The Ghost showed him one scene more. Scrooge saw himself as a young man, and beside him sat a girl in a black dress, with tears in her eyes. "You have changed," she said. "Another idol has taken my place. A golden one. You fear the world too much, and all your other hopes have died into this one, the hope of gain." "I have grown wiser, not worse," he answered. "I release you," she said gently. "May you be happy in the life you have chosen." She left him, and they never met again. "Spirit!" cried Scrooge. "Show me no more! Take me home. Why do you enjoy torturing me?" "These are the shadows of things that have been," said the Ghost. "That they are what they are, do not blame me." Scrooge seized the cap of light and pressed it down upon the spirit's head, and he found himself in his own bedroom, and fell asleep at once.