other cell,
before which our conductor stopped, and looked at me. "I should like,"
he said, "if you are not too tired, just to take you in here; there is
a patient, who is very near recovery indeed, in here, and it would do
him good to have a little talk with a stranger."

I bowed, and we went in. A man was sitting in a chair with his head in
his hands. An attendant was sitting near the window reading a book. The
patient, at our entry, removed his hands from his face and looked up,
half impatiently, with an air of great suffering, and then slowly rose.

"How are you feeling, dear sir?" said our conductor quietly.

"Oh," said the man, looking at us, "I am better, much better. The light
is breaking in, but it is a sore business, when I was so strong in my
pride."

"Ah," said our guide, "it is indeed a slow process; but happiness and
health must be purchased; and every day I see clearly that you are
drawing nearer to the end of your troubles--you will soon be leaving us!
But now I want you kindly to bestir yourself, and talk a little to this
friend of ours, who has not been long with us, and finds the place
somewhat, bewildering. You will be able to tell him something of what is
passing in your mind; it will do you good to put it into words, and it
will be a help to him."

"Very well," said the man gravely, "I will do my best." And the others
withdrew, leaving me with the man. When they had gone, the man asked me
to be seated, and leaning his head upon his hand he said, "I do not know
how much you know and how little, so I will tell you that I left the
world very confident in a particular form of faith, and very much
disposed to despise and even to dislike those who did not agree with me.
I had lived, I may say, uprightly and purely, and I will confess that I
even welcomed all signs of laxity and sinfulness in my opponents,
because it proved what I believed, that wrong conduct sprang naturally
from wrong belief. I came here in great content, and thought that this
place was the reward of faithful living. But I had a great shock. I was
very tenderly attached to one whom I left on earth, and the severest
grief of my life was that she did not think as I did, but used to plead
with me for a wider outlook and a larger faith in the designs of God.
She used to say to me that she felt that God had different ways of
saving different people, and that people were saved by love and not by
doctrine. And this I combated with all my