on slowly—­I must have looked a strangely solitary creature, draped in white like a victim for sacrifice and walking all alone towards those burning, darting rays of light which enveloped the whole of the chapel in a flood of almost blinding splendour.  The music still thundered on round me—­and I thought I heard voices far off singing—­I could distinguish words that came falling through the music, like blossoms falling through rain: 

     Into the Light,
     Into the heart of the fire! 
   To the innermost core of the deathless flame
     I ascend—­I aspire! 
   Under me rolls the whirling Earth,
   With the noise of a myriad wheels that run
     Ever round and about the Sun,—­
   Over me circles the splendid heaven,
   Strewn with the stars of morn and even,
     And I, the queen
     Of my soul serene,
   Float with my rainbow wings unfurled,
   Alone with Love, ’twixt God and the world!

My heart beat rapidly; every nerve in me trembled—­yet I went on resolvedly, not allowing myself to even think of danger.

And then I saw Aselzion—­Aselzion, transfigured into an almost supernatural beauty of aspect by the radiance which bathed him in its lustrous glory!—­Aselzion, with outstretched hands beckoning me towards him—­and as I approached I instinctively sank on my knees.  The music died away suddenly, and there was a profound silence.  I felt, though I could not see, that the eyes of all present were fixed upon me.  And Aselzion spoke: 

“Rise!” he said—­and his voice was clear and imperative—­“Not here must thou kneel—­not here must thou rest!  Rise and go onward!—­thou hast gone far, but the way is still beyond!  The gate of the Last Probation stands open—­enter!—­and may God be thy Guide!”

I rose as he commanded me,—­and a dazzling flash of light struck my eyes as though the heavens had opened.  The blazing Cross and Star became suddenly severed in two separate portions, dividing asunder and disclosing what seemed to be a Hall of living fire!  Flames of every colour burned vividly, leaping and falling without pause or cessation,—­it was a kind of open furnace in which surely everything must be consumed!  I looked at Aselzion in silent enquiry—­not in fear—­and in equally silent answer he pointed to the glowing vault.  I understood—­and without another moment’s hesitation I advanced towards it.  As in a dream I heard a kind of murmuring behind me—­and suppressed exclamations from the students or disciples of Aselzion who were all assembled in the chapel—­but I paid no heed to this—­my whole soul was set on fulfilling the last task demanded of me.  Step by step I went on—­I passed Aselzion with a smile—­

“Good-bye!” I murmured—­“We shall meet again!”

And then I advanced towards the leaping flames.  I felt their hot breath on my cheeks—­the scorching wind of them lifted my hair through the folds of my veil—­an idea came upon me that for some cause or other I was now to experience that ’Change which men call Death’—­and that through this means I should meet my Beloved on the other side of life—­and with his name on my lips, and a passionate appeal to him in my heart, I stepped into the glowing fire.