I stopped abruptly, brought perforce to a standstill. There was nothing
but the black water heaving in front of me with a slow and dizzying
motion and faintly illumined by a dim, pearly light like that of a
waning moon. I looked behind me, fearing my persecutors were following,
and saw that a thick mist filled the air and space to the obliteration
of everything that might otherwise have been visible. I had thought it
was day, and that the sun was shining, but now it appeared to be night.
Utterly fatigued in body and mind, I sank down wearily on the ground,
close to the edge of the strange dark flood which I could scarcely see.
The quiet and deep obscurity had a lulling effect on my senses--and I
thought languidly how good it would be if I might be allowed to rest
where I was for an indefinite time.
"I can understand"--I said to myself--"why many people long for death
and pray for it as a great blessing! They have lost love--and without
love, life is valueless. To live on and on through cycles of time in
worlds that are empty of all sweetness,--companionless and deprived of
hope and comfort--this would be hell!--not heaven!"
"Hell--not heaven!" said a voice near me.
I started and looked up--a shadowy figure stood beside me--that of a
woman in dark trailing garments, whose face shone with a pale beauty in
the dim light surrounding us both.
"So you have found your way here at last!" she said, gently--"Here,
where all things end, and nothing begins!"