for I could get no answer from her; but for a long while she leaned against my bosom, mute and inanimate. The look, replete with infinite softness, which she gave my father and me, alone informed us, that during her continuance in this incomprehensible trance, she still belonged to the material world.
“‘I was seized with a sudden indisposition,’ she at length said in a low voice; ‘but I now find myself better.’
“She asked my father whether he still wished her to go into society. He thought, that after an occurrence of this nature her going out might be dangerous: but he would not dispense with my making the visit, although I endeavoured to persuade him that my attention might be needful to Seraphina. I left her with an aching heart.
“I had ordered the carriage to be sent for me at a very early hour: but the extreme anxiety I felt would not allow me to wait its arrival, and I returned home on foot. The servant could scarcely keep pace with me, such was my haste to return to Seraphina.
“On my arrival in her room, my impatience was far from being relieved.
“‘Where is she?’ I quickly asked.
“‘Who mademoiselle?’
“‘Why, Seraphina.’
