“Beulah, in a little while I shall be at rest.  You will rejoice to see me free from pain, won’t you?  I have suffered for so many months and years.  But death is about to release me forever.  Beulah, is it forever?—­is it forever?  Am I going down into an eternal sleep, on a marble couch, where grass and flowers will wave over me, and the sun shine down on me?  Yes, it must be so.  Who has ever waked from this last dreamless slumber?  Abel was the first to fall asleep, and since then, who has wakened?  No one.  Earth is full of pale sleepers; and I am soon to join the silent band.”

There was a flickering light in her eyes, like the flame of a candle low in its socket, and her panting breath was painful to listen to.

“Cornelia, they say Jesus of Nazareth slept, and woke again; if so, you will—­”

“Ha, but you don’t believe that, Beulah.  They say, they say!  Yes. but I never believed them before, and I don’t want to believe them now.  I will not believe it.  It is too late to tell me that now.  Beulah, I shall know very soon; the veil of mystery is being lifted.  Oh, Beulah, I am glad I am going; glad I shall soon have no more sorrow and pain; but it is all dark, dark!  You know what I mean.  Don’t live as I have, believing nothing.  No matter what your creed may be, hold fast, have firm faith in it.  It is because I believe in nothing that I am so clouded now.  Oh, it is such a dark, dark, lonely way!  If I had a friend to go with me I should not shrink back; but oh, Beulah, I am so solitary!  It seems to me I am going out into a great starless midnight.”  She shivered, and her cold fingers clutched Beulah’s convulsively.

“Calm yourself, Cornelia.  If Christianity is true, God will see that you were honest in your skepticism, and judge you leniently.  If not, then death is annihilation, and you have nothing to dread; you will sink into quiet oblivion of all your griefs.”

“Annihilation! then I shall see you all no more!  Oh, why was I ever created, to love others, and then be torn away forever, and go back to senseless dust?  I never have been happy; I have always had aspirations after purer, higher enjoyments than earth could afford me, and must they be lost in dead clay?  Oh, Beulah, can you give me no comfort but this?  Is this the sum of all your study, as well as mine?  Ah, it is vain, useless; man can find out nothing.  We are all blind; groping our way through mysterious paths, and now I am going into the last—­the great mystery!”

She shook her head with a bitter smile, and closed her eyes, as if to shut out some hideous specter.  Dr. Hartwell gave her a spoonful of some powerful medicine, and stood watching her face, distorted by the difficulty of breathing.  A long silence ensued, broken only by the sobs of the parents.  Cornelia leaned back, with closed eyes, and now and then her lips moved, but nothing intelligible escaped them.  It was surprising how she seemed to rally sometimes,