The sense of fanciful murmuring left me, and in its place was born a sound as of something stealthily crossing the floor away from me. At the same instant the door of the room, which I had left open, swung softly to on its hinges, and I was shut in. Then, with a fear that I cannot describe, I knew that the question was to be put to me once more, and that I was destined to die under the torture of it. I had no hope of escape--no thought that the passion that prompted me to self-effacement might, diverted, carry me to the door in one hard dash for light and liberty. The single direction in which my mind moved unfettered was that bearing upon the readiest means to my purpose--to die, and thereto what offered itself more insistently than the black pit I had but now risen from? A run--a leap--a shattering dive--and the murmuring water and oblivion would have me forevermore. I turned and faced the dark gulf. I pressed my hands to my bursting temples to still the throb of the arteries that was blinding me. Then, spasmodically, my feet moved forward a pace or two; I gave a long, quivering sigh; my arms dropped inert, and a blessed warmth of security gushed over all my being. Pale; luminous; most dear and pitiful, an angel stood before the opening and barred my way. A shadow only--but an angel; a spirit come from the sorrowful past to save me, as I, alas! had never saved her. I fell on my knees and held out my arms to her, with the drowning tears falling over my cheeks. I could not speak, but only moan like a child for cheer and comfort. And she smiled on me--the angel smiled on me, as Dolly, sweet and loving, had smiled of old. Oh, God! Oh, God! Thus to permit her to come from over the desolate waste for solace of my torment! Was all this only figurative of the warring clash of passion and conscience? The presence was to me actual and divine. It led me, or seemed to lead, from the mouthing death--across the room--out by the open door, that none had ever shut; and then it was no longer and I stood alone in the gusty passage. I stood alone and cured forever of the terror of that mad and gloomy place, whose influence had held me so long enthralled. Henceforth I was quit of its deadly malice. I knew it as certainly as that I was forgiven for my share in a most bitter tragedy that had littered the shore of many lives with wreckage. For me, at least, now, the question was answered--answered by the dear ghost of one whose little failings had been washed pure in the bountiful spring of life.