As in a dream he heard her name, "The Comtesse Sylvie
Hermenstein" and his own, "Mr. Aubrey Leigh"; he was dimly aware of
bowing, and of saying something vague and formal, but all the
actuality of his being was for the moment shaken and transfigured,
and only one strong and overwhelming conviction remained,--the
conviction that, in the slight creature who stood before him
gracefully acknowledging his salutation, he had met his fate. Now he
understood as he had never done before what the poet-philosopher
meant by "the celestial rapture falling out of heaven";--for that
rapture fell upon him and caught him up in a cloud of glory, with
all the suddenness and fervour which must ever attend the true birth
of the divine passion in strong and tender natures. The calculating
sensualist can never comprehend this swiftly exalted emotion, this
immediate radiation of light through all life, which is like the sun
breaking through clouds on a dark day. The sensualist has by self-
indulgence, blunted the edge of feeling, and it is impossible for
him to experience this delicate sensation of exquisite delight,--
this marvellous assurance that here and now, face to face, stands
the One for whom all time shall be merged into a Song of Love, and
upon whom all the sweetest thoughts of imagination shall be brought
to bear for the furtherance of mutual joy! Aubrey's strong spirit,
set to stern labour for so long, and trained to toil with but scant
peace for reward, now sprang up as it were to its full height of
capability and resolution,--yet its power was tempered with that
tender humility which, in a noble-hearted man, bends before the
presence of the woman whose love for him shall make her sacred.
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