Now my turn has come.  Besides, you have told me yourself, that when I was very little, my mother died, and that I was lying on the ground with the snow falling upon me, and that he, who was also very little then, and alone, like myself, picked me up, and that it was thus that I came to be alive; so you cannot wonder that now I should feel it absolutely necessary to go and search the grave to see if Gwynplaine be in it.  Because the only thing which exists in life is the heart; and after life, the soul.  You take notice of what I say, father, do you not?  What is moving?  It seems as if we are in something that is moving, yet I do not hear the sound of the wheels.”

After a pause the voice added,—­

“I cannot exactly make out the difference between yesterday and to-day.  I do not complain.  I do not know what has occurred, but something must have happened.”

These words, uttered with deep and inconsolable sweetness, and with a sigh which Gwynplaine heard, wound up thus,—­

“I must go, unless he should return.”

Ursus muttered gloomily:  “I do not believe in ghosts.”

He went on,—­

“This is a ship.  You ask why the house moves; it is because we are on board a vessel.  Be calm; you must not talk so much.  Daughter, if you have any love for me, do not agitate yourself, it will make you feverish.  I am so old, I could not bear it if you were to have an illness.  Spare me! do not be ill!”

Again the voice spoke,—­

“What is the use of searching the earth, when we can only find in heaven?”

Ursus replied, with a half attempt at authority,—­

“Be calm.  There are times when you have no sense at all.  I order you to rest.  After all, you cannot be expected to know what it is to rupture a blood-vessel.  I should be easy if you were easy.  My child, do something for me as well.  If he picked you up, I took you in.  You will make me ill.  That is wrong.  You must calm yourself, and go to sleep.  All will come right.  I give you my word of honour, all will come right.  Besides, it is very fine weather.  The night might have been made on purpose.  To-morrow we shall be at Rotterdam, which is a city in Holland, at the mouth of the Meuse.”

“Father,” said the voice, “look here; when two beings have always been together from infancy, their state should not be disturbed, or death must come, and it cannot be otherwise.  I love you all the same, but I feel that I am no longer altogether with you, although I am as yet not altogether with him.”

“Come! try to sleep,” repeated Ursus.

The voice answered,—­

“I shall have sleep enough soon.”

Ursus replied, in trembling tones,—­

“I tell you that we are going to Holland, to Rotterdam, which is a city.”

“Father,” continued the voice, “I am not ill; if you are anxious about that, you may rest easy.  I have no fever.  I am rather hot; it is nothing more.”