Can I bear this?
No--no--I cannot--I cannot!" Magnified by the tempter, the consequence looked appalling.

He felt that he had not strength to meet it--that all of manhood would be crushed out of him.
"What then ?" He spoke the words almost aloud, and held his breath, as if for answer.
"A moment, and all will be over!" It was the voice of the tempter.
Markland buried his face in his hands, and sat for a long time as motionless as if sleep had obscured his senses; and all that time a fearful debate was going on in his mind.

At last he rose up, changed in feeling as well as in aspect.

His resolution was taken, and a deep, almost leaden, calmness pervaded his spirit.

He had resolved on self-destruction! With a strange coolness, the self-doomed man now proceeded to select the agent of death.