a human creature near, a lovely little girl looking at me.

At that moment, when I was my own lonely self again, the sight of
the child soothed and attracted me. I advanced, intending to
speak to her. To my horror I suddenly ceased to see her. She
disappeared as if I had been stricken blind.

And yet I could see the landscape round me; I could see the
heaven above me. A time passed--only a few minutes, as I
thought--and the child became visible to me again; walking
hand-in-hand with her father. I approached them; I was close
enough to see that they were looking at me with pity and
surprise. My impulse was to ask if they saw anything strange in
my face or my manner. Before I could speak, the horrible wonder
happened again. They vanished from my view.

Was the Invisible Presence still near? Was it passing between me
and my fellow-mortals; forbidding communication, in that place
and at that time?

It must have been so. When I turned away in my
ignorance, with a heavy heart, the dreadful blankness which had
twice shut out from me the beings of my own race, was not between
me and my dog. The poor little creature filled me with pity; I
called him to me. He moved at the sound of my voice, and followed
me languidly; not quite awakened yet from the trance of terror
that had possessed him.

Before I had retired by more than a few steps, I thought I was
conscious of the Presence again. I held out my longing arms to