Leaning upon the arm of the gallant Pompey, and attended at a respectable distance by Diana, I proceeded down one of the populous and very pleasant streets of the now deserted Edina.  On a sudden, there presented itself to view a church —­ a Gothic cathedral —­ vast, venerable, and with a tall steeple, which towered into the sky.  What madness now possessed me?  Why did I rush upon my fate?  I was seized with an uncontrollable desire to ascend the giddy pinnacle, and then survey the immense extent of the city.  The door of the cathedral stood invitingly open.  My destiny prevailed.  I entered the ominous archway.  Where then was my guardian angel? —­ if indeed such angels there be.  If!  Distressing monosyllable! what world of mystery, and meaning, and doubt, and uncertainty is there involved in thy two letters!  I entered the ominous archway!  I entered; and, without injury to my orange-colored auriculas, I passed beneath the portal, and emerged within the vestibule.  Thus it is said the immense river Alfred passed, unscathed, and unwetted, beneath the sea.

I thought the staircase would never have an end.  Round!  Yes, they went round and up, and round and up and round and up, until I could not help surmising, with the sagacious Pompey, upon whose supporting arm I leaned in all the confidence of early affection —­ I could not help surmising that the upper end of the continuous spiral ladder had been accidentally, or perhaps designedly, removed.  I paused for breath; and, in the meantime, an accident occurred of too momentous a nature in a moral, and also in a metaphysical point of view, to be passed over without notice.  It appeared to me —­ indeed I was quite confident of the fact —­ I could not be mistaken —­ no!  I had, for some moments, carefully and anxiously observed the motions of my Diana —­ I say that I could not be mistaken —­ Diana smelt a rat!  At once I called Pompey’s attention to the subject, and he —­ he agreed with me.  There was then no longer any reasonable room for doubt.  The rat had been smelled —­ and by Diana.  Heavens! shall I ever forget the intense excitement of the moment?  Alas! what is the boasted intellect of man?  The rat! —­ it was there —­ that is to say, it was somewhere.  Diana smelled the rat.  I —­ I could not!  Thus it is said the Prussian Isis has, for some persons, a sweet and very powerful perfume, while to others it is perfectly scentless.

The staircase had been surmounted, and there were now only three or four more upward steps intervening between us and the summit.  We still ascended, and now only one step remained.  One step!  One little, little step!  Upon one such little step in the great staircase of human life how vast a sum of human happiness or misery depends!  I thought of myself, then of Pompey, and then of the mysterious and inexplicable destiny which surrounded us.  I thought of Pompey! —­ alas, I thought of love!  I thought of my many false steps which have been taken, and may be taken again.