She took off her spectacles, wiped them, looked at me, and went on with her work without speaking. “If I appear abrupt, madam,” said I, “in this opening, it is because the opportunity I now enjoy may never occur again, and may be of the briefest even now. We meet by what many would call an accident,--one of those incidents which the thoughtless call chance directed my steps to this place; let me hope that that which seemed a hazard may bear all the fruits of maturest combination, and that the weak words of one frail even as yourself may not be heard by you in vain. Let me, therefore, ask you one question,--only one,--and give me an honest answer to it.” “You are a very singular person,” said she, “and seem to have strangely forgotten the very simple circumstance that we meet for the first time now.” “I know it, I feel it; and that it may also be for the last and only time is my reason for this appeal to you. There are persons who, seeing you here, would treat you with a mock deference, address you with a counterfeit respect, and go their ways; who would say to their selfish hearts, 'It is no concern of mine; why should it trouble me?' But I am not one of these. I carry a conscience in my breast; a conscience that holds its daily court, and will even to-morrow ask me, 'Have you been truthful, have you been faithful? When the occasion served to warn a fellow-creature of the shoal before him, did you cry out, “Take soundings! you are in shallow water,” or did you with slippery phrases gloss over the peril, because it involved no danger to yourself?'” “Would that same conscience be kind enough to suggest that your present conduct is an impertinence, sir?” “So it might, madam; just as the pilot is impertinent when he cries out, 'Hard, port! breakers ahead!'” “I am therefore to infer, sir,” said she, with a calm dignity, “that my approach to a secret danger--of which I can have no knowledge--is a sufficient excuse for the employment of language on your part, that, under a less urgent plea, had been offensive?” “You are,” said I, boldly. “Speak out, then, sir, and declare what it is.” “Nay, madam, if the warning find no echo within, my words are useless. I have said I would ask you a question.” “Well, sir, do so.” “Will you answer it frankly? Will you give it all the weight and influence it should bear, and reply to it with that truthful spirit that conceals nothing?” “What is your question, sir? You had better be speedy with it, for I don't much trust to my continued patience.” I arose at this, and, passing behind the back of my chair, leaned my arms on the upper rail, so as to confront her directly; and then, in the voice of an accusing angel, I said, “Old woman, do you know where you are going?” “I protest, sir,” said she, rising, with an indignation I shall not forget--“I protest, sir, you make me actually doubt if I know where I am!”