Monsieur Becker was the first to recover courage.
"Dear child," he said, "you are truth itself, and you are ever kind.
I would ask of you to-night something other than the dainties of your tea-table.

If we may believe certain persons, you know amazing things; if this be true, would it not be charitable in you to solve a few of our doubts ?" "Ah!" she said smiling, "I walk on the clouds.

I visit the depths of the fiord; the sea is my steed and I bridle it; I know where the singing flower grows, and the talking light descends, and fragrant colors shine! I wear the seal of Solomon; I am a fairy; I cast my orders to the wind which, like an abject slave, fulfils them; my eyes can pierce the earth and behold its treasures; for lo! am I not the virgin to whom the pearls dart from their ocean depths and--" "-- who led me safely to the summit of the Falberg ?" said Minna, interrupting her.
"Thou! thou too!" exclaimed the strange being, with a luminous glance at the young girl which filled her soul with trouble.

"Had I not the faculty of reading through your foreheads the desires which have brought you here, should I be what you think I am ?" she said, encircling all three with her controlling glance, to David's great satisfaction.

The old man rubbed his hands with pleasure as he left the room.
"Ah!" she resumed after a pause, "you have come, all of you, with the curiosity of children.