Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/279

 is a familiar dimiuntive for Semna, formed, as such words regularly are in that tongue, not by means of a suffix, but by an internal change in the root.

"Well, what do you think of Maud,—or Madene, if you prefer that name?"

"We both think her very beautiful. But you would never imagine what a strange fancy occurred to Ziemna."

"May I know?"

"You will think it absurd. She was looking at Madene's portrait, comparing it with yours in the lizeo, when the strange impression came to her, that, though there is a greater resemblance in feature between you and your sister, yet the expression in that portrait, a duplicate of the set taken by Ialma, strongly reminds her of fleeting shades of expression she has seen pass over my face at times. It lasts but an instant, she says, but none the less it is there."

"There would be nothing strange in that, if true," said I lightly, "seeing that we come of the same stock. But I know whom you resemble in many ways, not vaguely and at odd moments, but distinctly and always. Not only do you resemble that person, Reva, but, strange as it may sound, I am firmly convinced that you are that person."

"But how can I possibly be two different persons at one and the same time?" objected Reva, regarding me with an air of mingled doubt and perplexity.

"No, not two different persons at one and the same time," was my reply, "but one and the same person at widely separated epochs. You believe in the doctrine of the varana?" The varana was the name by which they