"Well, I have done what was my duty | rearing back wildly. Celine's face was disto do," he said calmly; "and if another torted with passion and her eyes flaming; man has more right to it than I have, I am she held with one hand by the collar a content. Besides, money is of no conse-stable boy, from whom the screams proquence to me, and Celine has enough with- ceeded, while with the other she beat him out that. Poor child! she has suffered a with all her might with a thick riding-whip greater loss to-day than the prospect of of her father's. the inheritance." "Suffered a loss?" asked Otto, with as much interest as surprise. "I have spoken to you more than once of my friend Van Dalen, have I not, Mr. Welters ? A friend of mine and of Celine's in the fullest sense of the word, a friend who promised to be a father to her when I should be no more. Before I left India everything was settled and agreed upon with him and his wife, and I should have tranquilly laid down my head knowing that Celine would have found a home with him. By the last mail I received the news of his death." Overcome with emotion, Mr. Arnold was silent. Otto, having said a few words of sympathy, enquired: "And his widow- - cannot she be a mother to your daughter, although her husband is no longer there to aid her in the task?" 66 No, no, that would not do; Celine could not be left to her guidance alone, and I believe that a plan is arranged for her to take up her abode with a married daughter. It is a hard thing for a father, Welters, not to know what will become of his daughter, for whose happiness he is ready to sacrifice all he has in the world." "We must hope, Mr. Arnold," said Otto, warmly, "that the time is farther off than you think when she will require other care than that of her father; but if she has the misfortune to lose you and to be alone, you may be certain that she will find in me all the help and support which it is in my power to give." Mr. Aruold responded to these evidently well-intended words with a hearty pressure of his hand; but before he could say anything, they were disturbed by loud cries and a noise which, although somewhat diminished by distance, reached the room where they were sitting. Mr. Arnold sprang up alarmed at the first sound, and Otto followed as he has tened out of the room and downstairs, directing his steps to the stables, whence the sound proceeded. And what a spectacle met their eyes on arriving there! The door stood wide open, and there in the middle of the stable was Celine Arnold, standing before her white horse, which foaming from the mouth was "There there! there!" she cried with a harsh voice at each repeated stroke, whilst the servants who had collected stood staring in horror at the scene, but not one of them ventured to interfere. No one but her father dared even to approach her. He had no sooner entered the stable, than the whip was taken out of her hand and thrown into a corner, and the stable boy sent off. "For shame, Celine!" He said these words gently and earnestly, and in a sorrowful tone. Nevertheless her passion was not subdued. With a shrieking voice she stammered out in broken sentences: "He has beaten Schimmel. I have long been watching him, till I caught him in the act, and I have beaten him and shall beat him again. I'll beat him to death if he ever comes in my way again. He to beat Schimmel, poor defenceless beast! Then I'll beat him, I will — I'll beat him to death. My poor Schimmel!" Now, however, came the reaction of her passion. She turned round suddenly, and throwing her arms round the horse's neck and hiding her head in his long white mane, she burst into passionate sobs, and addressed soft caressing words in Malay to the animal. And so they left her alone. The stable boy had immediately taken to flight, the servants went back to the house, Mr. Arnold again retired to his room, whilst Otto went away unobserved, and deeply affected returned to the town. Was this the girl who had driven Mary out of his heart? Could a man hope for happiness with a woman who can be changed into such a fury.? Was such a woman worthy of the love which a man would devote to her as the best feeling of his heart? A fresh letter was written that afternoon to Mary and torn up. Poor wavering Otto! he could not sleep that night owing to the vision which hovered incessantly before his eyes. The vision of Celine in her violent fury and unwomanly act? No, indeed; but the recollection of the glowing face, the sparkling dark eyes, the black locks hanging loose and mingled with the white mane of the horse, the caressing words in the soft-sounding, strange language. The image of the moth and the candle | forgot how he had last seen her. No wonha been too much used and abused to be der he consented so eagerly when she proborrowed here, but it could never have a posed to him to walk with her, as she better application than in the case of Otto wished to take advantage of her father beWelters. ing asleep to get some fresh air out of doors after her sleepless night. This short note reached Otto early one morning, a few days after the visit to Beckley already mentioned, a visit which, after the scene he had witnessed, he had hardly found courage to repeat. He kissed Celine's beautiful handwriting before he locked up the letter in his desk. He felt his heart glow with the thought that it was Celine who was calling him to her, that she felt the want of his presence now that her father was ill, and she was herself, perhaps, in a serious and sorrowful frame of mind. On this occasion, I will for once make use of the hackneyed poetical expression to inform you that Otto forthwith flew on the wings of love to Beckley, and hardly a quarter of an hour after the receipt of Celine's letter he entered the house, or at least intended to enter it, for as he went up the steps, Celine came out of the door, accompanied by Cæsar. How sorrowful and care worn she looked; how cordially she pressed Otto's haud as she greeted him. "How is your father, Celine?" "I fear not well, Otto; I sat up with him last night, and found him feverish and restless." "May I go to him?” "No, not now; he has just fallen asleep, and I have taken advantage of the opportunity to telegraph to Amsterdam. I hope, therefore, to have the doctor here this evening? So they walked together in the fir-wood, which clothed the hill behind the house. The unchanging green of the fir-trees and the clear blue sky, which was so bright overhead on this morning, made the advance of the season hardly perceptible. Celine went on, silently sunk in thought, whilst Otto did not venture to disturb her meditations by any commonplace remark, which he thought would be unsuitable to her present serious mood. Yet he would willingly have interrupted her sad thoughts, and when Céline, having reached the highest point of the hill, sat down upon a seat placed there, he took advantage of the Sunday bells of Dilburg, of which the sound reached them through the stillness of the wood, to begin a conversation with her. "Do you hear the bells, Celine?""Is it with you as with me? Do you not find something solemn, something poetical, in the sound of the church bells, which say to you that it is the Sabbath, the day of the Lord, and which call you to come to church, to lay aside worldly cares for a while, and to lift up your soul to the Creator?" For a moment Celine looked at Otto with surprise before she answered him. "No, Otto! in that sense the church bells have no sound for me. I like to hear them, as a pleasant melody which charms my ear, but they have no language for me. There is no church which can call me; I belong to none and I wish to belong to none.' Is "And why not?" asked Otto, with some astonishment at her decided tone. Is there no church communion with whose form of worship you could agree? "Why did you not let me sit up with there never a strongly felt want in you to your father, Celine? You know what a hear in any church a serious word of conpleasure it would have been to me to be solation or encouragement? See, Celine of service to you in any way," said Otto, I am a man, and as such I attach myself warmly. less to such things than women do, whose sentimental life is more developed, from their having less occupation; yet I feel calmer and more contented when I have sought and found an opportunity in church of withdrawing my thoughts from the world to fix them on higher interests." "Yes, that I willingly believe," answered Celine, again putting out her hand to him. "You are our only friend, Otto, and when I want help I will not hesitate to apply to you, but the nursing of my dear father I will hand over to no one.' " Great tears glistened in her eyes as she uttered these words in a soft tone. How lovely, how charming, how entirely feminine she was, as she stood before Otto in her great distress. No wonder he wholly "And can you only do that in church, Otto?" she asked, with a smile. 66 'No, Celine. I ought, perhaps, to be able to do so at home, but when I stay at home I cannot manage it, and just on this account I hold that going to church is a live peaceably side by side, and even the "And this destiny is?" "The faggots are done away with, do "It was a principle of my father's not to make any profession for me in any church communion before I was myself able to determine my own choice by investigation. To him all men-Jews, Christians, hea-you say, Otto? O yes, people no longer then, Catholics and Protestants - are alike. burn the heretic, but with the fire of the He calls them all brothers, as children of faggots hate and intolerance are not exthe same God, participators in the same tinguished. To take a small example, human nature, and having the same desti- look at the mutual relations of the Reny, whether they believe in the name of formed Churches. When I first came into Mahomet, of Jesus, or of Mary." this country and heard of the mickmack between orthodox, liberal, modern or by "To co-operate in the place which each whatever name this nonsense may be creature fills, with the natural and eternal called which had not penetrated into our laws of life and death, to succeed the pre- Indian solitude, the Protestant religion vious generation, and to make way for that seemed to me to be a bunch of nettles, which follows. But we are wandering into which I took care not to poke my finfrom our subject. I told you, Otto, that gers, and after reading all the brochures in my father had not bound me by baptism to which the Christian teachers of different any church communion, that he incited me denominations abused each other in very to investigation as soon as he thought my opprobrious terms, each clearly rejoicing understanding capable of it. He began by in the conviction that the truth dwelt only sketching for me in a few words the differ- with himself, the Protestant Church, with ences and similarities of the different Prot- all its divisions, appeared to me in so abestant sects; he then imparted to me the surd a state that any wish I had to belong principles of the Catholic religion, in so to it vanished. The perusal of George far as he, a born Protestant, had any knowl- Sand's Mademoiselle là Quintinie at that edge of them. It may, perhaps, seem time also cured me of my latent inclinastrange to you, when I say that the Catho- tion for Catholicism. Added to this, when lic Church, in the first instance, had the I was at the Hague, I went once into both greatest attraction for me. In the first these churches. I would not judge as a place it was the church to which my moth-blind man does of colours. The first I ener belonged, and in the authority of the tered was the Protestant church, I believe Church in confession, and in the forgive it called itself 'the Reformed Dutch.' I ness of sins by penance; yes, in the multi- cannot tell you what a solemn feeling tude of protecting saints, and, above all, came over me when I entered a church for in the unity of the Catholic Church, there the first time, Otto, but I must add that was something that charmed me, and per- this feeling accompanied me little farther haps I should have caused myself to be re-than the threshold. The minister's name ceived into it had I not been thrown into a was R who is sufficiently well known state of doubt on becoming acquainted in the country for you to have heard with history. When I first heard of the his name more than once. A numerNight of St. Bartholomew, of the Inquisi- ous crowd was pressing to find room. tion, of the burning of Huss and Servetus Squeezed, pushed, shoved on one side, I -in a word, of all the persecutions and persevered in my undertaking, and by cruelties perpetrated by Catholics and money and good words I obtained a seat Protestants in their fanaticism for the sake opposite the pulpit in what I think they of enforcing their own mode of worship-call a pew. A seat, Otto! Oh! I was then I hesitated to enrol myself under any banner whatsoever, and gave the preference by far to neutrality." quite indignant; there they all sat lolling in their chairs with their feet on a warm stove, so luxurious, so lazy! In this But, Celine,” said Otto, now smiling in position I felt ashamed to lift up my his turn, "these times are long since past; thoughts to God, and yet I dared not no one would now be brought to the stake kneel down, as I wished to do. People on account of his convictions. The war be-crowded into the church more and more; tween Catholic and Protestant has long been at an end, and if the different parties have no love for each other, they at least there was a commotion and bustle; here some one had to get up to make room for another, and close by me two women fell into a dispute, whilst behind me two young ladies whispered very audibly, and laughed about things which were not fit for a church. "At last the minister entered the pulpit; it was quiet now, and I was thankful when his words withdrew my attention from what was passing around me. He spoke of the love of Christ for all sinners, even for His enemies, and of the duty thus laid upon His followers of cherishing love and forgiveness in their hearts. See, Otto, I was touched and carried away by his words. This man in the pulpit who in so eloquent a manner had tried to excite the consciences of his hearers, I looked upon almost as a holy apostle, and when he spoke of intolerance and uncharitableness, which were so much at variance with Christian duty, when in a gentle voice he said: Let each ask his own conscience, I will be silent. . .' a solemn silence, which affected me to the very de ths of my soul, prevailed in the church. But he then all at once broke this silence by exclaiming in a powerful voice; No, I cannot be silent!' and then (here Celiue burst out laughing) well, Otto, then unluckily I saw that he turned over a leaf of the paper book in which he had written his sermon the preceding evening in his study, where he had certainly sat and flattered himself by anticipation of the striking effect of this piece of acting; from that moment I listened with curiosity and amusement, but without any interest or emotion, to the rest of his sermon. From that moment the whole church seemed to me to be a theatre, in which the preacher and the congregation were acting their parts according to prescribed regulations. As soon as the Amen had been spoken, the people pushed and crowded out as if coming away from a theatre, and I then vowed never to assist at such a performance again." And then you went to the Romish church, Celine?" "Just so, Otto, but with even less result. At first I was better pleased to find the congregation kneeling, and to see that all could get to their seats without squeezing and pushing; the beautiful music of the organ affected me; there was something more calm and more solemn than in the Protestant Church; but though my senses were charmed, my heart remained cold, and the sermon of the pastor, so full of Mary, Joseph, and all the saints, as if God were not more than all of them, attracted me but little. After the congregation had left when I waited for a moment to look at the paintings and sculptures, I saw in a corner of the church a young woman kneeling and sunk in devout prayer before a doll dressed in white satin. I do not say this to scoff, Otto, but in my eyes the Madonna was nothing else, and then I understood in an instant that one must be born. and brought up in this religion, to be able to see the representation of the Madonna in this doll and to lift up one's heart to it. 66 These, Otto, are my impressions of a church. Do you wonder now that I have. no wish to belong to one, and that as you will certainly not see me become a Jew or a Mahometan. I shall remain all my life a heathen or whatever you may choose to call me, and always continue to prefer the solitude of my own room, or the silent forest out of doors, where the soft noss, the green trees, and the thousand varieties of leaf and tint, where the marmuring brook and the songs of the birds speak to me of the Mighty Creator, and where I feel more impelled and more fit to honour God than in the midst of the bustle and confusion of a crowd?" "I can enter into all this very well, looking at it from your point of view, Celine," answered Otto, who had listened to every word with surprise and attention. It might be that they were strange, extraordinary propositions which she was defending, and with which he could not absolutely agree, yet there was something in the animation with which she spoke when the subject interested her that would have made an impression on anyone were his heart ever so indifferent to her. Her lively gestures, the play of her features, the sparkle of her eyes, her foreign accent, and her manner of pronouncing distinctly every syllable, and this all the more as she became excited, and then, too, the originality of her views, which at all events testified to her clear head and developed train of thought all these considered, was it wonderful that Otto lost the little coolness of reason which he had thus far maintained in his relations with Celine, and that he let his heart take its full swing in unbounded admiration of her? But he was still sufficiently master of himself to continue the conversation with apparent coolness. From your point of view, I can quite enter into this, Celine," he said; "I can understand that one must look at a church with other eyes when at your age one enters it for the first time, than when one has been identified from a child with all its forms and usages. But yet in a cer tain sense you are unjust. You have overlooked the internal in the external; you have not distinguished the form from the essence. You were angry at the sight of people attending public worship in a sitting posture, but you have not considered that more depends on the disposition of the heart than on the posture of the body. You have allowed yourself to be angry because the minister read his sermon, and you did not reflect that the object of the sermon was to make an impression, and that an extempore preacher may fail to do so by a want of coherence, to which even the most inspired orator is occasionally liable if the sermon is not written down with calm consideration. if when he did not immediately reply, and she suddenly fell into that defiant tone which she often adopted towards him. 66 Would you like to hear any more heresies from me, Otto? Come, let me make a confession of my faith now that you have once begun to draw me out, and the faggots are ready. Listen, then; I do not believe in a life after this life; I do not believe in the Divine origin of the Bible, nor in the truth of its narratives. Do you wish to hear more now, Otto?" "No, I thank you, Celine- or rather, yes; I should just wish to know whether there is anything in which you do believe?" But "Much obliged for your kind interest," you do not belong to any church, Celine, answered Celine". springing up from the you must not call yourself a heathen. bench on which they were sitting, and, Should not everyone be called a Christian with the same mocking smile on her lips, who believes in Christ as our Redeem- she made a curtsey to Otto; then, becomer?" ing serious again, she said: Yes, Otto; but if I did not believe in Christ in the spirit you speak of? If I only loved Him as a remarkable man who, by his self-sacrificing life and the morality which he preached, has well deserved that mankind should still remember him so many years afterwards, and if I did not believe in any supernatural acts performed by Jesus, or in any miraculous power possessed by him? And if I set before my eyes His resurrection and ascension only as a fable, what then?" Here I must add that Otto was roughly and disagreeably shaken out of his admiration by these words of Celine. Without any intolerance against heterodox persons, he was himself firmly attached to the ideas imprinted in his mind first by his mother and then by his religious instructors, and, above all, he had been much strengthened In these ideas during the last few months by Mary, who, having taken the strict orthodox line, had frequently made religion the subject of conversation between them. He was aware that now-a-days many persons thought as Celine, or rather as Celine's father did, for Ottó knew well that it was her father's principles and ideas which the daughter had adopted, although the subject had never been mentioned between Mr. Arnold and himself. As I said before, it was indifferent to him what others thought, but it could not be indifferent to him what was thought by her whom he would willingly call his own. The disagreeable impression which Celine's words made upon him, showed itself so plainly in his face, that she could not but have perceived it. Her lips softened into a rallying smile, 66 I believe in God as the principle of good and in the Devil as the principle of evil, the two contending powers which war against each other in human nature and are the origin of that mixture of good and evil which is called man." "But then do you not also believe that we must strive in order that the principle of good may get the upper hand in us, Celine?" "I believe," answered Celine, imitating like a naughty child Otto's serious tone and the sound of his voice," that it is time to go home, and that a good dominie has been lost in Otto Welters." And she laughed with the clear laugh into which her more serious moods usually dissolved themselves. When she saw that Otto did not join in it, but bit his lips as if annoyed, she came a step nearer to him, laid her hand on his shoulder, and, looking into his eyes half crying, half laughing, she said in an entirely altered tone: "Tell me, Otto, is it not strange that two such good friends as we are, should not think alike upon one single subject? Is it not strange that you never say anything of which the contradiction does not instantly come into my head? I often wonder to myself, Otto, that you can still feel any wish to talk to me, and I believe that if you were not so good, and if you were to put into words the aversion which read in your eyes, we should have had a quarrel long ago. I All Otto's less agreeable impressions melted away like snow before the sun at her words. As she stood before him with such a trusting, childlike air, her hand on his shoulder and her eyes turned full upon |