"'Moving!' I exclaimed. 'How? By what means? Walking, riding, or flying?' "'We are on the water, it seems,' he said; 'but truly there is nothing clear except the figure of the young girl standing in the midst of the storm.' "'You dream this constantly?' "'Constantly.' "'Has Kristel ever spoken to you of such a girl?' "'Never.' "'It is possible,' I suggested, 'that since you and he parted he has met with her.' "'Ah,' cried Silvain, with animation, 'you have hit the mark. It is through Kristel that she comes to me in my dreams.' "My suggestion had been lightly made, and the readiness with which he accepted it astonished me. Thinking over it afterwards in cool blood it appeared to me incredible that, in his dreams, Silvain should thus become acquainted with a being whom he had never seen, and of whose existence he had never heard. But Silvain entertained no doubt on the matter. "'Shall I ever see her in my waking life?' he asked, in a musing tone. "'You believe she lives?' "'As surely as I live. If I knew where she is to be found I would go and seek her.' "In other men's judgment the calm manner in which he spoke of this mystic episode would have been accounted a species of madness; but I knew that he was perfectly sane, and that his brain was as clear and well balanced as my own. "'For what reason would you seek her?' I asked. "'I do not know,' he replied, and added, with a grave smile, 'perhaps because she is beautiful.' "'You have fallen in love with a shadow, Silvain.' "'It may be,' he said; 'I cannot say how it is--only that I think of her by day and dream of her by night. I wonder whether we shall ever meet!' "'Cannot you tell?' "'No, I cannot see into the future. All that comes to me in my dreams of and through Kristel belongs to the past and the present. There is no foreshadowing of what is to be. The picture I have seen of this beautiful girl is a reflex of what Kristel has seen in actual embodiment.' "It would have been both unkind and ungenerous to throw ridicule upon these statements. To no man would Silvain have spoken as he spoke to me; he had, as it were, opened his soul to my gaze, and I should have been unworthy of friendship had I not received his confidences with respect. Nevertheless I could not bring myself to believe as he believed. I was soon to become a convert. "About a month after this conversation I was aroused from sleep early in the morning by Silvain. The sun had scarcely risen, and he was fully dressed. I observed signs of agitation in his face. "'Kristel is in danger,' he said.