Something there was that perhaps the cold night air wafted to her sleeping soul--something that held a warning that the tides of life were at last gradually rising to creep close to her heart, for she suddenly laid down the faithful friend that would no more give forth the sounds she was wont to hear. Each time she drew the bow across its melodious chords, the notes it uttered were like the cry of a lost spirit in dire distress. So she sat gazing into the pitchy darkness with something unknown and frightening, fluttering amidst the strings of her heart. And there out of the shadows of the lonely night a human form rose and stood beside her, with arms outstretched. Then Eric was on his knees before her, and drew the slowly awakening maiden within the unbounded tenderness of his yearning arms. The whole world seemed alive with a leaping promise of coming fulfilment. And then, oh wonder of wonders, he laid his lips upon the heart of the girl, the girl who would not look upon his face. And as he did so he perceived how an indescribable light of dawning comprehension spread slowly over all her features, and awoke like two luminous torches in both her eyes. Then at last her gaze met his ... twin flames of purest beauty, in which, quite gradually, all the hidden treasures of unconceived ecstasies rose one by one in an overwhelming flood too strong for human strength to sustain. Awful, wonderful, terrifying ... and yet so sweet, so sweet that no halting tongue could ever describe such marvellous revelations. Almost imperceptibly she bent her angelic lips nearer his, so that the vision of his dreams was all at once looking into his upturned face, with eyes into which a God-given splendour had suddenly come in a burst of passionate understanding. Never had the exquisite orbs been so sweet, never had the ethereal face shone with a more divine light;--and a voice that seemed to come from the far-off distances of the land of mystery pronounced these words: "Where have I been? To what regions have I come? What is this dazzling splendour that rushes through my being like a leaping river of Life? What is this dear face I see gazing into mine, what is this bounding joy that wants to burst the confines of my overstrained heart? Oh what--oh what does it mean?" Drawing herself up she stood, both hands pressed on her heaving breast, as if her great pain were piercing her through and through. "What is it?... What is it?... What can it be? I do not understand!" Eric rose also, and stood trembling before this unheard-of miracle that had come to pass. A great fear came to him and swept with a cold wind over his immensity of joy. Would she suddenly close her mind again to his flaming love, now that he had at last aroused her sleeping soul?