my English common-sense! Yet whether it be with my bodily eyes or but with those of a disordered mind, I doubt not for one moment that I have verily seen the appointed vision, ay, and would fain look again upon one so fair! My heart hath ever yet been in my own keeping, nor felt any temptation to surrender to the fairest of mortal maidens, and shall it now be confessed that it succumbs to a mere phantom of immortal loveliness? Avaunt, Satan! Thou dost but tempt me with thy sorry wiles, and because I have presumed to feel upon yon mountain-top that I was nearer to God than others, thou dost hurl me back to earth, and show me by means of lying visions that I am even weak as other mortal men! Since the path I have chosen must needs bring upon me much obloquy and ridicule, not to say, perchance, some suffering and distress, is it not well that I should suffer no dreams of earthly bliss to enthral me? And do I not daily thank God that as yet such thoughts have come to me as no more than idle dreams? Yet though I have ne'er as yet beheld one for whose sake I have been tempted to forsake the path of duty, it is at times a passing sweet, and surely no sinful dream, to imagine ever at my side one who would be willing to share my hard path with me, and help me, by sweet and gentle influence, to sway the hearts of men towards the path of temperance and sobriety! Such a spirit of love and tenderness and high purpose surely looked forth from those deep-fringed eyes, which gazed with so affrighted a look upon me as the mystic maiden passed! Ah, Percival, Percival, thy poor heart is surely turned with folly, an thou canst thus allow thyself to linger over the memory of an unearthly vision, created by thine own weak imagination, if perchance not by the Evil One! Now let me seriously think upon the matter. Granted that I have truly beheld the heroine of ancient legend, and that she is at times as truly seen by others, what purpose is served by her being thus permitted to appear year by year to mortal eyes? And since there must surely pass many a Midsummer Eve when no mortal foot treads this lonely fastness at midnight's witching hour, what then avails her unwatched wringing of pale hands, and lonely wandering around yon Pool? Summon your powers of English reasoning to bear upon this Welsh folly, Percival Vere, and see if by hard-headed logic you cannot rid yourself of these supernatural influences!" And turning his back valiantly, and in some sort of indignation, upon the scene of his perplexity, the young chaplain sped down the mountain-side towards the farm, finding in hard exercise an excellent antidote to the supernatural.