up yonder. You must be
fitted for it, you know. Nothing that defileth or is defiled can go in;
only those that havt washed their robes and made them white in the
blood of the Lamb. Listen, now, while I read about that."

Mr. Richmond opened his Bible and read first the seventh chapter of the
Revelation, and then the twenty-second; and Matilda, standing and
leaning on the back of his chair, thought how wonderful the words were,
that even so poor an old helpless creature as the one opposite him
might come to have a share in them. Perhaps the wonder and the beauty
of them struck Mrs. Eldridge too, for she listened very silently. And
then Mr. Richmond knelt down and prayed.

After that, he and Matilda together took the way home.

The evening was falling, and soft and sweet the light and the air came
through the trees, and breathed even over Lilac Lane. The minister and
the little girl together drew fresh breaths. It was all so delicious
after the inside of the poor house where they had been.

"Light is a pleasant thing!" said the minister, half to himself. "I
think, Matilda, heaven will seem something so, when we get there."

"Like this evening, Mr. Richmond?"

"Like this evening light and beauty, after coming out of Mrs.
Eldridge's house."

"And then, will this world seem like Mrs. Eldridge's house?"

"I think it will, in the contrast. Look at those dainty little flecks
of cloud yonder, low down in the sky, that seem to have caught the
light in their vaporous drapery and embodied it. See what brilliance of
colour is there, and upon what a pure sky beyond!"

"Will _this_ ever seem like Mrs. Eldridge's house?" said Matilda.

"This is the world that God made," said the minister, smiling. "I was
thinking of the world that man has made."

"Lilac Lane, Mr. Richmond?" said Matilda, glancing around her. They
were hardly out of it.

"Lilac Lane is not such a bad specimen," said the minister, with a sigh
this time. "There is much worse than this, Matilda. And the worst of
Lilac Lane is what you do not see. You had to buy your opportunity,
then?" he added, with a smile again, looking down at Matilda.

"I suppose I had, Mr. Richmond."

"What did you pay?"

"Mr. Richmond, it was not pleasant to think of touching Mrs. Eldridge's
things."

"No. I should think not. But you are not sorry you came? Don't you
find, that as I said, it pays?"

"Oh yes, sir! But----"

"But what?"

"There is so much to do."

"Yes!" sa