"Oh! Nisida," at length exclaimed Wagner, "was it a delusion produced by the horrors of that scene?--or did thy voice really greet mine ears ere now!" There was a minute's profound silence--during which, as they sat upon the bank of the stream, locked in a fond embrace, their eyes were fixed with fascinating gaze upon each other, as if they could not contemplate each other too long--he in tenderness, and she in passion. "Yes, Fernand," said Nisida, breaking that deep silence at last, and speaking in a voice so mellifluously clear, so soft, so penetrating in its tone, that it realized all the fond ideas which her lover had conceived of what its nature would be if it were ever restored, "yes, Fernand, dearest Fernand," she repeated, "you did indeed hear my voice, and to _you_ never again shall I be mute." Wagner could not allow her time to say more: he was almost wild with rapture! His Nisida was restored to him, and no longer Nisida the deaf and dumb, but Nisida who could hear the fond language which he addressed to her, and who could respond in the sweetest, most melting and delicious tones that ever came from woman's lips. For a long time their hearts were too full, alike for total silence or connected conversation, and while the world from which they were cut off was entirely forgotten, they gathered so much happiness from the few words in which they indulged, and from all that they read in each other's eyes, that the emotions which they experienced might have furnished sensations for a lifetime. At length--she scarcely knew how the subject began, although it might naturally have arisen of its own spontaneous suggestion--Nisida found herself speaking of the long period of deception which she had maintained in relation to her powers of speech and hearing.