What should I do with him? He was the destroyer of my life's happiness, he had killed my love, he had filled me with despair; but he was my brother. Should I destroy the venomous life that wrought only evil? or——
"Hurl him over!" said the devil within me, "he is your blight, your curse! Show him no mercy, let him be dashed to pieces, and thus you will avenge your misery, and avenge Ruth's death!"
"'Hurl him over!' said the devil within me."
"No, no, he's your brother, forgive him!" said another voice.
All this passed through my mind in the moment, that I felt him struggle again, then, with an awful shriek, he fell from me.
I stood alone on that dizzy height—alone! I was the conqueror. I was avenged. Ruth's murderer was dead.
I looked around me, and I remembered where I stood.
Long years before I had gone to the vicarage, and on this spot I had seen a shadowy, shapeless figure in white!