It was a beautiful and exalting sight, thought Lotta, but her soul did not stop to watch; it rose still higher. And soon it had reached a point in space from where it could see the fates of mankind in their relation. Lotta could follow the wanderings of men through the valley of life. And it passed in what seemed to her less than seconds. She saw them enter life, go their brief way, and pass again, out into the unknown. She saw her friend Sigrun on her journey, and the way marked out for her, and the roads that crossed it. She saw, too, the road which the woman lying dead beside her now had had to traverse. A dark and poor and difficult way, and already it was growing smoother, not smoothed, however, by a covering of darkness, but vanishing in a gleam of light. At the end of the road stood the dead woman herself, still looking back over her course, that was now transformed into a ribbon of light, and Lotta saw that the woman's spirit rejoiced. The dead woman pointed to Sigrun's road, and to one of those that crossed it. "Look," she said, "the thing I longed for most of all in life is now fulfilled by my death!" And with these words, she vanished in a great splendour, so great that Lotta's soul could not follow there, but must wait without. And at once it returned to her body, and Lotta Hedman felt now relieved from all her fear a while, believing that what had happened was something that rightly should and must have happened so. She retained this calm of mind until the door opened and someone asked her if she knew it was half-past seven already. At this Lotta tried to rise, but now her confidence was gone. She thought of all the troubles that awaited her, and had not the strength to get on her feet, but remained sitting. The door closed again, no one entered, and for a few minutes she was left in peace. "It will all be found out very soon now," thought Lotta. "It must be." And the shame that would come upon Sigrun and herself weighed her down. A little later, the housemaid entered, with early breakfast for her mistress. She saw the lamp still alight, the wick smoking and nearly spent, the room full of smoke and almost in darkness. She called out, but no one answered. Then she realized that something must be wrong. She set down the tray, struck a match, and discovered Lotta sitting in a heap beside the bed; she saw, too, that the figure lying on it had a sheet spread over, as over a corpse. She came closer, lifted the sheet a little, and saw a pair of swollen hands. At this Lotta came to life. "For Heaven's sake, be careful. It is smallpox." The girl dropped the sheet and started back. And she it was who spread the news, telling the Pastor and the rest of the household. Lotta herself, protected as she was by the dread of infection, was scarcely questioned at all. A messenger was sent to fetch the verger, a man of strength and authority, and he arranged everything as well as could be done.