to have known what the happiness meant, and that it was not for
me,--never for me! to have walked to the verge of an abyss,--to have
plunged in, thinking the path led to heaven. Heaven for me! ah,--I
forgot,--I forgot. I let an unconscious bliss seize me, possess me,
exclude memory and thought,--lived in it as though it would endure
forever."

She got up and moved restlessly to and fro across the room, but
presently came back to the seat she had abandoned, and to the inspection
which, while it tortured her, she yet evidently compelled herself to
pursue.

"Come," she then said, "let us ask ourself some questions, constitute
ourself confessor and penitent, and see what the result will prove."

"Did you think fate would be more merciful to you than to others?"

"No, I thought nothing about fate."

"Did you suppose that he loved you sufficiently to destroy 'an
invincible barrier?'"

"I did not think of his love. I remembered no barrier. I only knew I was
in heaven, and cared for naught beyond."

"Do you see the barrier now?"

"I do--I do."

"Did _he_ help you to behold it; to discover, or to remember it? did he,