"Very well, just as you like.—Oh, Nela! If only it could be true; if God would have pity on me, and grant me the joy of seeing you. Even if I could only see for one day, and were blind again the next, how I would thank Him."
Nela said nothing. After feeling at first intensely happy, she now walked on thoughtfully, with her eyes fixed on the ground.
"Many wonderful things happen in the world," Pablo went on. "And God's mercy works in strange ways—strikes as suddenly as his wrath. It comes upon us unexpectedly, after long punishment and torment, just as his anger falls on us in the midst of happiness which has seemed secure and eternal—do you not think so?"
"Yes—what you hope will be accomplished."
"How do you know?"
"My heart tells me so."
"Your heart tells you! And why should not such warnings come true?" cried Pablo, fervently. "Yes—such chosen souls as yours can, in some cases, foresee the issue. I have noticed it in myself, for, as I am not diverted from self-inspection by seeing things outside me, I have perceived sometimes that I had a whispered presentiment that was quite inexplicable. Then when some event or other has come to pass, I have said to myself with astonishment: 'I knew all this beforehand.'"
"The same thing happens to me," replied Nela. "Yesterday you told me you loved me dearly, and when I got home I said to myself: 'It is very strange, but I knew something of this.'"