that you felt as if you could almost touch them.

'What did you do last night after you went home?' suddenly asked
the girl one evening.

'Just the same as I always do,' answered he. 'It was too hot to
sleep, so it was no use going to bed, and I walked straight of to
the forest and bathed in one of those deep dark pools at the edge
of the river. I have been there constantly for several months,
but last night a strange thing happened. I was taking my last
plunge, when I heard--sometimes from one side, and sometimes from
another--the sound of a voice singing more sweetly than any
nightingale, though I could not catch any words. I left the
pool, and, dressing myself as fast as I could, I searched every
bush and tree round the water, as I fancied that perhaps it was
my friend who was playing a trick on me, but there was not a
creature to be seen; and when I reached home I found my friend
fast asleep.'

As Julia listened her face grew deadly white, and her whole body
shivered as if with cold. From her childhood she had heard
stories of the terrible beings that lived in the forests and were
hidden under the banks of the rivers, and could only be kept off
by powerful charms. Could the voice which had bewitched Alonzo
have come from one of these? Perhaps, who knows, it might be the
voice of the dreaded Yara herself, who sought young men on the
eve of their marriage as her prey.

For a moment the girl sat choked with fear, as these thoughts
rushed through her; then she said: 'Alonzo, will you promise