ith pain
and anxiety.

Scarcely had I entered the room when, to my amazement, I saw the spirit
of Sigismund Zaluski.

I saw him bend down and kiss the sleeping girl, and for a moment her sad
face lighted up with a radiant smile.

I looked again; he was gone. Then Gertrude threw up both her arms and
with a bitter cry awoke from her dream.

"Sigismund!" she cried. "Oh, Sigismund! Now I know that you are dead
indeed."

For a long, long time she lay in a sort of trance of misery. It seemed
as if the life had been almost crushed out of her, and it was not until
the bells began to ring for the six o'clock service, merrily pealing out
their welcome of the new year morning, that full consciousness returned
to her again. But, as she clearly realised what had happened, she broke
into such a passion of tears as I had never before witnessed, while still
in the darkness the new year bells rang gaily, and she knew that they
heralded for her the beginning of a lonely life.

And so my work ended; my part in this world was played out. Nevertheless
I still live; and there will come a day when Sigismund and Gertrude shall
be comforted and the slanderers punished.

For poor Valerian was right, and there is an Avenger, in whom even my
progenitor believes, and before whom he trembles.

There will come a time when those self-satisfied ones, whose hands are
all the time steeped in blood, shall be confronted with me, and shall
realise to the full all that their idle words have brought about.

For that day I wait; and though afterwards I shall be finally destroyed
in the general destruction of all that is unmitigatedly evil, I promise
myself a certain satisfaction and pleasure (a feeling I doubtless inherit
from my progenitor), when I watch the shame, and horror, and remorse of
Mrs. O'Reilly and the rest of the people to whom I owe my existence and
rapid growth.

***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A SLANDER***

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