116 NATURE IN DOWNLAND 



dom, and from all the kingdoms of the earth. They 

 resolved that the husband should attend the meeting, 

 and m due time, having got permission from his 

 master, he journeyed up to London, and after an 

 absence of two or three days he returned with heart 

 and mind full of the wonderful things he had wit- 

 nessed. She had never been to London, and had 

 never seen a big crowd ; but little by little, taking up 

 the disjointed bits of information that fell from him at 

 odd times, and piecing them together, she had suc- 

 ceeded in forming a fairly accurate though somewhat 

 vague mental picture of the scene. It was a vast 

 palace of glass, filled with an excited multitude that 

 no man could number. People were there from all 

 countries, all regions of the earth; and black and 

 yellow and red skins were seen among the white ; and 

 some of these people were in strange garments of 

 bright colours, such as the heathen wear. And there 

 was a great noise of prayer and praise and of countless 

 musical instruments, and cries of joy and of shouting 

 Hosannah to the Lord. Most wonderful was it to 

 see how one feeling, one spirit, animated all alike, 

 that in all those thousands upon thousands there 

 was no eye that was not wet with tears and no 

 face that did not shine with a divine passion of love 

 and joy. 



When she had finished the story, he, the silent 

 man, added, " I can't say what I felt, but when I 

 saw it all I could only say, ' If Heaven is like this, 



