or near to the altar; then
he paused, appeared to hesitate, then came down the chapel towards me.
As he drew near to me--I scarcely knew why--but I hid my face deep in my
hands, with a dreadful sense of overwhelming guilt which dyed my cheeks
with blood. I shrank--I cowered. I trembled and was afraid. Then I felt
a gentle touch on my shoulder. I looked up into the face of the monk.

"Bernard, it was the face of my invisible companion--it was my own
face.

"The monk looked down into my eyes searchingly. He recoiled.

"'_Mon demon!_' he whispered in French. '_Mon demon!_'

"For a moment he stood still, like one appalled. Then he turned and
abruptly quitted the chapel.

"I started up to follow him, but something held me back. I let him go,
and I listened to hear if his tread sounded upon the chapel floor as a
human footstep, if his robe rustled as he went.

"Yes. Then he was, indeed, a living man, and it was a human voice which
had reached my ears, not a voice of imagination. He was a living man,
this double of my body, this antagonist of my soul, this being who
called me demon, who fled from me, who, doubtless, hated me. He was a
living man.

"I could not sleep that night. This encounter troubled me. I felt that
it had a meaning for me which I must discover, that it was not chance
which had led me to take this cold road to the sunshine. Something had
bound me with an invisible thread, and led me up here into the clouds,
where already I--or the likeness of me--dwelt, perhaps had been dwelling
for many years. I had looked upon my living wraith, and my living wraith
had called me demon.

"How could I sleep?

"Very early I got up. The dawn was bitterly cold, but the snow had
ceased, though a coating of ice covered the little lake. How delicate
was the dawn here! The gathering, growing light fell upon the rocks,
upon the snow, upon the ice of the lake, upon the slate walls of the
monastery. And upon each it lay with a pretty purity, a thin refinement,
an austerity such as I had never seen before. So, even Nature, it
seemed, was purged by the continual prayers of these holy men. She, too,
like men, has her lusts, and her hot passions, and her wrath of warfare.
She, too, like men, can be edified and tended into grace. Nature among
these heights was a virgin, not a wanton, a fit companion for those who
are dedicated to virginity.

"I dressed by the window, and went out to see the entrance of the
morning. There was no