I looked up at the Figure, vainly striving to see its face.

“All these things I would do!” I answered—­“All that is in the power of my soul to endure mortally or immortally, I will bear for Love’s sake!”

Again the light flashed through its black garments.  When it next spoke, its voice rang out harshly in ominous warning.

“Thy lover is dead!” it proclaimed—­“He has passed from this sphere to another, and ye shall not meet again for many cycles of time!  Dost thou believe it?”

A cold agony gripped my breast, but I would not yield to it, and answered resolutely—­

“No!  I do not believe it!  He could not die without my knowing and feeling the parting of his soul from mine!”

There was a pause, in which only the thunder of that invisible sea far down below us was audible.  Then the voice went on,

“Thy lover is false!” it said—­“His love for thee was a passing mood—­already he regrets—­already he wearies in thought of thee and loves thee no more!  Dost thou believe it?”

I took no time for thought, but answered at once without hesitation--

“No!  For if he does not love me his Spirit lies!—­and no Spirit can lie!”

Another pause.  Then the voice put this question—­

“Dost thou truly believe in God, thy Creator, the Maker of heaven and earth?”

Lifting my eyes half in hope, half in appeal to the starry deep sky above me, I replied fervently—­

“I do believe in Him with all my soul!”

A silence followed which seemed long and weighted with suspense.  Then the voice spoke once more—­

“Dost thou believe in Love, the generator of Life and the moving Cause and Mind of all created things?”

And again I replied—­

“With all my soul!”

The Figure now bent slightly towards me, and the light within its darkness became more denned and brilliant.  Presently an arm and hand, white and radiant—­a shape as of living flame—­was slowly outstretched from the enfolding black draperies.  It pointed steadily to the abyss below me.

“If thy love is so great”—­said the voice—­“If thy faith is so strong—­if thy trust in God is sure and perfect—­descend thither!”

I heard—­but could not credit my own hearing.  I gazed at the shrouded and veiled speaker—­at the commanding arm that signed my mortal body to destruction.  For a moment I was lost in wild terror and wilder doubt.  Was this fearful suggestion a temptation or a test?  Should it be obeyed?  I strove to find the centre-poise of my own self—­to gather all my forces together,—­to make myself sure of my own will and responsible for my own deeds,—­and then—­then I paused.  All that was purely mortal in me shuddered on the brink of the Unknown.  One look upward to the soft gloom of the purple sky and its myriad stars—­one horrified glance downward at the dark depth where I heard the roaring of the sea!  I clasped my hands in a kind of prayerful desperation, and looked once more at the solemn Shadow beside me.