.

I AM SENT.
Then I turned and said to Eve, "Mother, one couch next to Lona is empty: I know I am unworthy, but may I not sleep this night in your chamber with my dead?
Will you not pardon both my cowardice and my self-confidence, and take me in?
I give me up.
I am sick of myself, and would fain sleep the sleep!" "The couch next to Lona is the one already prepared for you," she answered; "but something waits to be done ere you sleep." "I am ready," I replied.
"How do you know you can do it ?" she asked with a smile.
"Because you require it," I answered.

"What is it ?" She turned to Adam: "Is he forgiven, husband ?" "From my heart." "Then tell him what he has to do." Adam turned to his daughter.
"Give me that hand, Mara, my child." She held it out to him in her lap.

He took it tenderly.
"Let us go to the cottage," he said to me; "there I will instruct you." As we went, again arose a sudden stormful blast, mingled with a great flapping on the roof, but it died away as before in a deep moan.
When the door of the death-chamber was closed behind us, Adam seated himself, and I stood before him.
"You will remember," he said, "how, after leaving my daughter's house, you came to a dry rock, bearing the marks of an ancient cataract; you climbed that rock, and found a sandy desert: go to that rock now, and from its summit walk deep into the desert.

But go not many steps ere you lie down, and listen with your head on the sand.