"Terrible as it may seem," Dolores said, "I really cannot think it so great a crime as many do. We are never consulted in regard to coming into this world. Life is thrust upon us, and if, as in the case of that poor girl, perhaps, it becomes an insupportable burden, I cannot help thinking God will forgive the suffering soul that lays the burden down. I have always felt the greatest sympathy for suicides. It is a cowardly act, I own, yet it is a cowardice I can comprehend and condone. And I think God will surely be as sympathetic as a mortal." "You know Dante's description of the Seventh Circle," suggested Percy, "and the horrors which await the rash soul of a suicide: "When departs the fierce soul from the body, by itself Thence torn asunder, to the seventh Gulf By Minos doomed, into the wood it falls, No place assigned, but where so ever Chance hurled it." "But that was merely the poetic utterance of a visionary mind," Dolores answered. "No one in these days believes in a God who could be guilty of such atrocious punishments for sin or error, as Dante describes; and then I contend that in many instances suicide is not a crime, it is merely a cowardly act." "But laying aside the crime of the act, think what an uncomfortable position the poor soul may find itself in!" suggested Percy. "To go where we are not wanted or invited, in this world, is a very embarrassing situation, you know. And to suddenly thrust yourself, without an invitation, upon the exclusive society of angels--I must say I would not have the courage to do it." "Well, of all things," said Madam Volkenburg, "if any of you ever _do_ commit suicide, never shoot yourselves, or resort to any disgusting or painful process. I can tell you of a very swift and painless method." "What is it?" they all asked, in chorus, fascinated, as most of us always are, by a discussion of the horrible. All but Dolores. She already knew. "Oh, it is a swift poison," Madam Volkenburg explained. "My husband, who was a great experimenter in the chemical world, as you perhaps know, left a package of it among his possessions. It is a white, brilliant, crystallized substance, and the smallest particle of it, the moment it mixes with the saliva of the mouth, and is swallowed, produces instant death, and there is nothing to indicate poison afterward. It cannot be detected, and it leaves the body quietly composed as if sudden sleep had overtaken it." "Why is it not better known?" some one asked. "Perhaps it is well known; perhaps many of the sudden deaths by 'heart disease,' of which we read so often, occur in this way." "And it will produce, as Madame Volkenburg says, swift and painless death, at least upon an animal," added Dolores. "When my little dog was run over by a carriage wheel, and lay crying in terrible pain, and I knew he must die, I tested the efficacy of this poison upon him. It ended his agonies instantly."