"As sure of my being the demon as I am sure there is no cruel spirit here, though it is Midsummer Eve. Look, love! see how the day smiles upon us!"
And he pointed to where a golden star seemed to kindle on the edge of the sea. It was the sun again, rising after its few minutes of absence.
"I saw two just now," cried Erica—"two suns. Where are we, really? And how is all this? And where do you come from?"
And she gazed, still wistfully, doubtfully, in her lover's face.
"I will show you," said he, smiling. And while he still held her with one arm, lest in some sudden fancy she should fly him as a ghost, he used the other hand to empty his pockets of the beautiful shells he had brought, tossing them into her lap.
"Did you ever see such, Erica? I have been where they lie in heaps. Did you ever see such beauties?"
"I never did, Rolf; you have been at the bottom of the sea."
And once more she shrank from what she took for the grasp of a drowned man.
"Not to the bottom, love," replied he, still clasping her hand. "Our fiord is deep, perhaps as deep as they say. I dived as deep as a man may to come up with the breath in his body, but I could never find the bottom. Did I not tell you that I should go down as far as Vogel island, and that I should there be safe?"
"Yes! You did—you did!"