Indeed, the Castle had set its seal upon every one of its inmates. The little household had acquired the peculiar characteristics that generally grow up in a secluded community. Every dweller in the Twilight Land was unconsciously possessed of the same quiet manner, the same air of tranquil repose, the same habit of abstracted thought. And these things had stolen upon them so unawares that none was conscious of it in any other, and least of all in herself. It was a singularly beautiful atmosphere in which to bring up a little being fresh to the world. In this place a new soul might have dwelt forever untainted by any mark of worldliness, of passion, or of sin; for these things were foreign to the whole place. No one in the Castle but had, at some time, been through the depths of human experience, been swayed by the most powerful emotions, and known the passion that is inherent in every mortal. But from these things the Twilight folk had been purified by long stretches of vain longing, vain struggles in the midst of solitude, and that continued repression that alone can eradicate mortal tendencies toward sin. And now the women of this Castle had reached, in their progress, the neutral vale of tranquillity that lies between the gorgeous meadows of delight and the grim crags of grief and disappointment. There was no one in the Castle that did not at times reflect upon these things; but of them all, Eleanore saw most clearly whence they had all come, and where they now were. Whither they might be going—ah, that! that, who should say? But she could see and understand the quiet happiness that Lenore had reached through her child; and the increasing contentment, that was more than resignation, in Laure. And if she was ignorant of the route by which Courtoise, Alixe, and David had come into the kingdom of tranquillity, at least she knew that all had reached it, and was glad that it was so. To St. Nazaire, who was now her only connection with the outer world, she talked of all these things, and found in him not quite the spirit of her Castle, but yet a great understanding of human and spiritual matters.