world. It can only be paid here. Here, a free
pardon is offered to us, and if we do not accept
it, then-
It is the fashion, even among
believers, nowadays to avoid this awful
subject. Preachers of the Gospel do not speak
of it in the pulpit as they once did. It is con-
sidered too shocking for our modern notions.
I have no patience with such weakness, such
folly-worse than folly. It seems to me even
more wrong to try and hide this terrible
danger from ourselves and from others than to
deny it altogether, as some poor deluded souls
do. Mr. Lyndsay, have you ever realised what
the place of torment will be like?'

'Yes; once, Mrs. Mostyn.'
'You were in pain?'

'I suppose it was pain,' I said.

For always, when anything revives this recollection, seared into my memory, the question rises was it merely pain, physical pain, of which we all speak so easily and lightly? It lasted only ten minutes; ten minutes by the clock, that is. For me time

was annihilated. There was no past or future, but only an intolerable present, in which mind and soul were blotted out, and all of sentient existence that remained was the animal con

sciousness of agony. I cannot share men's stoical contempt for a Gehenna which is nothing worse.

'Mr. Lyndsay, imagine pain, worse than any ever endured on earth going on and on, for ever!'

A bird, not a thrush, but one of the minor singers, lighting on a bough near us, trilled one simple but ecstatic phrase.

'Do you really and truly believe, Mrs. Mostyn, that this will be the fate of any single being?'

'Of any single being? Do we not know that it is what will happen to the greatest number. For what does the Book say? "Many are called but few are chosen.

Through the still, mild air, across the sun-steeped gardens, came the voices of the children

'Aunt Eleanour! Aunt Eleanour!'

Many are called,' she repeated, 'but few are chosen; and those who are not chosen

shall be cast into everlasting fire.'

There was a pause.

She turned to look at

me, and, as if struck by something in my face, said gently, soothingly:

'Yes, it is a terrible thought, but only for the unregenerate. It has no terror for me. I trust it need have no terror for you. After all, how simple, how easy is the way of escape! You have only to believe.'

'And then?'

'And then you are safe, safe for evermore. Think of that. The foolish people who wish to explain away eternal punishment, forget that at the same time they explain away eternal happiness! You will be safe now, and after death you will be in heaven for evermore.' 'I shall be in heaven for evermore, and always there will be hell.'

'Yes.'

'Where the others will be?'

'What others? Only the wicked!'

'Aunt Eleanour! Aunt Eleanour!' called

the children once more.

'I must go to them! But, Mr. Lyndsay, think over what I have said.'

And I remained and obeyed her, and beheld, entire, distinct, the spectre that drives men to madness or despair-illimitable omnipotent Malice. In its shadow the colour of the flowers was quenched, and the music of the birds rang false. Yet it wore the consecration of time and authority! What if it were true?

6

'Mr. Lyndsay,' said Denis at my elbow, Aunt Eleanour has sent me to fetch you to tea. Mr. Lyndsay, do you hear? Why do

you look so strange

?'

He caught my hand anxiously as he spoke, and by that little human touch the spell was broken. The phantom vanished; and, looking into the child's eyes, I felt it was a lie.

G

CHAPTER IV

CANON VERNADE'S GOSPEL

THERE was no Mrs. de Noël in the carriage when it returned; she had gone to London to stay with Mrs. Donnithorne, whom Atherley spoke of as Aunt Henrietta, and was not expected home till Wednesday.

'I am sorry,' Lady Atherley observed, as we drove home through the dusk; 'I should like to have had her here when Uncle Augustus was with us. I would have asked Mrs. Mostyn to dine with us, but I am not sure she and Uncle Augustus would get on. When her sister, Mrs. Donnithorne, met Uncle Augustus and his wife at lunch at our house once, she said she thought no minister of the Gospel ought to allow his child to take part