"Do you know that in a sort of manner you remind me of my dear Esther. She was darker than you; but she was like you. God took her. Shall I tell you why?" "Please," said Priscilla. She had come back to the present world now, and was gazing, with all her heart in her eyes, at the queer old man. "She was too good for earth," said Mr Manchuri; "that is why God took her. He wanted her to bloom in the Heavenly Gardens. She wasn't a bit like me. I am all for money and bargains--I made a rare one to-day; but I mustn't talk of that. That is a secret. I am a rich man--very rich; and when I die I will leave my money to different charities. I have not kith or kin to leave it to--neither kith nor kin, for Esther is with God and the angels. But, all the same, I can't help making money. It is the one pleasure I have. If a week goes by when I can't turn over a cool hundred or even sometimes a thousand I am put out and miserable. You don't understand that feeling, do you?" "No; I don't," said Priscilla. "No more did Esther; I could not get it into her. I tried to with all my might, but not one little bit of it would get through that pure white armour she wore--the armour of righteousness, I take it." "Tell me more about her," said Priscilla, bending forward and looking full into Mr Manchuri's eyes. "I could talk about her for ever to you," was the answer; "although, as a matter of fact, I have not mentioned my child's name to a living soul for going on thirty years. It is thirty years since she went to God, and she is as young as ever in the Heavenly Gardens--not seventeen yet; just like you." "Yes," said Priscilla. "It is very, very interesting," she added. "It seems to me," she continued, "as if I knew now why I am taking this journey, and why God did not want me to see the lovely mountains that surround Zermatt." "You are more and more like Esther the more you talk," said Mr Manchuri. "She was all for star-gazing and that sort of thing. I take it, that includes mountain-gazing and going into raptures at sunsets and at sunrises, and going into fits at shadows on the hills and lights across the valleys, and little flowers growing in clumps by brooks, and living things that you can see if you look deep into running water, and the songs of birds, and the low hum of insects on a summer evening. After these things, which she liked best of all, she loved books that made her think, and I could not get her to take the slightest interest in what she wore, or in money, bless you! But she was sweet beyond words with children, and with people who were in trouble; and there were girls of her own class in life who adored her. They are elderly women now-- oldish, almost--with children of their own; but two or three of them have called their girls Esther after her, although they don't resemble her one little bit. You are the first girl I ever came across who in the very least resembles her. I wish I could see your face in the light."