Part 17 (1/2)

”My father!” cried Gerande

It was Master Zacharius

”Where aer strike--the hands have stopped!”

”Father!” returned Gerande, with so piteous an emotion that the old

”Thou here, Gerande?” he cried; ”and thou, Aubert? Ah,to be married in our old church!”

”Father,” said Gerande, seizing him by the arm, ”come home to Geneva,--cohter's embrace and hurried towards the door, on the threshold of which the snoas falling in large flakes

”Do not abandon your children!” cried Aubert

”Why return,” replied the old man sadly, ”to those places which my life has already quitted, and where a part of myself is for ever buried?”

”Your soul is not dead,” said the herood! I perceive it beating regularly--”

”Your soul is immaterial,--your soul is ilory! But it is shut up in the chateau of Andernatt, and I wish to see it again!”

The hermit crossed himself; Scholastique became almost inanimate

Aubert held Gerande in his arms

”The chateau of Andernatt is inhabited by one who is lost,” said the here”

”My father, go not thither!”

”I want my soul! My soul is mine--”

”Hold him! Hold my father!” cried Gerande

But the old ht, crying, ”Mine, mine, my soul!”

Gerande, Aubert, and Scholastique hastened after him They went by difficult paths, across which Master Zacharius sped like a teed around theled its white flakes with the froth of the swollen torrents

As they passed the chapel erected in ion, they hurriedly crossed themselves Master Zacharius was not to be seen

At last the village of Evionnaz appeared in the ion The hardest heart would have beenthese horrible solitudes The old e of the Dents-du-Midi, which pierce the sky with their sharp peaks