“And yet, my love, you and I have no longer the right to smile at the credulity of others. I, since the French campaign, when I met with that extraordinary adventure, which, to this day, I am quite unable to understand—”
“This refers to the man who threw himself before the mouth of the cannon,” said Dagobert.
“And you,” continued the maiden, still reading, “you, my dear Eva, since the visits of that young and beautiful woman, whom, as your mother asserted, she had seen at her mother’s house forty years before.”
The orphans, in amazement, looked at the soldier.
“Your mother never spoke to me of that, nor the general either, my children; this is as strange to me as it is to you.”
[Original]
With increasing excitement and curiosity, Rose continued:
“After all, my dear Eva, things which appear very extraordinary, may often be explained by a chance resemblance or a freak of nature. Marvels being always the result of optical illusion or heated fancy, a time must come, when that which appeared to be superhuman or supernatural, will prove to be the most simple and natural event in the world. I doubt not, therefore, that the things, which we denominate our prodigies, will one day receive this commonplace solution.”
“You see, my children—things appear marvelous, which at bottom are quite simple—though for a long time we understand nothing about them.”