e
met me this afternoon according to your agreement. I pledge you my honor
that the parchment shall be consigned to its resting-place with every
necessary formality."

My companion gazed long upon vacancy before returning any answer. He
strove to dispel the cloud-pageantry which had sailed above him in
shapeless beauty. He walked up and down the chamber, paused, threw open
the window, and looked upon the street below. I felt that every petty
detail of man's daily craft struck outlines of painful vividness upon
the morbid sensibility of his condition. Finally he spoke to this
effect: --

"A grief has been lessened in giving it words. My deepest and most
solitary moments have been revealed to human sympathy, and the relief is
great. It may be that I have been created to some wholesome end,--that
some truth may shine before the world through what seems the failure of
my life. I will return at once to the sphere of the senses: it is, as
you say, all that is left me. Let who will inquire into the significance
and purpose of the Universe; it is for me to work in the bondage of the
flesh, to be the humble tool of the age in which my lot is cast."

Yet it was not easy to induce the clergyman to commit to my care the
conclusion of the enterprise which had brought him to town. His peculiar
nervous temperament foretold a thousand accidents that might befall the
precious legacy of his friend. It was only by addressing his reason in
repeated arguments, and by solemnly asseverating my entire fidelity,
that I induced him to yield.

It was a gracious gift to be once more alone.

I seemed awakened from a dream of pining exultation, of dark foreboding.
Without acknowledging it to myself, I had been strangely wrought upon by
what I had read and heard. As Clifton emerged from the magical influence
of Vannelle, was it not concentrated upon me? The impulse to return to
the perusal of the manuscript was almost irresistible. Yet it was
evident, that, failing to receive as my very life what was there
written, I should become hopelessly entangled in discrepancies and
contradictions. A glance at the imminent peril sent me shuddering to my
only safety.

It has been mentioned that I had interested myself in some inquiries
tending to modify the received understanding of a certain natural law.
During my morning in the College Library I had collected the records of
many facts, which, laboriously compared, might confirm the hypothesis I
had con