iness and of peace."

"Because she loved much, much shall be forgiven her," I whispered.
Ah! At the last, who but Him of Galilee shall speak for us?

Never, until I shall be what she was then, shall I be able to forget
that return journey. Mr. Jelnik walked ahead, holding her on one
arm, and carrying the flash-light with his free hand. I followed
with a candle that burned with a low and reddish glare and gave off
a heavy, waxy odor in the still air. Whenever the faintest draft
lifted the dull flame, we two living creatures seemed to recede into
darkness, while the light sought her out and stayed upon her. The
motion of his body shook her lightly, and she gave forth a dry and
stealthy rattling, an uneasy rustling. One hand hung down, with a
loose, loose bracelet jingling on the brittle brown wrist. And her
poor little feet with the rotting shoes upon them moved delicately,
as if they trod the impalpable air. Once her head struck, with a
hollow thud, as we turned a corner. It was almost more than flesh
and blood could bear,--like things you were afraid of when you were
a child in the dark--the candles melting audibly, and walls, walls,
pressing us in.

I think it took us years to reach the room where Achmet waited. At
sight of what the master bore, The Jinnee started up and called upon
God the Lord Paramount, Help of the Faithful. Then, like the fine
old fighter he was, he squared his shoulders, folded his arms, and
waited orders. Boris, with a deep-throated, smothered growl of fear
and protest, bared his teeth and sidled against him, bristling and
trembling.

We consulted briefly. Mr. Jelnik was for leaving her there in the
cellar room, until a fitter opportunity offered to give her
sepulture. But to this I vehemently objected. I could not have
stayed another hour in that house while I knew she was in it. I
wanted Jessamine Hynds consigned to the grave from which she had
been too long kept. I wanted her to sleep in the brown bosom of the
earth, with the impartial grass to cover her, and roses to blow over
her by and by, when summer should have come back to South Carolina.

Achmet led the way, and presently we were in the spring-house. When
I am feverish I dream of that last climb up the spidery stair, with
Jessamine's jaws widened into a soundless laugh, and The Jinnee's
light playing at hide-and-seek upon her.

I knelt down and plunged my face into the cold spring-water, and
drank and drank. How good it was! And