I was becoming mentally and physically more and more prostrate; I was
letting myself down each day to less and less honest actions, so that I
lied on each day without blushing, cheated poor people out of their rent,
struggled with the meanest thoughts of making away with other men's
blankets--all without remorse or prick of conscience.

Foul places began to gather in my inner being, black spores which spread
more and more. And up in Heaven God Almighty sat and kept a watchful eye
on me, and took heed that _my_ destruction proceeded in accordance
with all the rules of art, uniformly and gradually, without a break in the
measure.

But in the abysses of hell the angriest devils bristled with range because
it lasted such a long time until I committed a mortal sin, an unpardonable
offence for which God in His justice must cast me--down....

I quickened my pace, hurried faster and faster, turned suddenly to the
left and found myself, excited and angry, in a light ornate doorway. I did
not pause, not for one second, but the whole peculiar ornamentation of the
entrance struck on my perception in a flash; every detail of the
decoration and the tiling of the floor stood clear on my mental vision as
I sprang up the stairs. I rang violently on the second floor. Why should I
stop exactly on the second floor? And why just seize hold of this bell
which was some little way from the stairs?

A young lady in a grey gown with black trimming came out and opened the
door. She looked for a moment in astonishment at me, then shook her head
and said: