lax; possibly you do right to be so--and at any account, it
is the same with all men. But granting that, are you in any one
particular, however trifling, more difficult to please with your own
conduct, or do you go in all things with a looser rein?'

'In any one?' repeated Markheim, with an anguish of consideration. 'No,'
he added, with despair, 'in none! I have gone down in all.'

'Then,' said the visitor, 'content yourself with what you are, for you
will never change; and the words of your part on this stage are
irrevocably written down.'

Markheim stood for a long while silent, and indeed it was the visitor who
first broke the silence. 'That being so,' he said, 'shall I show you the
money?'

'And grace?' cried Markheim.

'Have you not tried it?' returned the other. 'Two or three years ago,
did I not see you on the platform of revival meetings, and was not your
voice the loudest in the hymn?'

'It is true,' said Markheim; 'and I see clearly what remains for me by
way of duty. I thank you for these lessons from my soul; my eyes are
opened, and I behold myself at last for what I am.'

At this moment, the sharp note of the door-bell rang through the house;
and the visitant, as though this were some concerted signal for which he
had been waiting, changed at once in his demeanour.

'The maid!' he cried. 'She has returned, as I forewarned you, and there
is now before you one more difficult passage. Her master, you must say,
is ill; you must let her in, with an assured but rather serious
countenance--no smiles, no overacting, and I promise you success! Once
the girl within, and the door closed, the same dexterity that has already
rid you of the dealer will relieve you of this last danger in your path.
Thenceforward you have the whole evening--the whole night, if needful--to
ransack the treasures of the house and to make good your safety. This is
help that comes to you with the mask of danger. Up!' he cried; 'up,
friend; your life hangs trembling in the scales: up, and act!'

Markheim steadily regarded his counsellor. 'If I be condemned to evil
acts,' he said, 'there is still one door of freedom open--I can cease
from action. If my life be an ill thing, I can lay it down. Though I
be, as you say truly, at the beck of every small temptation, I can yet,
by one decisive gesture, place myself beyond the reach of all. My love
of good is damned to barrenness; it may, and let it be! But I have still
my hatr