t in--what we have been accustomed
to call heaven?"

"That is a word," he said, "which expresses rather a condition than a
place."

"But there must be a place--in which that condition can exist." She had
always been fond of discussions of this kind, and felt encouraged to find
that they were still practicable. "It cannot be the--Inferno; that is
clear, at least," she added, with the sprightliness which was one of her
characteristics; "perhaps--Purgatory? since you infer I have something to
endure."

"Words are interchangeable," he said: "that means one thing to one of us
which to another has a totally different signification." There was
something so like his old self in this, that she laughed with an
irresistible sense of amusement.

"You were always fond of the oracular," she said. She was conscious that
on former occasions, if he made such a speech to her, though she would
have felt the same amusement, she would not have expressed it so frankly.
But he did not take it at all amiss. And her thoughts went on in other
directions. She felt herself saying over to herself the words of the old
north-country dirge, which came to her recollection she knew not how--

If hosen and shoon thou gavest nane,
The whins shall prick thee intil the bane.

When she saw that her companion heard her, she asked, "Is that true?"

He shook his head a little. "It is too matter of fact," he said, "as I
need hardly tell you. Hosen and shoon are good, but they do not always
sufficiently indicate the state of the heart."

Lady Mary had a consciousness, which was pleasant to her, that so far as
the hosen and shoon went, she had abundant means of preparing herself for
the pricks of any road, however rough; but she had no time to indulge
this pleasing reflection, for she was shortly introduced into a great
building, full of innumerable rooms, in one of which her companion left
her.

IV.

The door opened, and she felt herself free to come out. How long she had
been there, or what passed there, is not for any one to say. She came out
tingling and smarting--if such words can be used--with an intolerable
recollection of the last act of her life. So intolerable was it that all
that had gone before, and all the risings up of old errors and visions
long dead, were forgotten in the sharp and keen prick of this, which was
not over and done like the rest. No one had accused her, or brought
before her judge the things that were against her.