The abyss is so far beneath us that we no longer have a sense of its depths; it acquires the perspective uniformity of ocean, the vagueness of clouds, the soft coloring of the sky.

See, the ice of the fiord is a turquoise, the dark pine forests are mere threads of brown; for us all abysses should be thus adorned." Seraphitus said the words with that fervor of tone and gesture seen and known only by those who have ascended the highest mountains of the globe,--a fervor so involuntarily acquired that the haughtiest of men is forced to regard his guide as a brother, forgetting his own superior station till he descends to the valleys and the abodes of his kind.
Seraphitus unfastened the skees from Minna's feet, kneeling before her.
The girl did not notice him, so absorbed was she in the marvellous view now offered of her native land, whose rocky outlines could here be seen at a glance.

She felt, with deep emotion, the solemn permanence of those frozen summits, to which words could give no adequate utterance.
"We have not come here by human power alone," she said, clasping her hands.

"But perhaps I dream." "You think that facts the causes of which you cannot perceive are supernatural," replied her companion.
"Your replies," she said, "always bear the stamp of some deep thought.
When I am near you I understand all things without an effort.

Ah, I am free!" "If so, you will not need your skees," he answered.
"Oh!" she said; "I who would fain unfasten yours and kiss your feet!" "Keep such words for Wilfrid," said Seraphitus, gently.
"Wilfrid!" cried Minna angrily; then, softening as she glanced at her companion's face and trying, but in vain, to take his hand, she added, "You are never angry, never; you are so hopelessly perfect in all things." "From which you conclude that I am unfeeling." Minna was startled at this lucid interpretation of her thought.
"You prove to me, at any rate, that we understand each other," she said, with the grace of a loving woman.
Seraphitus softly shook his head and looked sadly and gently at her.
"You, who know all things," said Minna, "tell me why it is that the timidity I felt below is over now that I have mounted higher.