HEAVEN?' As she thus spoke a sense of utter shame and loss and failure overwhelmed me, ... pierced to the very core of my being by an unexplained yet most bitter remorse, I cast myself down in deep abasement before her, ... I caught her glittering robe ... I strove to say 'Forgive!' but I was speechless as a convicted traitor in the presence of a wronged queen! All at once the air about us was rent by a great noise of thunder intermingled with triumphal music,--she drew her sheeny garment from my touch in haste, and stooping to me where I knelt, she kissed my forehead ... 'THY ROAD LIES THERE'--she murmured in quick, soft tones, pointing to the vista of varying light and shadow,--'MINE, YONDER!' and she looked toward the flower-garlanded avenue--'HASTEN! ... IT IS TIME THOU WERT FAR HENCE! ... RETURN TO THINE OWN STAR LEST ITS PORTALS BE CLOSED ON THEE FOREVER AND THOU BE PLUNGED INTO DEEPER DARKNESS! SEEK THOU THE FIELD OF ARDATH!--AS CHRIST LIVES, I WILL MEET THEE THERE! FAREWELL!' With these words she left me, passing away, arrayed in glory, treading on flowers, and ever ascending till she disappeared! ... while I, stricken with a great repentance, went slowly, as she bade me, down into the shadow, and a rippling breeze-like melody, as of harps and lutes most tenderly attuned, followed me as I descended. And now," said Alwyn, interrupting his narrative and speaking with emphatic decision, "surely there remains but one thing for me to do--that is, to find the 'Field of Ardath.'" Heliobas smiled gravely. "Nay, if you consider the whole episode a dream," he observed, "why trouble yourself? Dreams are seldom realized, ... and as to the name of Ardath, have you ever heard it before?" "Never!" replied Alwyn. "Still--if there is such a place on this planet I will most certainly journey thither! Maybe YOU know something of its whereabouts?" "Finish your story," said Heliobas, quietly evading the question. "I am curious to hear the end of your strange adventure."