Chapter 9 Summary

A Bright Person approaches the narrator and asks, in a Scottish accent, where he is going. The Bright Person looks ageless but also like an old shepherd. The narrator says he doesn't know where he is going, so the Bright Person invites him to sit down and talk. The Bright Person introduces himself as George MacDonald, and the narrator instantly recognizes him as a trusted author he can count on. In life, the narrator had come across George MacDonald's writings in a train station, and MacDonald had been to him what Beatrice had been to Dante.

The narrator asks MacDonald if any of the ghosts actually stay, if any of them really can stay and if they have any choices. MacDonald explains that the damned have excursions they can take if they want to, but most of them don't even bother. They'd rather...