ask
you one question,--only one,--and give me an honest answer to it."

"You are a very singular person," said she, "and seem to have strangely
forgotten the very simple circumstance that we meet for the first time
now."

"I know it, I feel it; and that it may also be for the last and only
time is my reason for this appeal to you. There are persons who, seeing
you here, would treat you with a mock deference, address you with a
counterfeit respect, and go their ways; who would say to their selfish
hearts, 'It is no concern of mine; why should it trouble me?' But I am
not one of these. I carry a conscience in my breast; a conscience that
holds its daily court, and will even to-morrow ask me, 'Have you been
truthful, have you been faithful? When the occasion served to warn
a fellow-creature of the shoal before him, did you cry out, "Take
soundings! you are in shallow water," or did you with slippery phrases
gloss over the peril, because it involved no danger to yourself?'"

"Would that same conscience be kind enough to suggest that your present
conduct is an impertinence, sir?"

"So it might, madam; just as the pilot is impertinent when he cries out,
'Hard, port! breakers ahead!'"

"I am therefore to infer, sir," said she, with a calm dignity, "that
my approach to a secret danger--of which I can have no knowledge--is
a sufficient excuse for the employment of language on your part, that,
under a less urgent plea, had been offensive?"

"You are," said I, boldly.

"Speak out, then, sir, and declare what it is."

"Nay, madam, if the warning find no echo within, my words are useless. I
have said I would ask you a question."

"Well, sir, do so."

"Will you answer it frankly? Will you give it all the weight and
influence it should bear, and reply to it with that truthful spirit that
conceals nothing?"

"What is your question, sir? You had better be speedy with it, for I
don't much trust to my continued patience."

I arose at this, and, passing behind the back of my chair, leaned my
arms on the upper rail, so as to confront her directly; and then, in the
voice of an accusing angel, I said, "Old woman, do you know where you
are going?"

"I protest, sir," said she, rising, with an indignation I shall not
forget--"I protest, sir, you make me actually doubt if I know where I
am!"

"Then let me tell you, madam," said I, with the voice of one determined
to strike terror into her heart--"let me tell you; and may my wor