Heaven.

The old man slept as peacefully as a child the following night, and
when, next morning, messengers came from Raithu to propose to Paulus
that he should leave the Holy Mountain, and go with them to become
their elder and ruler, Stephanus said, "Follow this high call with all
confidence, for you deserve it. I really no longer have need of you, for
I shall get well now without any further nursing."

But Paulus, far more disturbed than rejoiced, begged of the messengers a
delay of seven days for reflection, and after wandering restlessly from
one holy spot to another, at last went down into the oasis, there to
pray in the church.

CHAPTER VIII.

It was a delicious refreshing evening; the full moon rose calmly in the
dark blue vault of the night-sky, and poured a flood of light down
on the cool earth. But its rays did not give a strong enough light
to pierce the misty veil that hung over the giant mass of the Holy
Mountain; the city of the oasis on the contrary was fully illuminated;
the broad roadway of the high-street looked to the wanderer who
descended from the height above like a shining path of white marble, and
the freshly plastered walls of the new church gleamed as white as in
the light of day. The shadows of the houses and palm-trees lay like dark
strips of carpet across the road, which was nearly empty in spite of the
evening coolness, which usually tempted the citizens out into the air.

The voices of men and women sounded out through the open windows of the
church; then the door opened and the Pharanite Christians, who had
been partaking of the Supper--the bread and the cup passed from hand to
hand--came out into the moonlight. The elders and deacons, the readers
and singers, the acolytes and the assembled priesthood of the place
followed the Bishop Agapitus, and the laymen came behind Obedianus,
the head-man of the oasis, and the Senator Petrus; with Petrus came his
wife, his grown up children and numerous slaves.

The church was empty when the door-keeper, who was extinguishing the
lights, observed a man in a dark corner of an antechamber through which
a spring of water softly plashed and trickled, and which was intended
for penitents. The man was prostrate on the ground and absorbed in
prayer, and he did not raise himself till the porter called him, and
threw the light of his little lamp full in his face.

He began to address him with hard words, but when he recognized in the
belated w