A Journey into the Interior of the Earth by Jules Verne

Thus ended this memorable seance. That conversation threw me into a / fever. I came out of my uncle's study as if I had been stunned, and / as if there was not air enough in all the streets of Hamburg to put / me right again. I therefore made for the banks of the Elbe, where the / steamer lands her passengers, which forms the communication between / the city and the Hamburg railway.

Was I convinced of the truth of what I had heard? Had I not bent / under the iron rule of the Professor Liedenbrock? Was I to believe / him in earnest in his intention to penetrate to the centre of this / massive globe? Had I been listening to the mad speculations of a / lunatic, or to the scientific conclusions of a lofty genius? Where / did truth stop? Where did error begin?

I was all adrift amongst a thousand contradictory hypotheses, but I / could not lay hold of one.

Yet I remembered that I had been convinced, although now my / enthusiasm was beginning to cool down; but I felt a desire to start / at once, and not to lose time and courage by calm reflection. I had / at that moment quite courage enough to strap my knapsack to my / shoulders and start.

But I must confess that in another hour this unnatural excitement / abated, my nerves became unstrung, and from the depths of the abysses / of this earth I ascended to its surface again.

"It is quite absurd! " I cried, "there is no sense about it. No / sensible young man should for a moment entertain such a proposal. The / whole thing is non-existent. I have had a bad night, I have been / dreaming of horrors."

But I had followed the banks of the Elbe and passed the town. After / passing the port too, I had reached the Altona road. I was led by a / presentiment, soon to be realised; for shortly I espied my little / Graeuben bravely returning with her light step to Hamburg.

"Graeuben! " I cried from afar off.

The young girl stopped, rather frightened perhaps to hear her name / called after her on the high road. Ten yards more, and I had joined / her.

"Axel! " she cried surprised. "What! have you come to meet me? Is this / why you are here, sir?"

But when she had looked upon me, Graeuben could not fail to see the / uneasiness and distress of my mind.

"What is the matter? " she said, holding out her hand.

"What is the matter, Graeuben? " I cried.

In a couple of minutes my pretty Virlandaise was fully informed of / the position of affairs. For a time she was silent. Did her heart / palpitate as mine did? I don't know about that, but I know that her / hand did not tremble in mine. We went on a hundred yards without / speaking.

At last she said, "Axel!"

"My dear Graeuben."

"That will be a splendid journey!"

I gave a bound at these words.

"Yes, Axel, a journey worthy of the nephew of a savant; it is a good / thing for a man to be distinguished by some great enterprise."

"What, Graeuben, won't you dissuade me from such an undertaking?"